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<font size=3>One of the people on my list sent me the comments at the end
of this message to me. He is someone with an avid interest in and a good
knowledge of astronomy. <br><br>
When he sent me these comments, I asked him if I could send them out. He
replied, "</font><font size=2>If you don't think this will cause
some people who accept b'emuna p'shuta that the sun will be in the exact
position that morning that it was at briyas haolom - and that they will
feel their emuna challenged and damaged, then it is okay with me.
But please consider this issue carefully. I sent you the note
because I knew you could handle it. It any event, please don't use
my name, so I will not be attacked.</font><font size=3>"<br><br>
I am assuming that anyone on my list can handle the comments below
without losing their faith. >:-}<br><br>
The fact that he did not want his name attached to this out of a concern
for being personally attacked says much too much about the environment in
certain Orthodox circles. YL<br>
<br>
</font><font size=2>"I think the 'early as possible' thing is
because the actual correct time is supposed to be immediately after
nightfall the day before, when the sun can't be seen. So this is
the first chance! In any event, it can't be said at hanetz,
because the full orb of the sun takes 3 minutes to
rise!</font><font size=3> <br><br>
</font><font size=2>It is worth noting that anyone who is familiar with
the gemara discussion on this, and knows a drop of astronomy or celestial
mechanics understands that the whole calculation is based upon the gross
approximation that the year is 365.25 days long, which of course it is
not, which is why this event is coming out on April 8 instead of at the
vernal equinox, tekufas Nisan - that slippage is equivalent to the
slippage of Tal umatar from 60 days after the autumnal equinox (tekufas
Tishrei) to December 5, which uses the same
calculation.</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2>Other issues emerge, because if it indeed would have
come out at the equinox at the time of the gemara, then at briyas haolom,
extrapolating back, it would come out somewhere in February, which makes
no sense.</font><font size=3> <br><br>
</font><font size=2>We thus see that the entire exercise is actually
symbolic, because the reality differs with the facts of astronomy, as the
chachomim who chose this calculation (rather than the more exact one
which is used to keep Pesach in season, for example) certainly
understood. But if the more exact calculation were used, there
would almost never be a time when the sun could be said to be at the same
position as it was that first yom revii. (See R'Bleich's discussion
in the ArtScroll volume.) The chachomim exercised this discretion
to give us an opportunity to thank Hashem for the orderly continuance of
the orbits of the celestial bodies (think of it as thanking Hashem for
passing the law of conservation of angular momentum), which otherwise
would not have been possible.</font><font size=3> <br><br>
</font><font size=2>Possibly for the hamon am, the physical realities
were not deemed of concern.</font><font size=3>"<br><br>
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