One more case of outreach argumentation: they bring a citation
from the Zohar (on Leviticus, p. 10a), which says that the world "rolls in
a circle like a ball." From this they say we see that even at the time of
Rabbi Simeon Bar Yohai, who supposedly wrote the Zohar (2nd century CE), the
Jewish sages knew that the earth is spherical, while the gentile wise men still
thought of it as flat. But what can we say? All the evidence shows the Zohar
was not written before the 13th century CE, while the ancient Greeks
(specifically, Pythagoras) had already stated in the 6th century BCE that the
earth is spherical. True, we do not need the Zohar's statement, for the
Jerusalem Talmud, written in the 4th century CE, says that the earth is
"made like a ball" (Avodah Zarah, chapter 3, halacha 1) -- but this,
again, was said 900 years after Pythagoras, and the Jerusalem Talmud itself
uses this statement to explain why a statue of a gentile deity holding a ball
is forbidden (the ball symbolizes power over the whole earth); the Talmud
admits that gentiles were aware of the earth's spherical shape.
But apparently here, too, we have much more
than simply a problem with outreach activists. The Babylonian Talmud (Pesachim
94a) gives us an explicit description of the flat earth under the dome of the
sky -- a dome which has actual thickness and in which there are
"windows." Through those "windows" the sun passes upwards
and downwards each morning and evening. According to the Talmud, the passage
through the thickness of the dome of the sky takes the sun the time of
4 mils -- and based on this Talmudic statement, Rabbeynu Tam in the 12th
century issued a Halachic ruling that the time between the beginning of the
sunset and darkness is 4 mils, and what Tractate Shabbat 34b says, that the
twilight time is 3/4 of a mil, refers only to the time which passes from
the end of the sunset to darkness (see Tosfot on Pesachim 94a, s.v. Rabbi Yehudah).
Rabbeynu Tam's ruling was adopted by the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim 261:1-2),
who also ruled that though the Halachic category of twilight denotes the time
of 3/4 of a mil before darkness, that refers only to the final stage
before darkness, but actually the sunset begins 3 1/4 mils before that
phase, that is, 4 mils before darkness. The author of the Shulchan Aruch,
R' Joseph Karo, lived in the 16th century -- and even then, when every person
learned in natural sciences knew that the Earth is spherical, this highly
revered Halachic arbiter preferred to adopt the Talmudic ruling based on the
flat-earth picture!
Again, it is a good question.
I will point out that the Maharal explains this Talmudic
discussion as a metaphor for discussing spiritual levels.
I’ll also mention that Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, mentions
in his Siddur (at the end of Seder Hachnasat Shabbat) a number of points, that
although do not answer your question, are relevant nonetheless:
1. R’ Joseph Karo recanted his earlier opinion, and writes in
Yoreh Deah in the Laws of Circumcision, against the opinion of Rabbeynu Tam.
2. Rabbeynu Tam is the minority opinion, as Rav Sherira Goan,
Rav Hai Gaon, Rabbeynu Chananel, Rabbeynu Yitzchak Alfasi, Maimonides, the
Ra’avan, Rabbeynu Yitzchak of Tosfot and the Ba’al HaItur all disagree with his
opinion.
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