[Avodah] Not Making Kiddush Between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

I wrote:
> Why would a star's turn be longer during a summer daytime
> than a winter daytime, or than a summer night? ....

R' Micha Berger asked:
> But I will ask about your basic assumption: that the
> planets get turns of equal duration. Why? Who knows why
> would planets get turns influencing events on earth
> altogether. Why is "equal" more reasonable than a
> celestian unit, the solar hour? Not saying it's less;
> just that I don't understand any of it, and therefore
> will question any assumption of what makes more sense.

Excellent points, and very well put. Thanks for bringing them to my attention. The truth is, I don't understand any of it either. But just as a wild guess, I'd say that since the sun is one of those seven stars, then it is more likely for the sun to be *subject to* whatever rules govern this stuff, and less likely that it is a factor in determining the length of each "hour".

> And if they do, why is it subject to where on earth you
> are? Why not simply assume even shesi'ah time, and not
> make qiddush between 1am and 2am EST Shabbos morning? The
> fact that it is related to your location on the planet
> /would/ better fit solar time.

Because: (1) The people who wrote the Gemara Shabbos 129b lived in Bavel; and (2) We can presume that they understood how to implement it on a practical level; and (3) My personal presumption is that they implemented it according to local time, and did not convert it to "even shesi'ah time". If those three points are correct, then they observed all that stuff about an hour earlier than people in Eretz Yisrael.

Akiva Miller 
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