Wednesday, August 16, 2017

The Great American Eclipse of 2017: Halachic and Philosophical Aspects

In Lakewood the eclipse will begin at 1:23 and peak  at 2:45:39 pm when the moon covers 73.6% of the Sun. It will be over 4:01 pm.

Do you make a Bracha when you watch a solar Eclipse?
Is it a bad sign or omen?
Why does it happen close to Rosh Chodesh?
What does the Gemara mean when it says  בזמן שהחמה לוקה? 
see HERE at Chakira Journal or see Below 

On Monday, August 21, 2017, millions of people across the United States will experience one of nature’s most dramatic phenomena. For a couple of minutes, the shadow of the moon will block the summer sun and plunge those on the ground into total darkness. In the middle of a summer’s day, the birds will stop singing, sunlight will disappear, and the stars will become visible. The total eclipse will race across the continental United States at a speed of up to 3,000 miles per hour.
As we now understand the phenomenon, a solar eclipse occurs when the moon gets in-between the sun and the earth. When it does, it blocks some of the sunlight and casts a shadow on the earth. A person standing in that shadow (called the umbra) will see an eclipse The time at which the moon is directly between the sun and the earth is also the start of every Jewish month (or close to it, as we will see below). And so it is clear that a solar eclipse can only occur on (or very close to) Rosh Chodesh.

4 comments:

  1. Very unimpressive article. Bash other people's Peirushim , and don't offer anything instead ...

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    1. I thought it was quite impressive actually - he presented a very nice survey of relevant halachic and aggadic literature on the topic, and raised some really good questions in the first section - not sure why asking a kashya is suddenly considered bashing. And not having an answer of his own doesn't invalidate the questions.

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    2. I thought it was an excellent article - provides a nice overview of relevant Torah literature as well as asking some solid questions in the first half. I don't understand why you consider that bashing - nothing was written disrespectfully.

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  2. Read any halachic literature. For the last two thousand years. When someone has a question on a Gemara or on one of the Meforshim , they ask respectfully, often using the term laniyas Daati , meaning to my humble opinion. The author here uses a snearing tone as if the generations before us were cavemen and we are the enlightened ones. I guess with a secularized name like Jeremy , you look down on our Zaidahs and Meforshim. There is an expression for this behavior, "Afra LPumey".

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