Dear Ezequiel,

The Short Answer:

The sun’s “shelf-life” is a non-issue because Moshiach is coming very soon and the Jews will enjoy eternal life in a utopian era of material and spiritual wellness, sustainability and joy. A process of continual renewal will pre-empt solar (and personal) burnout.

The Long Answer:

Shalom Ezequiel,

You ask "If the sun will eventually die, will the Jews die as well?"

Since the dawn of history, mankind has been musing about its ultimate destiny. The more we discover about the universe, the smaller we feel in the immensity of space. We seem like a tiny speck of flotsam floating meaninglessly in the vast ocean of the cosmos.

From this perspective, one would think that mankind’s eventual extinction is inevitable just like the sun's eventual heat death seems to be. Of course, the Torah’s forecasts are much more optimistic, but since you seem to be seeking answers from a scientific perspective, let’s look into those first.

It’s important to bear in mind that scientists don’t agree about when and how the sun began, how its fusion furnace works today, or how and when it will end. This uncertainty is not a weakness in science, but rather its strength, because it renders science ever ready to revise its models in light of new evidence. Even the name of the website you cite (www.nineplanets.org) exemplifies that, since the new astronomy says that there are only eight planets and not nine.

More specifically, estimating the solar lifespan depends on inferences from the fusion reaction in which hydrogen atoms combine to form helium and release energy. But even this is controversial. Solar fusion is supposed to produce three times as many neutrinos as we actually observe. This Solar Neutrino Problem has plagued astronomers for decades and all proposed solutions throw a monkeywrench into our entire understanding of the sun’s energy and the standard theory of cosmology.

Besides that, if you wanted to be a pessimist, why look so far ahead? Global warming is also sun-based and the concerns are so much more immediate. If you want to worry about mankind’s survival, think tens, not billions, of years. And you are not alone. New polls in Canada, for instance, indicate that the number one issue in the next federal election will not be the economy, health, education or jobs. It will be environmental sustainability.

Yes, getting snuffed out is all too easy. So easy in fact that your question could be fairly turned on its head. Rather than asking how we could survive a solar burnout billions of years off, better first ask how did the Jews make it through these last 3800 years.

If you want a survival dilemma, think Jews. First Abraham sets off to nip his family in the bud by offering up his son before he even has any kids. About a century later, two of his great-grandchildren wipe out an entire Canaanite city and gets away scot free. Then it was Egyptian slavery and successive wars with the Amalekites, Midianites, Emorites, Canaanites, Philistines, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Spaniards, Turks, Nazis, and now the Islamic Jihadists.

Historically, all our enemies have risen and fallen. Current threats will pass as well. Only the Jews, a tiny, decimated folk scattered for millennia throughout the planet, persist despite all odds. But how? What has kept the Jews intact for nearly four millennia, without a common language or country, while other nations and cultures are vanquished or assimilate within a few centuries? Our mystery survival factor is the Torah.

Take the Torah into consideration and it all makes sense. Abraham committed himself 101% to G-d and G-d reciprocated. The exile and redemption from Egypt was foretold, as were the other wars and exiles we suffered. The Torah even predicted the eventual return of the Jews to their traditions and ancestral homelands, a prophecy fulfilled in living memory.

Ezequiel, we scientists can only base our predictions on unprovable assumptions and probabilistic reasoning. Grand extrapolations like the one you describe lie quite outside the parameters of experimental science and squarely in the realm of conjecture. And at the end of the day, our educated guesses are precisely that, guesses.

The Torah, on the other hand, is the very template of history, and of the cosmos as well, for one G-d made them both. The Torah assures us that the Jewish people are eternal and has made good on that prediction so far. One more prediction is relevant here. Modern day Torah sages are virtually unanimous is declaring that our times are the long awaited “Footsteps of Moshiach”, the eve of the true and complete redemption. The Jews, society, the environment, and even the heavens will all experience a fundamental and lasting renewal, as we say in the Grace After Meals, “a day that will be all Shabbat and rest for life everlasting.” May it happen now! 

Sincerely, 
Arnie Gotfryd