High Noon in the Mikdash?

As mentioned in the last post, I was going to do somewhat of a two part series. The last post dealt with the alignment of the Beis Hamikdash and solar motion as seen here. This one will address the design of the walls of the Beis Hamikdash.

The Gemara teaches that the earliest that the afternoon offering could be performed in the Beis Hamikdash was a half-hour after midday. The Gemara questions why this is true since tradition teaches us that Avraham prayed his afternoon service immediately after midday and that that prayer corresponds to the afternoon sacrificial offering.

The Gemara assumes that one would not have a problem ascertaining the exact moment after midday based on the following easy experiment. In order to determine the appropriate time one would need only to look at the shadows cast by the surrounding walls. Since the sun is located toward the eastern portion of the sky in the morning, the shadows cast by it will be protruding to the west. The opposite is true for the afternoon. Therefore, the moment that one sees shadows cast toward the east he knows that it is immediately after midday. The Gemara provides several answers, the first of which is that walls of the Beis Hamikdash were sloped and therefore did not produce an adequate shadow until after a half-hour after midday. (Yoma 28b based on Rashi's commentary) Thus, they were unable to be as accurate as possible with regard to the afternoon offering. (To see a fascinating way to determine the actual slope of the wall based on this approach see Rav Yoav Elan's wonderful post from his blog all about the Second Beis Hamikdash on this topic here.)

The question I have with this approach is that it should not have been difficult to determine midday in the Beis Hamkidash. As discussed in the last post, the Yerushalmi maintains that the walls of the Beis Hamikdash were perfectly aligned to the cardinal directions. If so, there is a very easy method to determining when midday is. Anyone at a latitude north of 23.5N will see the sun directly due south at midday on any given day. Yerushalayim is located at approximately 32 degrees north and certainly well above 23.5. Since the walls of the Beis Hamikdash were aligned perfectly, then one could look at an eastern or western wall from the edge toward the south and when the sun would be directly above that wall he would know that it was midday. This is an extremely easy experiment and, based on it, the sacrificial offering could have been offered just after midday and it would be consistent with the tradition with regards to Avraham's prayer.

There is also good precedent that there were kohanim assigned to such tasks of determining celestial phenomena for the purposes of the service as seen in Yoma 28a where we find that there was someone charged to ascend a wall or roof to witness dawn in order to determine when the morning offering could be brought. We also find other items in the Beis Hamikdash whose design enabled the people to know when certain celestial events were occurring in order to perform mitzvos such as reading the shema; this was accomplished by the nivreshes that would sparkle in the rising sun's rays and alert the people of Yerushalayim to recite shema. (See Yoma 37b and Tosefos' commentary) So, why couldn't there have been someone designated to determine midday based on the solar position above the wall?

The above approach to understanding the Gemara reflects the opinion of Rashi. There are other opinions such as those of Rabbeinu Chananel, the Aruch, and the Otzer Hageonim. They have a variant text of the Gemara which clearly states that the walls were perfectly aligned and they do not maintain that there was any slope to the wall. They maintain that technically the sacrifice could have been brought earlier but this could have caused problems for people living elsewhere. Since others may not be as detail oriented when conducting their own experiments outside the confines of the Temple for the purposes of their personal afternoon prayers; it was necessary in the Beis Hamikdash to delay the offering. Had they not delayed, visitors would have learned from the practice and applied it in an erroneous fashion after leaving. Therefore, a half-hour was added so nobody would err when they went back home. According to this approach, no question arises as it is agreed upon that midday was easy to determine in the Beis Hamikdash.

Based on the above questions, Rashi's approach; however, appears to be in conflict with the above Yerushalmi. It would seem that Rashi was forced to this conclusion because according to the text of the Bavli that he had, the walls were not perfect. Rashi interpreted that to mean that they were sloped. He must understand that the Bavli's passage was in conflict with the Yerushalmi because if it wasn't then midday would have been easy to determine by seeing when the sun was due south. The problem is that this leaves one with another question.

According to Rashi's text, the Gemara mentions that the walls were not aligned perfectly. Since Rashi must maintain that they were not perfectly aligned to the cardinal directions, as stated above, how did he know that they were also sloped? One could have stated that the delay of the shadow being cast was completely dependent on the fact that the walls were not perfectly aligned north to south and not dependent at all on there being a slope. In fact, according to the Otzer Hageonim this was considered by the Bavli prior to it rejecting this assertion based on the Yerushalmi. Keep in mind, the Otzer Hageonim has the text that maintains that the walls were perfectly aligned and straight.

Rather, it seems that Rashi would maintain that they were unsuccessful in aligning the walls to the cardinal directions although an attempt had been made to align them. Because of the attempt, Rashi knew that the alignment would not have been off by a lot. It seems reasonable to minimize the conflict between the Bavli and Yerushalmi. The Yerushalmi puts emphasis on the importance of aligning the walls and then goes to cite that this was done successfully. I do not find it unlikely that the Bavli would agree that there was an attempt to align the walls and it seems clear that Rashi is of the opinion that they were not perfectly aligned, but that they were close to perfect. Had Rashi been comfortable that they were severely misaligned then he never would have had to mention a slope in the wall's design. He could have attributed to the delay of the shadow to the wall's positioning. Rather, the walls must have been aligned enough that the half-hour estimate would be unreasonable and Rashi presumably got that from the fact that an attempt had been made to align them. This would force Rashi into explaining the Gemara to be referring to a slope.

One cannot state that they possibly aligned it, but were unsure if they were successful because after the first year of witnessing the solar motion they would notice that the walls were not perfectly aligned.

If this is true then the determination of the slope of the wall that I linked to earlier here might not be completely accurate because that is based on the assumption that the walls were aligned perfectly to the four directions. Since it is unknown how much deviation from this there was it would be impossible to determine the slope exactly. Although, since it appears that the difference was minimal the calculations are probably extremely close.

No Compasses in the Midbar

Firstly, let me apologize for not having posted for the past several weeks. Baruch Hashem I have been very busy with all sorts of things and then with Pesach I just did not have the time. I, therefore, hope to post a two part series about how the Beis Hamikdash was aligned with solar motion and whether or not that raises some questions about the design of its walls.

This week's parsha teaches of the inaugural service of the mishkan. As we know, the mishkan was a mobile temple in which Bnai Yisrael were able to offer their sacrifices to Hashem in the wilderness. The Yerushalmi teaches that it is very important to have our temples aligned perfectly with the cardinal directions. In addition to each side having proper alignment, it seems that the eastern doorway was constructed in such a fashion that at sunrise on the first day of summer the sun's rays would directly hit the southern doorpost and while rising on the first day of winter the rays would hit the northern doorpost directly. In fact, the Yerushalmi mentions that the prophets of earlier times went to great lengths to ensure that this doorway was aligned precisely. (Yerushalmi Eruvin 32a-33a)

R. Yosa informs one how to discern which direction is which. He teaches that if one draws a line on the horizon starting from where the sun rises on the first of summer and ending at the point where it rises on the first of winter then he will have defined east. If he does so for the spots where the sun sets on the first of winter until the spot where it sets on the first of summer then he will have defined west. The other sides are north and south. (Ibid.)

Based on the above teaching the Yerushalmi states that this precision would have been easy while in Shilo or in Yerushalayim because the populace was familiar with the area prior to erecting the temples in those locations. However, how was this accomplished while wandering in the wilderness. Klal Yisrael needed to build the mishkan right when they arrived at a new location and they would not have had the ability to watch the solar motion for the duration of a year to determine the cardinal directions with precision. Since the compass hadn't been invented yet, they would not have been able to automatically determine which direction was due east, etc. To this the Yerushalmi responds that the aron would miraculously align itself when it reached its destination. Based on this the Levi'im were able to build the mishkan around it. (Ibid.)

The initial questions that I had were why couldn't Klal Yisrael have looked to the northern region of the sky and seen the North Star? Based on that, they would have known which direction is north and they could figure the rest out from there. Almost instantly I started to wonder if this supported Rabbeinu Chananel's opinion that during the encampment in the wilderness the sky was not visible to Klal Yisrael because the clouds and pillars of fire blocked the view. (See Rabbeinu Bacheye Shemos 12:2) I also wondered why R. Yosa would need to give such a relatively difficult and time consuming method. Why not just point to the North Star and take it from there?

I then realized that I was making a very common but obvious mistake. Klal Yisrael could not have used the North Star to guide them in this fashion because there was no North Star!!! In addition to spinning on its axis, our planet wobbles very slowly. Picture a spinning dreidel. As it turns it also has a slight wobble which becomes more pronounced as it slows. Earth, too, has a wobble, although it is much slower than the dreidel's. It takes just under 26,000 years for one full "wobble" to occur. However, there is enough "partial wobble" during smaller durations of time that stars appear to have shifted in the sky. Because of this phenomenon, called the precession of the equinoxes, there was no polar star during the times of the amoraim, tanaim, batei mikdash, Shilo, or even the mishkan. It is a relatively recent occurrence that we have a star, Polaris, that is so close to due north, less than one degree.

So, it would seem that without a compass it would have been very difficult to accurately set the mishkan up optimally. The aron, though, miraculously enabled Klal Yisrael to adequately set up their mishkan and serve Hashem properly.

Part two of this installment should be arriving shortly. It will, hopefully, analyze the architectural design of the walls of the Beis Hamikdash. Using the information in this post the next one will raise some questions as to why Rashi maintains that it was difficult, if not impossible, to determine the exact moment of midday in the Beis Hamikdash.

Demonic Offspring

I hope everyone has been enjoying the beautiful sight of Venus and Jupiter appearing to come very close together in the western sky. From this point on, they will now appear to be separating. Due to their brilliance, most people find this sight to be quite pleasing!

After hearing nice feedback about the last post which focused on the significance of certain planets as taught by Rabbeinu Bacheye, I figured that I would follow up with a possible theory about a certain passage from Pesachim. The Gemara teaches that initially there was a female demon named Igras the daughter of Machlas who would cause harm to people in the nighttime. Rabbi Chaninah b. Dosa limited this demon's abilities of destruction to only Tuesday nights and Friday nights. Later, Abaye took even this limited amount of time from this demon. (Pesachim 112b)

The Maharsha comments that it is possible that this demon is actually the offspring of the Machlas who was the daughter of Yishmael who was also the wife of Eisav. Citing Midrash, the Maharsha states that just like we know that Adam produced demons for 130 years after he sinned, so too, the union of Machlas and Eisav produced demons.

As mentioned many times in this post, every night/day is considered to be influenced by one of the seven ancient planets (sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). The two nights to which Igras the daughter of Machlas was initially limited to having control of were Tuesday nights which are under the control of Saturn and Friday nights which are of Mars. (See Rashi Berachos 58b and Ibn Ezra's Reishis Chachmah) Mars is associated with Eisav and his descendants and Saturn with Yishmael and his descendants. As such it is interesting to see that the the demon which was the product of Eisav and Yishmael's union (Machlas was Yishmael's daughter and Eisav's wife) was relegated to the two nights that are symbolic of these two forces. Of course, Abaye later banished this demon altogether.

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.

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.

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.

Adar Sheni and Amalek

Towards the end of the Parsha we read about the war with Amalek. Yehoshua was charged with leading the army to combat this formidable foe. The classic commentaries to Tanach with regard to Shaul HaMelech's campaign against Amalek teach us that the Amaleki were proficient in the occult and were especially educated in the ways to harness the astrological forces to their benefit. Rabbeinu Bachye maintains that in the battle discussed in this week's parsha that Amaleki chose soldiers who were destined to live out the year based on their astrological sign.

By utilizing such a "draft", the Amaleki were confident that they could not be defeated since their soldiers were unable to be killed. Rabbeinu Bachye mentions that this is why it was necessary for Yehoshua to choose men to go out to war. The pesukim in our Parsha state that Yehoshua was charged with selecting men to go out to fight. Rabbeinu Bachye is of the opinion that this was not merely a command that Yehoshua assemble an army. Yehoshua was charged with finding people with the correct astrological signs so that the Israelite army would also be comprised of men who were unable to fall in war. This, says Rabbeinu Bachye, is why when Yehoshua's offensive was successful that the pasuk mentions that the enemy was weakened. They were only weakened because they could not be defeated entirely. The enemy soldiers became weak and tired of battle, but there were no actual casualties of war since the soldiers were unable to be killed in battle.

Rabbeinu Bachye makes it seem that the individuals mentioned had specific astrological signs and that is what protected them. The Chizkuni takes a slightly different approach. The Chizkuni also is of the opinion that the Amaleki were harnessing the forces of the astrological signs and that Yehoshua was charged with selecting Israelite warriors who had appropriate astrological signs to combat them. Unlike Rabbeinu Bachye's interpretation, the Chizkuni felt that the Amaleki were using the astrological forces directly to fight the Israelites. Therefore, the Chizkuni states that the men chosen to fight Amalek were not those who had specific astrological signs, rather, they were those who had no astrological sign whatsoever. Yehoshua was charged with gathering men who had been born in Adar II. The Chizkuni maintains that Adar II has no mazal since all twelve have been assigned to the earlier twelve months. Since they were not bound by mazal, the Amaleki would not be able to use astrology to combat them.

This approach of the Chizkuni is fantastic because based on Rashi (Rosh Hashana 11b) and the Ibn Ezra (Reishis Chachma and Sefer HaTaamim) it would seem that the astrological signs are based on the solar calendar and that which we state that the lunar months align with the signs is only based on the average years. In a solar calendar there are always twelve months and all months are assigned a sign. The Chizkuni would seem to argue with this premise and state that the signs are based on the lunar months. Perhaps the Chizkuni would actually maintain that the nations of the world who only have the solar calendar would have their signs based on the solar calendar, but the Jews would be based on the lunar calendar. If that is true then this technique of Yehoshua was a surprise defense that the Amaleki had probably not counted upon. The Amaleki, only familiar with the solar calendar, would have no understanding of what it would mean to have a person that has no mazal since they have no such month of Adar II. Yehoshua, on the other hand led an army of signless warriors and routed this archenemy of ours.

I find it interesting to mention something written by Rav Dovid Cohen in his Masos Kappai. Rav Cohen points out that Ephraim and Menashe were compared to fish by their grandfather Yaakov when he blessed them in Parshas VeYechi. Sometimes we find that Ephraim and Menashe are considered like one Shevet and are referred to as Shevet Yosef, and other times we find that they are two and called by their own names. This is similar to Adar, symbolized by the astrological sign of fish, which is sometimes one month and other times, like this year, two. It is important to note that Yehoshua was a scion of Ephraim and it was he who led this army in this week's parsha.

On a different note, often I have heard people try and prove the existence of aliens from this week's Haftarah. See here for a discussion of this topic.