Should Humans Have Been Created? A Shabbat Discussion
Sep 17, 2026 · 18 min · 8 segments
- Speakers
- Josh WarshawskyHost
Sep 17, 2026 · 18 min · 8 segments
The Talmudic question is, what could we do if we could change time and space? What could we do if we could change the past? Or even if we could change the future, right? The Talmud, the rabbis loved science fiction.
Moses time travels multiple times in the Talmud to find different moments in time and experience what's happening in those places.
There's a lot of magic and magical realism and questions about what might happen in the world in that way.
And one of the most creative conversations that the rabbis have in this realm is in Massechet Eruvin.
And the Talmud says in a for two and a half years Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel argued and disagreed.
These say it would have been preferable had humanity not been created than to have been created.
And those said it is preferable for humanity to have been created than had they not been created.
So for a moment, I just want to put us in the Beit Midrash with these rabbis.
We are now time traveling to the Beit Midrash of Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai.
The Talmudic question is, what could we do if we could change time and space? What could we do if we could change the past? Or even if we could change the future, right? The Talmud, the rabbis loved science fiction.
Moses time travels multiple times in the Talmud to find different moments in time and experience what's happening in those places.
There's a lot of magic and magical realism and questions about what might happen in the world in that way.
And one of the most creative conversations that the rabbis have in this realm is in Massechet Eruvin.
And the Talmud says in a for two and a half years Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel argued and disagreed.
These say it would have been preferable had humanity not been created than to have been created.
And those said it is preferable for humanity to have been created than had they not been created.
So for a moment, I just want to put us in the Beit Midrash with these rabbis.
We are now time traveling to the Beit Midrash of Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai.
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