Tuesday, February 28, 2012

What's that in the West?

A few weeks ago I happened to look up at the sky and I noticed that Venus was shining brilliantly in the west and Jupiter was shining brightly somewhat overhead. Both of these planets are extremely bright and I found the sight of them to be quite beautiful. I knew that the two would be moving closer together every night and that this sight would become more and more pleasing with every night. I then remembered something that I had seen in Rabbeinu Bacheye's Kad Hakemech and went to grab my copy to review something that he had written about Purim.

As has been mentioned in this post many times, there are seven objects that were desingated as planets in ancient times. They are: the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The placement of these objects in the sky was considered to help determine how the natural events of the world would occur. Rabbeinu Bacheye mentions that of these seven, two function primarily in what we would generally call more of a natural sense and the other five are more of what we consider to be a supernatural way. The two natural ones are the sun and moon and they very naturally affect the day, weather, tides, etc. The other five, says Rabbeinu Bacheye, can be divided into those that have positive influence and those of negative.

There are two planets with positive influence, two with negative, and one that seems to take the disposition of that which is around it. Mercury is the one that is not independently good or bad, Saturn and Mars are malevolent, and Jupiter and Venus portend good tidings. When Saturn and Mars join together, whatever is being influenced by them will be completely destroyed. Rabbeinu Bacheye then goes to demonstrate how Achashveirosh was symbolic of Saturn and Haman of Mars. Thus, their combination to destroy Klal Yisrael should have had severe ramifications. Trying to offset this were Mordechai, symbolic of Venus, and Esther, symbolic of Jupiter. Rabbeinu Bacheye then goes to show how certain words evoked by Esther actually were referring to Hashem overriding the whole system of nature to save His nation and that Haman tried to belittle this concept.

I find it very interesting that Jupiter (Esther) and Venus (Mordechai) will be fantastically close at Purim (actually coming their closest a few days after Purim, but still unusually close even on Purim). Keep watching towards the west every night after sunset to see this with your own eyes. May we merit to a mazaldikke sha'a and find salvation just as the Jews did many years when they prayed to Hashem to save them from the evil Persian Empire.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Invisible Signs From Heaven?

The Gemara teaches that the end of the planting season is when the Pleiades, a star cluster located in the constellation Taurus and referred to as Kimah by Chazal, is at its peak at approximately 3pm. 3pm is chosen as the time because this is when the field workers pack up for the evening and begin to go home. (Bava Metziya 106b; based on Rashi's commentary) This is defined as being in the beginning of Adar by Rashi. A basic question one can ask is, "Is the Gemara alluding to something else by giving this obscure description as opposed to just saying that the end of the season is at the beginning of Adar?"

Also, prior to offering a different explanation to this passage, Tosefos ask many questions on this approach. One of the questions is that at 3pm the stars are not visible (it is the middle of the day) and the Tosefos assume that the passage was giving a sign that is noticeable. Why would the Gemara describe the season's end with something that is not visible?

To give a possible answer to these questions, let us analyze some other important ideas that are associated with Adar. Moshe Rabbeinu was born on 7 Adar. The Seder HaDoros informs us that he was born at approximately 9am in the morning. The question is, is there any significance to 9am on 7 Adar?

There are a few places in the sky that are considered to influence events on earth. Whatever celestial item is rising from the east is considered to be exerting influence as it can be seen as rising to power (see Rosh Hashana 11b and Ibn Ezra's Sefer HaTa'amim). Its peak, when it has risen to the highest point it attains, is seen as its influence shining with the most possible strength.

The Pleaides are associated with rain (Berachos 58b) and they are assumed to have benevolent associations (see Yalkut Shimoni Bereishis 366). At the end of the planting season, it is the rains that the farmer is focused on. The rains associated with Pleiades are seen as the tool for growth.

Moshe Rabbeinu, the vehicle through which Klal Yisrael was able to grow through the Exodus and receiving of the Torah, was born at the moment when Pleiades was rising. 7 Adar at 9am corresponds to a moment when this cluster will be positioned on the eastern horizon. 9am (really a quarter of the day since we are talking about shaos zemaniyos) is also the time when one can no longer recite Shema and fulfill his daily obligation. This is because people are considered to have risen and started their day at this point in time.

In other words, Moshe Rabbeinu's birth marked a time that was strongly associated with the time for the growth to begin. It was the hour of the day associated with getting started after slumber and it is marked by the Pleiades, the stars of growth, starting their influence in the world as they rise from the east. The end of Moshe Rabbeinu's birthday, meaning when people are finished being productive at 3pm, would be marked with Pleiades being at their peak. Almost as if to show that the entire day of Moshe Rabbeinu's birth marks the rise and complete exertion of power of growth by the Pleiades. This was a display that Klal Yisrael were about to grow through its newly born leader.

Why would a sign be given that is not noticeable? It is well known that the Purim miracle happened without supernatural events. It demonstrated Hashem's complete control while still utilizing the forces of nature. This is often expressed through the mazal of the month of Purim, Dagim or Pisces, which is depicted as fish which are famous for being hidden from sight as they live beneath the water. Moshe Rabbeinu's birth marked the beginning of the growth of Klal Yisrael, but they were not at a point where the overt miracles were going to be expressed. They were in a time period still able to be expressed as an "Adar" type time. It would be another 80 until Moshe Rabbeinu would lead them out of Egypt.

Monday, February 13, 2012

New Rules of Physics or Translating Chumash?

In the end of this week’s parsha the shalosh regalim are mentioned. The same general language to refer to them is repeated again towards the end of Ki Sisa in a few weeks. There are, however, a few discrepencies that can be seen. What especially arouses one’s curiosity is when there are parallel pesukim that have one word that is different. Even more interesting is when the commentaries seem to disregard the discrepency!

One such difference is the way the Torah refers to the end of the year when discussing Sukkos. In Mishpatim the Torah says that Sukkos is, “בצאת השנה,” meaning in the end of the year. (Shemos 23:16) Whereas, in Ki Sisa the end of the year is referenced as “תקופת השנה.” (Shemos 34:22) Onkelos seems to disregard the difference in the wording and states that the translation is the same for both phrases.

I have heard a couple respectable individuals attribute a theory to the Vilna Gaon, but neither have been able to show me the actual source (although they claim that they remember seeing it in a reputable printed work, they just can’t remember where). Allegedly, the Gaon contended that there was initially supposed to be a seven month year just like we have seven days of the week. It was only after the effects of sin became pronounced that the world needed the extra months.

The theory maintains that there was never supposed to be a time period of winter. Winter is the time devoid of growth and symbolic of death. This should not occur in a pristine world.

In Mishpatim the language is much stronger and literally means the end of the year. This is because this parsha precedes the sin of the Egel HaZahav and is stated in a perfected world where Sukkos is the actual end of the year. Ki Sisa has a wording that implies the end of the year but literally means “when the year circles around (see Rashi).” The implications are that the agricultural year is over and is cycling to the next spring even though there will be several barren months of winter. This is because Ki Sisa had the Egel HaZahav recounted in the earlier section of it and this part is, therefore, talking to the world of sinners.

One should not ask from the story of Noach where Hashem promises that all the seasons will continue (Bereishis 8:22), because that was stated to a world of sinners and the (alleged) Gaon could contend that the world was reperfected only at Matan Torah. Although one could, perhaps, ask from the Baraisa D’Mazalos that contends that Hashem initially placed twelve zodiacal constellations in the sky. There are twelve because the sky is divided into twelve regions, one for each month.

The only resolution is that each mazal would be for a shorter time than a month and the world’s orbit was faster in order to circle through these twelve constellations in a shorter time frame. The truth is that one would have to contend something along these lines because the entire concept is suggesting that earth orbited the sun quicker.

The issue is that earth would not be able to sustain life at an orbit much farther or closer from the sun so it would have had to be orbiting the sun faster while keeping the same current distance. How this world went so fast and kept its current orbit up to a point in time when it slowed so drastically would require a new and extremely complex set of laws of physics (assuming that it did not all happen within the supernatural realm completely). The earth's initial speed should have been too fast to be caught in orbit at this distance around the sun and it should have been flung into the far realms of the solar system. The earth's change in speed when it slowed, on the other hand, should have thrust it into the sun!!!

The only accomodation would be to assume that the earth was more massive and then, at the time of the change, lost its mass, perhaps via a collision with a meteor that broke off a large chunk of earth. The new smaller earth would be able to maintain the proper distance without changing its orbit. This is also difficult because the impact itself should have thrown earth off course and certainly would have left a massive crater somewhere on the planet.

I also wanted to apologize for the cessation of posting these past few weeks. B"H I have been very busy promoting my recent sefer, The Secrets of the Stars which is available here.

Also, an interesting post from the past that is pertinent to last week and this week's Parsha that discusses why mythology and Midrash often appear to be very similar (with examples) here.