New York – For the first time there is an animated video describing the reason behind the once in 28 years phenomenon of Birkas Hachamah
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
In this 45 minute presentation on Birkas Hachama, exclusively from Oorah you will finally get to understand the intricacies of this rare event as never before! Incredible visuals and narratives clarify exactly what makes Birchas Hachama a once in 28 year event.
The Rambam writes clearly that the sun goes around the earth and not the opposite. In this video it is presented the other way around with an explanation that “Dibrah Torah Keloshon Bnei Adam”. That explanation i believe, is based on some earlier Achronim. The Lubavitcher Rebbe vehemently disagreed and insisted that it is in fact the way the Rambam and all the earlier Torah giants put it.
If you watch the video
11:52 he says that the sun is 109 times larger than the earth.
According to the Rambam in Hilchos Yesodei Hatorah 3.8, he states that sun is approx. 170 times larger than the earth. And the Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya (Sha’ar Hyichud Vhaemunah Perk 7 pg. 167) that the sun is about 167 times larger than the earth.
The chassam sofer writes that he can’t decide between the 2 opinions because they both have extremely strong reios. I’m not quoting exactly I’m just repeating what I heared from an expert on this in satmar shul Rabbi Shlomo Z weinberger from Monroe. He said that plain & simple from the torah it sounds like the sun circles, agreeing otherwise is not against the torah as seen from the chasam sofer and many other gedoilem and there are many reasons why and one of the is like stated in this article.
real good video presentaition – however it did not cover the spiritiul significants of this event.
Give me a break. Your going to argue about the largness of the sun now? What are you going to do, go up with Polish astronauts to find out how big the sun is?
They explained to thing that cannot exist togather, how can we pasken both like rav ada and like shmuel.
The scientific knowledge of our sages.
Scientific facts in Chazal and rabbinic tradition can be divided into two categories:
(a) Scientific facts that are taken from the Torah itself, and
(b) Scientific facts that were known by Chazal based on their knowledge of science.
That scientific knowledge can be derived the Torah, there is no doubt. The Gemora in Bechoros 8a derives from a posuk in Bereishis the fact that a snake stays with its children longer than the rest of the animal kingdom. This is cited by the Ramban (Toras Hashem Temima p.159 in Chavel edition) as but one example of how Chazal knew facts of science from the pesukim in the Torah that describe Brias HaOlam. He cites more. Rabbeinu Bachyai writes in the Introduction to Chumash that all wisdom and science in existence is contained in Torah. Some scientific facts were known through rabbinic tradition. The Rashba cites a rabbinic tradition from Sinai that a treifah cannot live more than 12 months. (Rav Yonason Eyebushitz (kreisi Upleisi 40) writes that such traditions are not to be disregarded even if found to be against “all the laws of heaven and earth”, since they are part of Torah shebal peh.)
The most recent example of this is the Chazon Ish ZTL, who lived in our times, and had no secular education at all, yet showed much knowledge of math and astronomy, much of which can be seen in his teshuva on the international dateline.
To question a scientific fact that is derived from the Torah is to question the author’s understanding of the Torah, which, in the case of Chazal, cannot be done. The only question is, did Chazal derive all of the scientific facts they used from the Torah, and what do we do when we see a scientific fact in Chazal that contradicts current scientific knowledge?
The Rama in Toras HaOlah quotes the Rambam who says that in the days of Neviim and Chazal, the science of astronomy was “incomplete”. The Rama strongly argues, stating clearly that we assume rabbinic science to be infallible, and ancient rabbinic knowledge of astronomy complete.
The Maharal (B’er Hagola 6) writes that when the sages mentioned a scientific fact, they derived it from their knowledge of the Torah and Hashem, Who is the Cause of all science. He says that science is inferior to Torah even where it comes to scientific knowledge, because scientists base their opinions on what they see, which is a finite and imperfect method of investigation, as opposed to knowledge of science through Torah, which is the root and cause for all facts in the world.
The fact that science in Chazal was gathered from “higher sources” was used by Rav Yehuda Breil ZTL, Rebbi of the author of encyclopedia Pachad Yitzchok, to refute his student’s suggestion that we reconsider Chazal’s leniency of killing lice on Shabbos because lice are spontaneously generated. The Pachad Yitzchok suggested to his Rebbi that now that science has refuted the possibility of spontaneous generation, we should not be lenient in allowing the killing of lice on Shabbos.
But Rav Breil did not accept the suggestion. Stating an idea similar to that of the Maharal, that Chazal’s knowledge is based on the reality, not mere scientific observation, it is certain that the rabbinic science is more accurate than the science of the scientists, and even if currently it appears one way, the rabbinic view will eventually be proven correct. He mentions that in the disagreement between the sages and the scientists regarding whether the sun revolves around the earth or vice versa, the sages conceded to the scientists, but centuries later, it was proven that the Torah sages were right all along (Moderator’s note: See Shitah Mekubetzes that the sages never conceded that the gentiles were right; they merely “lost the argument”. They knew from tradition that they were right; they just could not defend the correct position).
There are others who write that when the sages explain a Halachah based on a scientific fact (such as the heter to kill lice on shabbos), they do not mean to say that the Halachah depends on this fact. Rather, the Halachah is based on deeper, hidden reasons, and they merely “clothed” their reasoning in the scientific fact. They did not even mean to commit themselves to the truth of that fact per se. So if the fact is proven wrong, the halachah stays the same.
According to Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (specifically General Relativity’s [laws of gravitation] principle of equivalence: “There is no experiment observers can perform to distinguish whether an acceleration arises because of a gravitational force or because their reference frame is accelerating”), the following two statements are functionally equivalent:
1. The Sun rotates around the Earth.
2. The Earth rotates around the Sun.
This is derived on a non-inertial reference frame. From the perspective of an Earth-centered reference frame, the Sun does indeed orbit around the Earth. In General Relativity, all reference frames are equally valid.
To put it more simply, all motion is relative. Relative to humanity, the Earth is not rotating. For most of history, the Sun was said to circle the Earth. Copernicus, changed sciences viewpoint, so that Earth rotated around the Sun. Newton changed it again, and said that Earth and Sun rotate about a common center of gravity. Einstein changed it again. He described General Relativity – in which all motion is relative. In General Relativity, you can use any frame of reference. Relative to humanity, the Sun revolves around the Earth.
Yes, it is a bit harder to explain stellar parallax from the perspective of an Earth-fixed reference frame than from the perspective of a solar system barycentric reference frame.
On the other hand, it is extremely difficult to explain a cyclone from the perspective of a solar system barycentric reference frame. No meteorologist would even think of using anything other than an Earth-fixed reference frame to model the weather.
BTW, it’s not all that hard to explain stellar parallax from the perspective of an Earth-centered frame. The motion of the stars can be explained in terms of the “third body effect”. People who model the behavior of satellites in Earth orbit vastly prefer to use an “Earth-centered inertial” reference frame (a non-rotating reference frame with origin at the center of the Earth) than a barycentric frame. From the perspective of such a reference frame, the Sun and Moon (and the planets) make the satellite’s orbit not quite Keplerian. The perturbation is explained by a pseudo-force called the third body effect.
Einstein’s theory holds that gravity accelerates objects equally, regardless of mass, energy, or composition. This notion, called the equivalence principle, has roots reaching back to Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo, and beyond (SN: 9/22/90, p. 183).
In The Philosophy of Space and Time (1928) by Hans Reichenbach, a disciple of Einstein (at the University of Berlin, where Einstein first taught relativity), he demonstrates that all the following concepts are clearly shown possible from a scientific point of view:
1. The earth stands still and the sun revolves around it,
2. The sun stands still and the earth revolves around it,
3. Both are revolving around a certain point.
There is no way to prove which of the above is correct or preferable.
In the second century BCE, Ptolemy perfected Aristotle’s construction of how the sun and the planets revolve around the Earth in circular orbits with additional rotation around certain points on these orbits. About 1600 years later, Nicholas Copernicus made a revolution in astronomy by describing the Earth as going around the sun. A little later, Johannes Kepler described the orbits as elliptical, and by a century after that, Isaac Newton had reinforced this picture with his law of gravitation. In the 20th Century, Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity eliminated the idea of absolute space and absolute movement.
How come the say and night are not even anymore, we are about a week away since they were last even? Anyone?
The Sun is a ball of burning gas, maybe some of it has burned off so its smaller now……..
there are many r`ayas both ways but in this video when it brings down mazalos. if the sun goes around the earth why should the mazalos change every month. we are always looking at the same part of space [yes the mazalos do exist to some extent it is not completely spiritual]
We have satellite and interplanetary probes sending photos of the solar system from outside the ecliptic plane revealing the planets orbiting the sun, and you still argue about this?? unbelieveable. Is the earth flat too??
If you look at R Bleich’s Artscroll book, you’ll see that rarely but sometimes tekufas Nissan can fall out (after the start of Pesach) on 16 Nissan!!
Dynamite presentation. Kol Hakovod! Should be shown in all Yeshivos.
Can someone point out where Chazal or the Rambam say that the sun revolves around the Earth.
Best short explanation of the earth and moon orbit.
In fact its much more complicated than that and none of the above calculations actually occur. Earth’s orbit around the sun is not an equal orbit every year and changes from time to time and therefore we remain with problems and unanswered questions.
However, we trust our sages and we still make the Bracha to thank Hashem for providing light on earth which is, in other words, life on earth.
im sure the mechaber reviewed the relevant shailos before publishing it. Rabbi Friedman is smarter than you think…
The Rema in Toras HaOlah (1:2) states clearly that we assume rabbinic science to be infallible, and ancient rabbinic knowledge of astronomy complete.
Medrash Tehillim (19) quotes Shmuel as saying he is an expert in the streets of Nehardea as much as he is an expert in the ‘streets’ of the heavens. The Medrash asks how Shmule knew all of that, and it answers he knew it all through the Torah. It then quotes a R, Hoshea as saying there is “space” between the upper waters and the firmament, and the Medrash asks how R, Hoshea could know this unless he traveled to space. It answers, he knew it from the Torah.
The Maharal, too, states that all science is included in Torah, as Chazal says “hafoch bah hafoch bah d’kulah bah” (Chidushei Agados Menachos 64b). SImilarly, he writes(B’er Hagola 6) that when the sages mentioned a scientific fact, they derived it from their knowledge of the Torah and Hashem, Who is the Cause of all science. He says that science is inferior to Torah even where it comes to scientific knowledge, because scientists base their opinions on what they see, which is a finite and imperfect method of investigation, as opposed to knowledge of science through Torah, which is the root and cause for all facts in the world
The Chosid Yaavatz (Ohr Hachaim) says that chazal knew science form a Mesroah that goes back all the way to the Neviim, who knew it from Hashem, without any effort at all.
Particularly interesting is a statement on this topic in the Aruch Hashulchan (EH 13). Quote:
“I will tell you a great principle: Chazal, besides their holiness and wisdom in the Torah, were also greater scholars in the natural sciences those savants(“mischakmim”) who would argue against their pure words. And someone who disagrees with them testifies about himself that he does not believe in Torah she bal peh, even though he would be embarrassed to admit it outright.”
Chasam Sofer (Beshalach) writes that this is the meaning of the posuk “Ki hi chachmascha ubinascha l’einei ha’amim” – Chazal were great experts in the secular sciences and disciplines. In fact, you need to know much secular knowledge in mmany areas in order to properly understand the Torah – and he gives several simple examples. However, since we are supposed to be busy learning Torah – not secular science – all day and night, and Hashem has no “nachas ruach” from us learning secular studies at all, how would Chazal have known all the secualr wisdom that they clearly knew, as we see they did from all of Shas?
Answer: They know it from the Torah, since the entire body of secular wisdom is included in the Torah, for the Torah is the bluepeint of the world. And so, when the Goyim see that we do not study the secular science books at all – and we even disagree with them! – yet we derive all the secular knowledge, in the most precisely accurate form – from only the Sefer Torah, they will exclaim, “Am chacham v’navon hagoy hagadol hazeh!” (A similar explanation is given by the Raavad-ibn Daud. He says that the posuk refers to the philosophical truths that it took the nations centuries to develop, we knew all the time via tradition from Har Sinai.)