[Avodah] Solar Eclipses and Maaseh Bereshis

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

> The AlN says that a solar eclipse is a bad sign for non-Jews, and a
> lunar eclipse a bad sign for "son'eihem shel" Yisrael. I don't see an answer
> to the question in his words.

That's not the Aruch Laner, that's the gemara.   The Aruch Laner points 
out that the gemara does not say, as it could easily have done, that 
eclipses are bad signs, but instead says *at the time* when the sun or 
moon is eclipsed it's a bad sign for the appropriate people.  This means 
that the (well-understood and predictable) time when an eclipse happens 
is a time of judgement, just as there are other times of judgement or 
mercy.  E.g. Chazal also said that Wednesdays are a time of judgement, 
even though they certainly knew that Wednesdays come with very precise 
and predictable regularity!  So also a solar eclipse marks a time when 
Hashem sits in judgement on those nations to whom it is visible.

This is just as the Ramban wrote about the rainbow, which is a natural 
phenomenon that used to occur regularly long before the flood, but 
Hashem said that from now on whenever there is a rainbow it will remind 
Him of His promise, whereas before that it didn't have that function.

This also explains why Chazal used the example of a king who, when angry 
at his subjects tells his servant to remove the lamp from before them 
and let them sit in the dark.  Who is the servant here?  And why didn't 
they have the king simply order the light extinguished?  Why have it 
removed from before them?  This shows that they were aware that the sun 
is not extinguished in an eclipse but is merely hidden by Hashem's 
servant, the moon.



-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all