[Avodah] Tosafot d.h. Litekufot on RH 8a

[Motti Yarchinai]

On my website, http://www.geocities.com/calendar.luchot I have posted 
a document "Tosafot (d.h. Litekufot) on Rosh Hashanah 8a, translated 
and explained."

I have been studying that Tosafot, which I believe to be evidence of 
the existence of the Jewish legend about the Moon whose source I have 
not been able to find. I wrote about that legend in Digest v26n88, 
post 14, subject: Targum Yonatan & Pirush Yonatan on Ber 1:16.  

(BTW, I asked for help in that post in working out the amendment 
suggested in Pirush Yonatan and the obscure piece of calendar 
arithmetic that he substitutes for the text in Targum Yonatan (which 
I believe I have explained correctly. -- No takers?)

That legend is that the Moon hid herself for 47 hours ending in Molad 
VYD (the beginning of Year 2). In the version alluded to in this 
Tosafot (which he dismisses) the period was 7d, 9h, 642p, but I think 
there may have been two different versions of the legend, 
corresponding to the dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi
Yehoshua (commencing RH 10b) about when the world was created.  

Despite the title of my document, there are a couple of points in 
that Tosafot, that I cannot really grasp properly. I am hoping that 
someone here can help me with them.

One dificulty I am having is why (near the end of paragraph 6) the 
period of 47 hours is added to the period 5d, 10h, 642p.  

The second difficulty is his suggestion at the end (in paragraph 7) 
that the question about when the world was created, which was
debated by R.E. and R.Y., could have been settled empirically. I do 
not really understand how he thought this could have been done.  

(The division of the Tosafot into paragraphs is my own and is shown 
in my document.)  

Can anyone explain those two points?  

Motti