Menachem

1:47PM 1:47PM Apr 11th 2009

To determine the blessing on the sun, we are using what's called the period of Mar Shmuel, which puts the solar year at 365 and a quarter days. That way, the vernal equinox moves ahead by one day every four years. After 4 x 7 = 28 years, we're back to Wednesday again, where we started. Simple.

Using this calculation, quite often we will find the whole of Passover occurring before April 8th (not so long ago, that was April 7th). But that's no problem, because everyone agrees that Mar Shmuel's calculation is only an approximation. A more accurate calculation, known to the rabbis of the Talmud, is that of Rav Adda, who placed the solar year (which astronomers know as the tropical cycle) at 365.24682 days. From Maimonides' calculations, it's apparent that he knew of an even more precise measure. Really, it could just be that Rav Adda's calculation was meant as an approximation in order to establish a reasonably workable 19 year cycle. The current estimate of the average length of the tropical cycle is 365.242190419, so it's not that far off—especially considering that the tropical cycle was likely 10 seconds longer 2,000 years ago.

In case you're concerned that the rabbis of the Talmud really hadn't a handle on what's going on in the skies, here's something to make you think again: The current estimate of the number of stars in the universe is about a thousand billion trillion (1024). The Talmud1 states as follows:

Each of the Zodiac constellations has 30 armies. Each army has 30 legions. Each legion has 30 divisions. Each division has 30 cohorts. Each cohort has 30 camps, and each camp has 365 myriads of stars.

Doing the math: 12 x 30 x 30 x 30 x 30 x30 x 365,000 x 10,000 = 106,434 x 1018 = approx 1022.

But then we have to include the other non-Zodiac constellations, bringing us closer to the 24th power. Apparently, these rabbis had a higher source of knowledge.

At any rate, by the calculation of Rav Adda, the nineteen year cycle we use to keep Passover in the spring works just fine. The question you're waving your hand in the air to ask is, if we have an accurate calculation, why do we rely on an inaccurate one for the blessing on the sun?

The standard answer is: If we used an accurate calculation, we would never get a chance to say the blessing. Imagine waiting for the sun to arrive at precisely the same location on the same day of the week at the same time of day! Centuries, millennia would pass and someone would still be saying, "Nope, it's still .243 seconds off." To get back to the precise position at the beginning of a 19 year cycle would take 689,472 years! Mar Shmuel, on the other hand, gives us a chance once in a generation to make the blessing.

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Horatio Huffnagle

4:15PM 4:15PM Apr 11th 2009

Very interesting! Thanks for the info. I'm agnostic/Buddhist/Anti-Scientologist myself, so it is interesting to see how they came to this conclusion. Anyone that knows much about the Hebrew language also knows of it's mathematical roots, this is a fine example of how intelligent people are and were, well before computers replaced our gray matter. Excellent info.

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Montanan in exile

12:47PM 12:47PM Apr 10th 2009

No...there would be druidly molestations, and quite possibly a King James translation of the "The Wisdom of the Oak"

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