The Rosh Hashanah Machzor says היום הרת עולם and depending on your edition, probably translates it something like “today is the birthday of the world” or some fairly similar translation. But… Says who? This holiday is not called “Rosh Hashanah” (“start of year” or more colloquially, “new year”) in the Torah. It’s called a יום…
Category: Light
Yotzer Or: The Astronomers’ Blessing 2
The blessing Yotzer Or, “Who creates light”, said daily before reading the Shema in the morning, is full of astronomical ideas to enhance kavana…
Blue Skies, Blue Dyes
A talmudic mnemonic on tzitzit and tekhelet relates to modern science…
Zachor and Shamor and the Wave-Particle Duality
There are differences between the texts of the Ten Commandments that seem analogous to a the Wave-Particle Duality, a principle of quantum physics…
Bilaam’s Star Prophecy
“A star shall come forth from Jacob”. Let the meaning hidden in this verse shine forth better with modern astronomy…
The Lights of Kislev
The light of the Menorah is a symbol, but of what? There are surprising similarities to… a rainbow…?
The Astronomers’ Blessing
The morning blessing Yotzer Or, “Who creates light”: “The Astronomers’ Blessing”. It focuses on things near and dear to astronomers, light and more…
AstroRav: Torah & Astronomy 