Astronomy vs. Omens: A Jewish View of the Eclipse

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 25 minutesSynopsis: This evening (4/4/24), in lieu of our usual Thursday night women's Pirkei Avos shiur, we decided to prepare ourselves for the upcoming solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 by learning through enough key sources to develop an authentically "Jewish" framework for our eclipse experience. We began by examining the mitzvah to study the eclipse and examined the greatest model among the Rishonim of someone who devoted his life to this mitzvah. Next, we compared and contrasted Judaism's orientation towards eclipses with the idolatrous view. In the main part of the shiur we focused on the problematic statements of Chazal which explicitly identify eclipses as bad omens. We talked about our preferred methodology of learning aggadic passages such as these, and we applied these methodologies to the first of these statements. We concluded by translating what we learned into a practical way to gain the most from the upcoming eclipse. This was an impromptu shiur, but I hope you find it as thought-provoking as I did!-----מקורות:Bernard R. Goldstein - "Medieval Observations of Solar and Lunar Eclipses"Meachem Kellner - "Torah in the Observatory: Gersonides, Maimonides, Song of Songs"תלמוד בבלי שבת דף עה עמוד ארש"י שםמאירי שםר"י מלוניל שםרד"ק - ישעיהו ה:יא-יבRebecca Boyle - "In Mesopotamia, Being ‘King for a Day’ Could be Deadly"שד"ל - בראשית א:ידרש"י - ירמיהו י:באברבנאל - שםתלמוד בבלי סוכה דף כט עמוד ארש"י שםרמב"ם – איגרת לקהל מרשילייא, על אצטגנינות ומזלR' Samson Raphael Hirsch - Trusting the Torah's Sagesרמב"ן - בראשית ט:יב-יזפירוש עץ יוסף - ברכת קידוש לבנה-----Once upon a time, there was a podcast called The Stoic Jew. Its creator made episodes every weekday for the entirety of its first year. The frequency switched to weekly, then monthly, until eventually, the flow trickled to a stop. I know I'm not the only one who has missed this podcast and would like it to continue. I have a modest goal for getting it going again: one episode each week for the month of April. For starters. If you, too, were a fan of TSJ and are willing to be a sponsor, I have a feeling that a sponsorship might provide just the right measure of accountability to help me get the podcast back on its feet.-----If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you.If you would like to sponsor a day's or a week's worth of content, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone.-----Substack: rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/YouTube: youtube.com/rabbischneeweissInstagram: instagram.com/rabbischneeweiss/"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com"The Mishlei Podcast": mishlei.buzzsprout.com"The Tefilah Podcast":