[Avodah] sun and moon, hydrogen, etc.

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 01:53:42PM +0300, Simi Peters wrote:
: Any attempt to make sense of this midrash scientifically is completely
: misconceived; the midrash is not a scientific description of anything--it
: is a mashal (which for Hazal means a figurative use of language,
: allegory, parable, metaphor, etc.)....

I think this is overstatement. It's very possible chazal chose a
scientific idea to be their mashal. But it would require the science
being at the level of the students studying their meshalim in their time,
and not necessarily what we today believe the moon and sun are like.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             With the "Echad" of the Shema, the Jew crowns
micha at aishdas.org        G-d as King of the entire cosmos and all four
http://www.aishdas.org   corners of the world, but sometimes he forgets
Fax: (270) 514-1507      to include himself.     - Rav Yisrael Salanter