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248 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Astronomy

another, a Babylonian, estimates it at 1,000 parasangs. According to others, the diameter of the fir-

mament

is

equal to the distance covered in 50 or 500

years and this

true also of the earth

is

and the large

("Tehom") upon which it rests (Yer. Ber. i. 2e; Targ. Yer. Gen. i. 6). The distance of the firmament from the earth is a journey of 500 years— sea

distance equivalent to the diameter of the firmament, through which the sun must saw its way in order to become visible (Yer. Ber. i. 2r, bot. Pes.

The firmament, according

to some, consists of fire and water, and, according to Conothers, of water only while the stars ceptions of consist of fire (Yer. R. H. ii. 58a).

94«).



Heaven East and west are at least as far reand Earth, moved from each other as is the firmament from the earth (Tamid. 32a). Heaven and earth " kiss each other " at the horizon and between the water above and that below there are but two or three fingerbreadths (Gen. Ii. ii. 4; Tosef., Hag. ii. 5). The earth rests upon water and is encompassed by it. According to other conceptions the earth is supported by one, seven, or twelve pillars. These rest upon water, the water upon mountains, the mountains upon the wind, and the wind upon the storm (Hag. 12ft; Yer. Hag. ii. 77a). The nations of antiquity generally believed that the earth was a disk floating on water. There is also mentioned the

terrestrial globe,

"kaddur," though

also be translated as "disk." When Alexander the Great attempted to ascend to heaven he rose even higher and higher, until the earth appeared as

it

may

a globe

and the sea as a tray (Yer. 'Ab. Zarah

The

42c, bot.). viz.,

earth

iii.

divided into three parts,

is

habitable land, desert, and sea.

was assumed that our present earth was preceded by many others which were not good in the It

eyes of the Creator, who traverses in all 18,000 worlds,

and for this reason is frequently styled " Lord of the Worlds" (Gen. R. iii. 7, ix. 2; Midr. Teh. xxxiv.). The ocean also is mentioned in the Talmud, and the whole world is said to drink of its waters (Ta'an. 96). According to mystic speculation there are seven heavens, the first of which is called " velum " (curthe second, "firmament," etc. (Hag. 126). these worlds are similar to ours is not stated. The correct impression concerning the infinitude of the starry host is expressed in the following sentence of R. Simeon b. Lakish (about 250): "There are twelve mazzalot [signs of the zodiac], each having thirty armies each army, thirty camps castra] each camp, thirty legions [com[XTI3DJ pare Matt. xxvi. 53] each legion, thirty cohorts each cohort, thirty corps [compare Krauss, " Lehnworter," s.v. pom] and each corps has 365,000 myriads of stars entrusted to it " (Ber. 326). The Talmud subscribes, as do all astronomers before the time of Copernicus, to the geocentric worldconception, according to which the stars move about the earth. The conceptions of this motion were Aristotle believes that the stars have no various. motion of their own, being firmly attached to circles and he further ascribes to every circle of rotation containing a star a sphere of motion whose center is the earth (Pauly- Wissowa, " Realencyklopadie der Classischen Alterthumswissenschaft," 1841, ii.). tain);

Whether



=









248

Perhaps the wonderful Baraita Pesahim 946 gives " The expression to this idea in the following learned of Israel say, The sphere Motions stands firm, and the planets revolve of the the learned of the nations say, The Heavenly sphere moves, and the planets stand Bodies. firm.' The learned of Israel say, The sun moves by day beneath the firmament, and by night above the firmament the learned of the nations say, The sun moves by day beneath the firmament, and by night beneath the earth. " The patriarch Judah I. (about 200) believed that in the first instance the Jewish, and in the second the non-Jewish, conception was correct. The sun travels in four directions. During Nisan, Iyyar, and Siwan (spring) it travels in the south, in order to melt the snow during Tammuz, Ab, and Elul (summer), directly above the earth, in order to ripen the fruit during Tishri, Heshwan, and Kislew, above the sea, in order to absorb the waters and in Tebet, Shebat, and Adar, over the desert, in order that the grain may not dry up and wither (ih.). The sun has 365 windows through which it emerges; 182 in the east, 182 in the west, and 1 in the middle, the place of its first entrance. The course described by it in a year is traversed by the moon in 30 days. The solar year is longer by 11 days than the lunar year (Yer. R. H. ii. 58«). The sun completes its course in 12 months Jupiter, in 12 years Saturn, in 30 years Venus and Mars, in 480 years (Gen. R. x. 4); however, an objection is raised here (in a gloss) against the last-mentioned number. King Antoninus asked the patriarch why the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. At the time of the Deluge it traveled in the opposite direction (Sanh. 916, 1086). Every 28 years it returns to its original point of departure, and on Tuesday evening of the spring solstice it is in opposition with Saturn, although Plato maintained that the sun and planets never return to the place whence they started. This is the cycle of 28 years (Ber. 596) the moon-cycle of 19 years may have been meant in the Targ. Yer. Gen. i. 14. The four solstices (the Tekufot of Nisan, Tammuz, Tishri, and Tebet) are often mentioned as determining the seasons of the year; and there are occasional references to the rising-place of the sun ('Er. 56«). Sometimes six seasons of the year are mentioned (Gen. R. xxxiv. 11), and reference is often made to the receptacle of the sun (vapdr/Kiov), by Six means of which the heat of the orb is Seasons, mitigated (Gen. R. vi. 6, and elsewhere). The revolutions of the moon

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were undoubtedly known for " Israel computes by the moon, the other nations by the sun " (Suk. 29a, and elsewhere). God expressly prohibits the revealing of the secrets of chronology (Ket. 112<z). Samuel sent to R. Johanan a list of the leap-years for sixty years, which the latter did not regard as exhUvting any remarkable mathematical skill (Hul. dob).

"

The moon begins

its

to shine on the 1st of the month light increases until the 15th, when the disk [DlpDI

(<5«r/cof)] is full from the 15th to the 30th it wanes and on the 30th it is invisible " (Ex. R. xv. 26). From the names of the seven planets were derived the names of the days of the week and each day