Pesachim 31b ~ A Dog's Sense of Smell

Today we will discuss the wonders of a dog’s sense of smell, prompted by this Mishnah:

פסחים לא, ב

חָמֵץ שֶׁנָּפְלָה עָלָיו מַפּוֹלֶת הֲרֵי הוּא כִּמְבוֹעָר. רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר: כל שֶׁאֵין הַכֶּלֶב יָכוֹל לְחַפֵּשׂ אַחֲרָיו

Chametz (leavened bread) upon which a rockslide has fallen is considered as though it has been eliminated, and it is not necessary to dig it up in order to burn it. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: Any leavened bread that has been covered to such an extent that a dog cannot search after it is considered to have been eliminated.

The next question is of course, just how deeply buried a piece of chametz needs to be before “a dog cannot search after it”?

תָּנָא: כַּמָּה חֲפִישַׂת הַכֶּלֶב — שְׁלֹשָׁה טְפָחִים

It was taught -how deep will a dog search for something [using his sense of smell]? Three handbreadths

A tefach is a little more than three inches or around 8 cm (at least mine is) so if your chametz is accidentally buried at a depth of less than 9 inches, you have to dig it up and destroy it before Pesach. But any deeper, and it can stay where it is, because a dog will not search for it at that depth. Right?

Wrong.

But first, the bad news. There aren’t any scientific studies that have looked at a dog’s ability to detect buried chametz. I know this because I have looked. So we will need to use a surrogate measure of their sniffing ability. Instead of chametz, let’s look at their ability to detect something else. Buried human remains.

Search Dogs

In a 2003 study published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, researchers collected fresh human tissue together with fresh animal remains “obtained from the meat department of a local grocery store” and buried them at various depths. They then tested the ability of four dogs (a Rottweiler, two German Shepherds and chocolate Labrador) with various degrees of training to find them. It is was a hard test for the dogs, and not all were able to find the samples. But one of the German Shepherds (a six year-old with five years of training) was able to detect skeletal human remains buried two feet underground. The trial was not repeated using loaves of bread, so we cannot know if this ability could detect chametz at that depth, but there is no reason to think otherwise. But two feet is just for beginners. In 2014, while searching for a missing teenager, dogs found human remains buried an astonishing fifteen feet underground.

Other studies have tested the ability of dogs to smell buried explosive mines in war zones. The success of the dogs depends on the weather, how much explosive the mine contains, and the depth at which it is buried. Some dogs could detect explosive buried 25cm beneath the soil. That’s three talmudic tefachim.

Dog’s can even smell cancer

“The idea of canines for disease detection can be traced back to 1989, when a woman noticed her dog constantly sniffing a mole on her leg that later turned out to be malignant melanoma”

— Williams H, Pembroke A. Sniffer dogs in the melanoma clinic? Lancet 1989; 333 (8640): 734.

Using their incredible noses, dogs have even been trained to detect the smell of cancer. “Since the first proof of principle study in 2004 showed that dogs could detect cancer at a better rate than chance, at least six follow up studies have confirmed these findings” wrote a team of neuroscientists in a 2014 paper published in the journal Cancer Investigation. “Through the use of blood, urine, feces and breath, it seems clear that dogs possess the ability to detect cancer in human bodily fluids.” They have been used to detect breast, prostate, ovarian, bladder and lung cancer, with varying degrees of success, as the table shows. The authors also note that a lot depends on the dog - and its handler. “Dogs that had been previously trained for other scent detection work, such as explosives, were highly effective at correctly identifying cancer, while those without any previous experience in scent detection generally performed worse. While some research has shown that varying dog breeds did not significantly alter performance, it should be further studied, especially due to the high levels of specialization attainable by breeds such as German Shepherds and Basset Hounds that are preferred by law enforcement.”

Summary of Canine Cancer Detection Studies. From Spencer W. Brooks et al. Canine Olfaction and Electronic Nose Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds in the Detection of Cancer: A Review, Cancer Investigation, 2005. 33:9, 411-419.

The Nose of an Average Dog

Later in this tractate the Mishnah reminds us how challenging it can be to make general rules about things like dough and chametz:

פסחים מח, ב

רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא אוֹמֵר: לֹא כׇּל הַנָּשִׁים וְלֹא כׇּל הָעֵצִים וְלֹא כׇּל הַתַּנּוּרִים שָׁוִין

Not all women [who are kneading the dough], not all wood, and not all ovens are the same

Rabbi Akiva’s point is that there are a lot of factors that effect the process of baking, and making general rules about the process is difficult. He may have said the same about the ability of a dog’s nose to detect things buried in the ground, or under a pile of rocks, or even inside a person. It depends on the dog, its trainer, and what exactly it is looking for. So while there may be some super dogs who could detect chametz buried to a far greater depth than three tefachim, the Talmud isn’t interested in rules for super dogs. Just your average one. And so it declared three tefachim to be the maximum depth of buried chametz that legally needs to be dug up. Any deeper, and you can leave it be. Just hope the dog doesn’t find it.

The Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter

Get ready to witness the glorious conjunction this Monday evening, Dec 21.

MONDAY evening, December 21st is a special time for those who gaze upwards.  If you look towards the south western sky soon after sunset, you will see an unusually bright light close to the horizon.  The bright light is actually coming from two planets which are so close together that to the naked eye they appear to be almost a single object.  Welcome to the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter.  For many centuries this event was an omen of terrible things to come, and occupied the attention of several medieval Jewish scholars, perhaps most notably Abraham Ibn Ezra.

The patterns of the great conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter. Three consecutive conjunctions move across the sky and fall in a pattern that is nearly (but not quite) the vertices of an equilateral triangle. This idealized illustration is by the great astronomer Johannes Kepler, Mysterium Cosmographicum 1597. p9. The 2020 conjunction would be at position 23, the first in the sign of Aquarius. The next conjunction will be at position 24, in the sign of Libra.

What exactly is a conjunction?

A conjunction triangle (trigon) for Saturn-Jupiter conjunction (top) and a partial conjunction sequence across the zodiac (bottom). From Etz, Donald V. "Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn." Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 94 (2000): 174-78.

A conjunction occurs when two or more bodies in the sky appear very close to each other. Saturn and Jupiter are the two outermost planets in our solar system that are visible to the naked eye. They usually appear far apart from each another as they wander across the night sky. Saturn appears to orbit the earth once every thirty years or so; Jupiter orbits every twelve years. As they do so, faster moving Jupiter catches up with Saturn every twenty years, much as a faster runner overtakes a slower one as they race around a track. That’s a conjunction. The stary background against which these conjunctions appear changes over longer periods of time. The conjunctions move through the twelve signs of the zodiac, each occurring 240 degrees removed from the previous one. If the first occurs in Aires, the next will occurs in Sagittarius which is 240 degrees away, and the next in Leo. These conjunctions form a rough triangle inside a zodiacal circle, and the three signs so related are known as a trigon, as shown in the diagram. In relation to the fixed stars, it takes some 900 years for a conjunction to appear near to the starting point of the sequence. [1]   

View of the solar system 16 Astronomical Units from Jupiter. . See how when viewed from the earth, Jupiter appears to cover Saturn which is some 400 million miles away. From SkySafari v. 4.4

Over the last few months Saturn and Jupiter have appeared closer and closer together. While in reality they are 400 million miles apart, from here on earth Jupiter will appear to cover Saturn. They haven’t looked this close since 1623, and won’t appear this close again until 2080. So don’t miss it. Afterwards, they will begin to appear as separate objects, and move father and father apart.

How to spot the conjunction

Looking southwest from the eastern United States at 5.20pm on Monday Dec 21. This is what you can see if there are no clouds. Note how Aquarius is in the background. That is what is meant by the conjunction “being in” Aquarius.

Exactly when the conjunction is best seen depends on where you live. It will be visible for only a couple of hours after sunset. On the east coast of the US, it will be visible from dusk until 7.07pm. In London, England the sun sets at 3.54pm. Dusk begins around 4.35 and you will have until 5.50pm before the two planets set.  In Jerusalem dusk begins around 5.10pm, and you will have until 6.35pm.

What happens if it is cloudy?

Come back the next night.  Unlike a solar eclipse, the conjunction is a slowly moving event. If it is cloudy one night – even if that night is Dec 21st, just come back the next night and take a look. The two planets will have moved apart a little, but only a little. It is still worth a look. No special equipment is needed. Oh, and one more thing. It is just luck that this conjunction occurs on the shortest day of the year, known as the winter solstice. The two are not otherwise connected.

 The Conjunction as an Omen

Conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter occur every twenty years or so and for humankind the vision of the two planets united as one was a harbinger of plague, war, famine and pestilence, an omen of terrible things to come. Or not.  

Although there are several lengthy discussions in the Talmud about the influence of the planets on the fate of humanity, none makes any mention of conjunctions.  But writing about three hundred years after the close of the Talmud, Saadia Gaon (d. 942C.E.) mentioned the belief of the terrible consequences of the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction in his introduction to the Book of Daniel.[2] He explained a belief that the twenty-year conjunction of the planets allowed for predictions to be made about individual kings. The conjunctions that occurred every 238 or 258 years could be used to make predictions about families, and those that occurred in a cycle of 944 or 964 years “influenced the governance from one nation to another.”[3] However, he did so only to reject the notion that these conjunctions or indeed any planetary alignments were of consequence. They were nonsense, as fanciful as other means of divination like the “observation of the organs of animals, such as the liver and the shoulder blade, of eggs and the like.” 

Indeed, things have come so far as the claim that the nations in their countries and the people of every kingdom they rule—their fate is determined by the judgments of the stars. They have relied in all this on the conjunction of the two superior planets, I mean Saturn and Jupiter. For they find that both of these planets are in conjunction once in a period of approximately twenty years… However, the Lord, may He be exalted and magnified, has made it known in His books that none of the wise men know anything about the duration of the kingdoms and their ends…[4]

 Saadia’s rejection of astrology was shared by Maimonides in his Iggeret Teiman, an epistle about many aspects of faith written to the Jews of Yemen around 1173. 

I note that you are inclined to believe in astrology and in the influence of the past and future conjunctions of the planets upon human affairs. You should dismiss such notions from your thoughts. Cleanse your mind as one cleanses dirty clothes. Accomplished scholars whether they are religious or not, refuse to believe in the truth of this science…

 For while the Gentiles believe that our nation will never constitute an independent state, nor will they even rise above their present condition, and all the astrologers, diviners, and augurs concur in this opinion, God will prove false their views and beliefs, and will order the advent of the Messiah…This is the correct view that every Israelite should hold, without paying any attention to the conjunctions of the stars,…[5]

The Conjunction in the writings of Ibn Ezra

Perhaps unaware of these objections to astrology, or perhaps in spite of them, several later rabbinic scholars wrote about the astrological consequences of planetary conjunctions in general, and of the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction in particular.  The most famous of these was the biblical commentator, grammarian, poet and astronomer Abraham Ibn Ezra (d.1167), who, “by incorporating astrological ideas into his influential biblical exegesis…promoted the smooth absorption of astrological content into the hard core of Jewish culture.”[6]

Among the fourteen books he wrote on astronomy was Sefer haMachbarot (The Book of Conjunctions), in which the influence of the conjunction of the two planets was discussed in great detail.[7]  Ibn Ezra believed that the sun and planets, together with the constellations across which they appeared to travel through the night sky influenced the fates of nations, cities and religions.  Jupiter in Aires held sway over Iraq, Saturn in Libra over Rome. The sun held sway over Christians, Saturn over the Jews, and Venus over the Moslems.[8] Like all of his contemporaries, Ibn Ezra’s astrology paid additional attention to conjunctions, of which the most important was that of Saturn and Jupiter.  These conjunctions had influenced the births of prophets and leaders, including Moses, Jesus and Mohammed.[9]

 רק דבר מנוסה היא שאריה ושמש לאדום, ובו הייתה המחברת טרם שיולד האיש שחושבים שהו אלוה...והמחברת ההוא תרם קום נביא הישמעאלים לפי דברם היתה במזל עקרב

 “The conjunction [of Saturn and Jupiter] took place before the birth of the man they consider to be God…and the conjunction [of Saturn and Jupiter] in the sign of Scorpio took place before the emergence of the prophet of the Moslems.”

 Ibn Ezra did not just emphasize the importance of the conjunction in his many esoteric works of astrology. He included it his commentary on the Torah, in a long passage found on Exodus 33:21, printed in any edition of the Mikraot Gedolot.

ודע כי כל הצמחים והחיים בארץ והעוף והבהמה והחיה והרמש וכל אדם קשורים בעליונים. כי הכללים קשורים בארבעים ושמונה צורות הגלגל...

והנה המחברת השניים העליונים במזל טלה היא בכל תשע מאות וששים שנה. ושניהם סובבים ממזל התחברותם אל מזל תשיעי בכל עשרים שנה. ככה יתגלגלו שתים עשרה פעמים עד מאתים וארבעים שנה. ומשם יתגלגלו כמספר הזה ובדרך הזה במזלות העפר. גם במזלות הרוח. גם במזלות המים

ובעבור זה אמר ה' אחר אשר חלק. ואתכם לקח ה' להיות לו לעם נחלה. ככה לא כאלה חלק יעקב כי יוצר הכל הוא. וזהו ונפלינו אני ועמך. וזהו שאמרו חכמינו ז''ל אין מזל לישראל כל זמן שהם שומרי התורה. ואם לא ישמרוה ישלוט בהם המזל כאשר הוא מנוסה. כי כל מחברת ומזל דלי במערכת רעה. הנה יבא רעה לשונאי ישראל. והיודעים חכמת המזלות יודו כן. והנה היתה במערכת השמים במחברת שיעמדו בגלות מצרים עוד שנים רבות. ובעבור שצעקו אל השם ושבו אליו הושיעם השם. וכאשר יקרה לכלל כן יקרה ליחיד על כן שומר תורה אשרהו

Know that all plants and everything that lives on earth, all birds, domesticated and wild quadrupeds, and other animals, and all human beings, depend on the celestial bodies, because the species depend on the forty-eight constellations of the orb

 … The conjunction of the two uppermost planets [i.e., Saturn and Jupiter] in the sign of Aries takes place every 960 years, and both revolve from the sign of their conjunction to the ninth [following] sign every 20 years, and they repeat this cycle twelve times to make up two hundred and forty years. From there they repeat this cycle the same number of times and in the same manner in the earthy signs, in the airy signs, and in the watery signs….

It is because of this that [Scripture] states, “which the Lord thy God has allotted” (Deut. 4:19); “But you hath the Lord taken ... to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day” (Deut. 4:20); “The portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the former of all things” (Jer. 51:19). This is the meaning of “so that we are distinguished, I and Thy people” (Ex. 33:16).  This is what the Sages mean by “there is no mazzal for Israel” (B. Shabbat 156a)—as long as they observe the Torah…

But if they do not observe the Torah, then the zodiacal sign rules over them, as has been proven by experience, for any conjunction [of Saturn and Jupiter that takes place] when Aquarius is in an evil configuration results in harm to Israel. Those versed in astrology admit that a conjunction took place in a configuration which meant that they would remain in exile in Egypt for many more years, but because they cried out to God and returned to Him, He saved them.[10]

 From Ibn Ezra we also know that Solomon Ibn Gabriol (d.1058) and Avraham bar Hiyyah (d. ~1140) believed that it was possible to link the conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter to a calculation of the arrival of the Messiah. Ibn Ezra was critical of these eschatological attempts, but not of the significance of the conjunctions and their important role in astrological computations.[11]

 The provenance of Ibn Ezra’s astrology was of course Jewish in so far as he cited many Talmudic passages that discussed the influence of the stars and planets.  But it contained much more from non-Jewish works of astrology. His work was “an accumulation of sources and doctrines that go back to the very beginnings of the astrological literature.” [12] This includes ancient Egyptian and Babylonian sources, as well as later Hellenistic works by Ptolemy. In fact, Ptolemy was “Ibn Ezra’s most important astrological and scientific source, to whom he refers in his entire work more frequently than to any other scientist or astrologer.”[13]  He also mentions several Islamic scholars on whom he based his work, of which the most prominent was Abu Ma’shar Ghafar Ibn Muhammad Ibn Umar al-Balkhi (787-886). Ibn Ezra’s astrology had an influential role in the spread of Abu’Ma’shar’s ideas into the west. In the thirteenth century his Sefer Olam was translated first into French and from there into Latin. Much of it was incorporated into the fourteenth century supercommentary on Ibn Ezra by Joseph ben Eliezer Bonfils known as Zafnet Paneach.

The Conjunction in the writings of Avraham bar Hiyyah

Avraham bar Hiyyah (c.1070~1145) was an extremely influential Catalonian mathematician and astrologer. He wrote two famous works on astronomy, Tzurat Ha’aretz and Heshbon Mahalakh HaKochavim and in a lesser known work of astrology called Megillat HaMegalleh he detailed how the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter explained the course of Jewish history.[14]  Moses was born under the influence of a conjunction, he fled Egypt during one, and stayed in Midian until there was a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation of Scorpio.[15]  With the next conjunction it became time to punish the kingdom of the wicked Pharaoh.

ובעלי האומנית הזאת סבורים שבדבוק הרביעי הזה ברח משה מלפני פרעה אל ארץ מדין ועמד שם עד הדבוק החמישי כשנתחבו שניהם במזל עקרב. ואין אנו יכולים לבטל את דבריהם ולא לקיימם מפני שאין אנו מוצאים ברברי רבותינו ז״ל מספר הימים אשד עמד

... והדבוק הניע אל מזל עקרב אחר הדבוק הזה בשנת י״ב מן המחזור קכ״ט שנת אלפים תמ״ד לעולם. ומזל עקרב הוא בית מלכות הרשע והוא מן המזלות השולטות על מצרים לדברי אנשי החכמה הזאת. ובדבוק הזה הגיע זמן מלכות פרעה הרשע להשמד ולהחרב.

Those who subscribe to this system believe that during the fourth conjunction [of Saturn and Jupiter] Moses fled to Midian from Pharaoh Midian until the fifth conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation of Scorpio. We cannot be sure about this calculation because we do not have anything from the rabbis [of the Talmud] about the length of time this took.

After that conjunction, then next one moved towards the constellation of Scorpio in the 12th year of the 129th cycle, in the Year 1,444 of creation. Scorpio is one of the constellations that rules over Egypt, according to the astrologers.  During this conjunction the time arrived to destroy and desolate the kingdom of the wicked Pharaoh...

 The conjunctions continued to influence both general and Jewish history, with a rule that whenever they occurred with Pisces a calamity of some sort would befall the Jewish people.[16]

ואתה רואה בכל עת אשר היה הדבוק נופל במזל דגים שהוא מזל הדבוק הראשון היה מתחדש על ישראל מאורע קשה

 With copious calendrical precision bar Hiyyah details the fall of the kingdoms of Judea and Israel and the association with the conjunctions. In contrast he notes that the birth of Jesus was not heralded by a conjunction, because “he was belittled and despised by his people, and he never reached greatness in this world.”[17]

 ואמרו שבשנת ג׳ אלפים תשצ״ג“ לעולם שהיא שנה אחת לפני הדבוק הזה נתלה ישו בן פנדירא שחיק עצמות ולשנה אחריו יצאו תלמידיו הפריצים הרעים להטעות את העולם. ואין אתה מוצא בדבוק הזה ולא בדבוק אשר לפניו אות ללידת ישו התלוי הזה מפני שהיה שפל ומאוס בעיני עמו ולא היתה לו גדולה בעולם כל ימי חייו אבלי אלו הרשעים תלמידיו החיו אח זכרו אחרי מותו… וכן לא היה כח לאנשים הרשעים האלו ולא עלה להם זכר כל ימי הטריגון הזה  

In the year 3793 of creation, which was one year before [a] conjunction, Jesus (ben Pandariah), may his bones rot, was crucified. The following year his wicked disciples spread their attempt to trip the world into error.  The birth of Jesus the crucified was not heralded by a conjunction because he was belittled and despised by his people, and he never reached greatness in this world in his life. However his wicked disciples continued his memory after his death…But these wicked people had no influence and so they were not foretold in the prior conjunction..

 One of the impossibly frustrating features of astrology is the way in which different astrologers interpret astronomical events. The birth of Jesus is a perfect example. According to Ibn Ezra it was foreshadowed by a Saturn-Jupiter conjunction. But in the schema of Avraham bar Hiyyah it was an unimportant event and as such it was not heralded by a conjunction. Not only did the two disagree about the historical significance of the founder of Christianity. They also disagreed about when the Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions even fell.

The Prognostication of 1166

In 1166 there was to be another conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, and astrologers of many faiths composed horoscopes of sorts, known as prognostications. One of these, written in Hebrew, used to be attributed to Ibn Ezra, since it is found in an Oxford manuscript after his Sefer Hame’orot. However, based on a philological analysis, it is unlikely to have been written by him, and cannot have been written by Avraham bar Hiyyah since he had died long before the prognostication was composed. Its anonymous author remains unidentified, though was most likely a Jew living in Aragon.[18]  The prognostication demonstrates the seriousness with which a Saturn-Jupiter conjunction was taken. Here are some excerpts: 

The following prognostication was made in [4]914 [1153-54 C.E.] concerning a [forthcoming] prognostication [to occur on Sunday July 31, 1166]…the conjunction will take place in Capricorn…Since the conjunction will be retrograde, it will be very strong and powerful…

This [conjunction] indicates a consolidation of the affairs of kings who have inherited their kingdom from their fathers... [By way of contrast] every conspirator and traitor not of royal seed will be weak and abased.  This is a major indication concerning the Christian kingdom; their regency will be strengthened, whereas the strength of the conspirators of al-Masmud [19] will dimmish, their kingdom will fall and perish, and their alliance will be scattered…

There is hope for our nation in these years of the conjunction, with the help of God, kings will honor them, elevate them, make them great, and join with them…

The sun will enter the beginning of Aires in the middle of the ninth hour of Wednesday the 20th day of Jumada I according to the reckoning of the Moslems…or in the evening of March 23…All this indicates the success of the king of Aragon in that year and the increase of his greatness…in the first years of the conjunction crops will increase. But in the fourth year there will be death and great famine in the lands of Qedar…

The people [of Israel] will move from their place to other land…many warriors will rest from war…. Wonder will be seen in the East, and in the Land of Israel new things will happen, as also in other land. The summer will be made temperate, and the heat of the sun will be milder…Blessed be God who knows future events, for there is none like him. Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.  Amen.

וברוך האל היודע העתידות כי אין זולתו. ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד

The Conjunction in the writings of Lev ben Gershon

Levi ben Gershon (1288-1344) was a French polymath who mostly referred to astrology is his main work, Milchamot Adonai. In addition there is a single manuscript held at the University of Cambridge which contains Levi’s prognostication for the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that occurred on March 14th, 1345 (10 Nisan 5105).[20] Avraham bar Hiyyah had noted this conjunction in his Megillat ha-Megalleh, and had considered it in his messianic calculations, which were based on a date derived from the Book of Daniel. Levi ben Gershon predicted unrest and turmoil for the next decade that would come to a head in 1355. But he never lived to test the accuracy of his prognostication, for he died in April 1344.

Now I say that it is known by experience that a conjunction (machberet) of Saturn with Jupiter signifies great and general events. When it takes place in [one of] the airy [zodiacal] signs, its impact is of great strength. When it takes place in a fixed (omed) sign, its impact will last for many days. This is the case for the conjunction to take place on 28 March [13]45…

According to [the planetary] configuration it indicates the destruction of a nation and a kingdom by a nation of a different religion. This will begin to happen in the tenth year[after]the aforementioned conjunction according to this configuration because this conjunction will take place in the third house that signifies religions…According to what is manifest in [the planetary] configuration the evil for these countries will begin from the north. Since Saturn and then Mars will dominate this conjunction, this indicates extraordinary evil with many wars, visions, and miraculous signs…Since the conjunction is strong and Mars is eastern and also will dominate the ascendant, it indicates the spilling of much blood and increasing enmity, jealousy, hatred, strife, famine, various diseases, drought, and dearth….

On account of Saturn it indicates much disease, senseless enmity, strife, destruction of places, collapse, and the sinking of ships in some seas. The conjunction with Mars indicates burning heat in some latitudes, many dry exhalations, comets and for most of the inhabited[world], wars, calamities, death by the sword, killing, and destruction… 

Up to here [is all that] he revealed and added nothing more, for he [Levi] was beckoned to the Upper Academy, may his soul be bound up in the bond of [everlasting] life.

 Levi’s prognostication carried considerable weight and was translated into Latin at the request of Pope Clement VI. In hindsight it was applied to the terrible European outbreak of bubonic plague that began only three years later, and as a result additional attention was paid to Levi’s forecast.[21] The French astrologer Johannes de Muris (c.1320-1350) also prognosticated for the Pope and was certainly aware of Levi’s predictions. “It appears” he wrote, “that the Jews will expect the Messiah before a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter recurs, which will be within ten years, rather than at another time.” [22]

The Conjunction in Western Thought

The ominous conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter continued to be a cause for alarm in the west during the early modern period. In 1583 a conjunction was to occur that ended the watery trigon of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, and would begin the fiery trigon of Aires, Leo, and Sagittarius. These rare circumstances, not having occurred in more than 1,500 years, were dire. Astrologers predicted upheavals and the end of the world. The English Franciscan philosopher Rodger Bacon, (d. c.1292) had predicted that the conjunction of 1583 would be catastrophic:

When the conjunction has changed from this triplicity to another one, as from the end of Cancer to the beginning of Aries, it is then said to be the greatest one, through the revolution of Saturn thirty-two times, and happens every nine hundred and sixty years, and has reference to changes in empires and kingdoms, to impressions of fire in the air, to flood, earthquake, and dearness in the price of food.[23]

Contemporary astrologers of the time updated Bacon’s prognostication and predicted a terrible future. The English astrologer Richard Harvey wrote a grim book titled Astrological Discourse upon the great and notable Conjunction of the two superiour Planets, SATURNE & IUPITER, which shall happen the 28 day of April, 1583. He predicted “eyther a finall dissolution, or a wonderfull horrible alteration of the worlde.” There would be cold weather, floods, hatred, violent oppression, “waterie and fierie calamities” and the world would be spared only due to the second coming of the savior.[24] Another astrologer, Robert Tanner was certain that the conjunction meant that “the latter dayes of the worlds destruction to be neere at hande, & that the comming of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ to judgement, will not bee long.”[25] But when none of these calamities occurred these prognostications were used by those who opposed the astrology and its foundations.

Today, echoes of the belief that misfortune may follow a conjunction remain. The name of the winter viral disease influenza comes from the Latin influentia, meaning influence, for it was believed to be caused by astral alignments, among which was the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. Contemporary professional astrologers remain concerned, though they couch their prognostications in modern language. “Not only will Jupiter and Saturn be uniting in Aquarius, they will also be forming a catalytic square aspect with Uranus in Taurus. At this pivotal moment in our journey, the lightning bolts of Jupiter and Uranus will not only bring down old societal structures but will also impel us to release old personal dreams and drama we have been attached to. There will be new challenges and unknown potential arising as we begin a new era of Jupiter and Saturn that we will need to make space for in our lives.”[4]  Whatever that means.

 The spectacular 2020 conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter takes place following a year of world-wide pandemic misery but will occur within a few days of the start of vaccinations. The ominous celestial omen has become a harbinger of good news. 

---

For the much shorter version on Tradition Online, click here. For a PDF version of the essay click here.

Notes

[1] Donald V. Etz, "Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn," Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 94 (2000).

[2] The work is only known is manuscript form from the Cairo Genizah, with sections held in libraries in the Antonin Collection at the Russian National Library and Cambridge University. The reconstructed text was published in a 2004 paper in Aleph.  See Haggai Ben-Shammai, "Saadia’s Introduction to Daniel: Prophetic Calculation of the End of Days Vs Astrological and Magical Speculation," Aleph 4 (2004).

[3] Ibid. 70-72.

[4]   “The polemical nature of Saadia’s writing here is unmistakable. As a point of departure for understanding the argument, we may assume that it was directed against Jewish proponents of astrology, especially as they related to the book of Daniel and the prediction of a timetable for the ultimate Redemption.” Ibid.

[5] Available at https://www.sefaria.org/Iggerot_HaRambam%2C_Iggeret_Teiman.12?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en.

[6] Shlomo Sela, ed. Abraham Ibn Ezra: The Book of the World. A Parallel Hebrew-English Critical Edition of the Two Versions of the Text., 2 vols., vol. 2. Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Astrological Writings (Leiden: Brill, 2010). 1.

[7] The work was titled both Sefer HaMachbarot and Sefer Haolam, though Ibn Ezra subsequently used only used the second of these titles. There are three manuscript versions of the work, two of which are held at the Vatican Library. One of these was published in 1937 by J.L. Fleischer using the Vatican MS Ebr. 390, and is available here. For a review of the scientific writings of Ibn Ezra see "Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Scientific Corpus Basic Constituents and General Characterization," Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 11 (2001).

[8] Yehudah Leib Fleischer, Sefer Haolam (Berehovo: Haladas, 1937). 14, 19.

[9] Sela, Abraham Ibn Ezra: The Book of the World. 164-165.

[10] Ibid. 272-279. As Sela notes, there are textual variants in the Mikraot Gedolot, and his translation, which is used here, is based on a collation of fifteenth-century manuscripts.

[11] Ibid. 9.

[12] Ibid.11.

[13] Ibid. 14.

[14] "Abraham Bar Ḥiyya's Astrological Work and Thought," Jewish Studies Quarterly 13, no. 2 (2006). The work is available here.

[15] J. Guttman, Sefer Megillat Ha-Megalleh Von Abraham Bar Chija (Berlin: A. Poznanski, 1924).122.

[16] Ibid.126.

[17] Ibid. 136.

[18] Bernard R. Goldstein, "A Prognostication Based on the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 1166 [561 Ah]," in Studies in the History of the Exact Sciences in Homor of David Pingree, ed. C. Burnett (Leiden: Brill, 2004).

[19] Goldstein identifies the term as referring to one of the principal Berber ethnic groups in North Africa. See ibid. 748.

[20] MS Cambridge, heb., Add. 1563,folios 104b:20-106a:8. For a detailed description and translation see Bernard R. Goldstein and David Pingree, Levi Ben Gerson's Prognostication for the Conjunction of 1345 (American Philosophical Society, 1990).

[21] Cedric Cohen Skalli and Oded Horezky, "A Fifteenth-Century Reader of Gersonides: Don Isaac Abravanel, Providence, Astral Influences, Active Intellect, and Humanism," in Gersonides’ Afterlife: Studies on the Reception of Levi Ben Gerson’s Philosophical, Halakhic and Scientific Oeuvre in the 14th through 20th Centuries, ed. Ofer Elior, Gad Freudenthal, and David Wirmer (Leiden: Brill, 2020). 201.

[22] Goldstein and Pingree, Levi Ben Gerson's Prognostication. 37. Another Jew, Violas de Rodez  wrote  a detailed political prognostication in Hebrew for the year 1355. However, since this was not based specifically on a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, we will not consider further. For details see Hagar Kahana-Smilansky, "Violas De Rodez’ Political Prognostication for the Year 1355: Reaction to the Prognostications for 1345–1355?," in Gersonides’ Afterlife: Studies on the Reception of Levi Ben Gerson’s Philosophical, Halakhic and Scientific Oeuvre in the 14th through 20th Centuries, ed. Ofer Elior, Gad Freudenthal, and David Wirmer (Leiden: Brill, 2020). For a critical translation see "Violas De Rodez’ Astrological Prognostication for the Year 1355: Introduction, Text and Translation," Aleph 18, no. 1 (2018).

[23] R Burke, The Opus Majus of Francis Bacon (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1928). Vol. 1, 284-285.

[24] Margaret Aston, "The Fiery Trigon Conjunction: An Elizabethan Astrological Prediction," Isis 61, no. 2 (1970). The work is available online here.

[25] Ibid. As Margaret Aston has pointed out, William Shakespeare composed some lines that referenced the non-events of 1583 in his Henry IV part two (iv, 261-265.)

[26] From here.  There are hundreds of similar predictions available online.

From the Talmudology Archives: Was There a Chanukah Miracle?

שבת כא, ב

מַאי חֲנוּכָּה? דְּתָנוּ רַבָּנַן: בְּכ״ה בְּכִסְלֵיו יוֹמֵי דַחֲנוּכָּה תְּמָנְיָא אִינּוּן דְּלָא לְמִסְפַּד בְּהוֹן וּדְלָא לְהִתְעַנּוֹת בְּהוֹן. שֶׁכְּשֶׁנִּכְנְסוּ יְווֹנִים לַהֵיכָל טִמְּאוּ כׇּל הַשְּׁמָנִים שֶׁבַּהֵיכָל. וּכְשֶׁגָּבְרָה מַלְכוּת בֵּית חַשְׁמוֹנַאי וְנִצְּחוּם, בָּדְקוּ וְלֹא מָצְאוּ אֶלָּא פַּךְ אֶחָד שֶׁל שֶׁמֶן שֶׁהָיָה מוּנָּח בְּחוֹתָמוֹ שֶׁל כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל, וְלֹא הָיָה בּוֹ אֶלָּא לְהַדְלִיק יוֹם אֶחָד. נַעֲשָׂה בּוֹ נֵס וְהִדְלִיקוּ מִמֶּנּוּ שְׁמוֹנָה יָמִים. לְשָׁנָה אַחֶרֶת קְבָעוּם וַעֲשָׂאוּם יָמִים טוֹבִים בְּהַלֵּל וְהוֹדָאָה. 

What is Chanukah, and why are lights kindled on Chanukah? The Gemara answers: The Sages taught in Megillat Ta’anit: On the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the days of Chanukah are eight. One may not eulogize on them and one may not fast on them. What is the reason? When the Greeks entered the Sanctuary they defiled all the oils that were in the Sanctuary by touching them. And when the Hasmonean monarchy overcame them and emerged victorious over them, they searched and found only one cruse of oil that was placed with the seal of the High Priest,undisturbed by the Greeks. And there was sufficient oil there to light the candelabrum for only one day. A miracle occurred and they lit the candelabrum from it eight days. The next year the Sages instituted those days and made them holidays with recitation of hallel and special thanksgiving in prayer and blessings.

The miracle of the oil that was meant to burn for only one day yet stretched out for eight is a deeply beloved story whose origin in only briefly mentioned in the Talmud. It is fascinating therefore to learn that the great Russian maskil Chaim Zelig Slonimski, (a Talmudology hero to be sure) unleashed a storm when he published an essay questioning the authenticity of the miracle.

Some Background

Hayyim Zelig Slonimski aged seventy-five. From The Jewish Encyclopedia, New York, Funk and Wagnalls, 1912.

We have discussed Slonimski before. To coincide with the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1835, he published Kokhava Deshavit (The Comet) in Vilna. It described where and when the comet would be visible with precise coordinates for the inhabitants of Bialystok, as well as an explanation of the nature of comets and their orbits. Hayyim Zelig Slonimski, (1810-1904), was also the founding editor of Hazefirah (The Dawn), a weekly Hebrew-language newspaper first published in Warsaw in 1862. He also wrote Mosdei Hokhmah (The Foundation of Wisdom), a work on algebra, and struck up a friendship with the famed German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859). Not content with all this, Slonimski invented a method to send two telegraphs simultaneously over one wire (which was a very big deal at the time,) and developed a calculating machine that he later presented to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. It was so successful that in 1845 the Russian minister of education made Slonimski an honorary citizen, a remarkable honor given the general oppression faced by the Jews at the time. So yes, Slonimski is a Talmudology hero.

The Chanukah Polemic of 1891

In December 1891 Slonimski published a short essay in the Hebrew language journal Hazefirah, which he happened to edit. In the piece he claimed that the Chanukah miracle of the oil discussed on today’s page of Talmud may not have happened, and that furthermore Maimonides himself did not appear to believe in the historicity of the story. There was indeed a miracle at Chanukah, he claimed: it was the victory of the Hasmoneans over the Greeks. But the miracle of the oil was witnessed only by a handful of the Cohanim who entered the Temple. “Who else besides them” he wrote “saw anything?”

In support of his skepticism Slonimski cited Maimonides himself. Here is how Maimonides described the events surrounding the oil:

רמב׳ם משנה תורה הלכית מגילה וחנוכה ג, ב

וּכְשֶׁגָּבְרוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל עַל אוֹיְבֵיהֶם וְאִבְּדוּם בְּכ''ה בְּחֹדֶשׁ כִּסְלֵו הָיָה וְנִכְנְסוּ לַהֵיכָל וְלֹא מָצְאוּ שֶׁמֶן טָהוֹר בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ אֶלָּא פַּךְ אֶחָד וְלֹא הָיָה בּוֹ לְהַדְלִיק אֶלָּא יוֹם אֶחָד בִּלְבַד וְהִדְלִיקוּ מִמֶּנּוּ נֵרוֹת הַמַּעֲרָכָה שְׁמוֹנָה יָמִים עַד שֶׁכָּתְשׁוּ זֵיתִים וְהוֹצִיאוּ שֶׁמֶן טָהוֹר 

When, on the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the Jews had emerged victorious over their foes and destroyed them, they re-entered the Temple where they found only one jar of pure oil, enough to be lit for only a single day; yet they used it for lighting the required set of lamps for eight days, until they managed to press olives and produce pure oil.

Do you see what is missing? Slonimski did. There is no mention of any miracle. Instead Maimonides seems to hedge, and notes instead that “they used it for lighting the required set of lamps for eight days.” Slonimski suggested that the Menorah was lit for a short time each evening, and then the lamps were extinguished, instead of burning through the rest of the night. That is how the oil managed to last eight days. Nothing miraculous to see here.

The Response, and THE response to THE response…

Dozens of books and essays were written in response to Slonimski’s one page essay. (You can find them here, together with a helpful Hebrew language post about the episode.) For example in 1892 in Warsaw, Shmuel Alexandrov published Agadat Pach HaShemen (The Story of the Flask of Oil). The book was dedicated to Chaim Slonimski, and explained the miracle of the oil allegorically. Conservative reaction to the book was swift and strong. So much so that Alexandrov later wrote this retraction:

והנני אומר גם מפורש כי כל מה שכתבתי בקונטרסי אגדת פך השמן… הוא רק בתור בירור וביאור האגדות האלה ע”ד הביקורת, אולם בנוגע לגוף הקבלות והמסורות העתיקות המסתעפות מהאגדות האלו, הנני אומר מפורש אם קבלה היא נקבל, ואם אולי נמצאו ביטויים בספרי אגדת פך השמן שפלטה קולמוסי, הנוגעים בגוף הקבלה, הנני מתחרט ע”ז חרטה גמורה. מטרתו בכל מאמרינו השונים היא רק לבנות ולנטוע ולא לסתור ולעקור חלילה

I wish to explicitly clarify that everything I wrote in by book Agadat Pach HaShemen was written only to clarify the stories, but regarding the received tradition about theses actual events, I want to state explicitly…that I completely regret certain expressions that slipped from my pen regarding these events. My purpose throughout was to build and to plant, and not to destroy or uproot…

(You can find Agadat Pach HaShemen at the Jewish National Library here. But you won’t find it on HebrewBook.org. I wonder why.)

As Marc Shapiro has pointed out, there are examples of several other orthodox authors who appeared to ignore or deny the reality of the miracle of Chanukah. He notes that “ It could be that Isidore Epstein should be added to the list, as in his classic work Judaism he describes Hanukkah and the kindling of lights, but mentions nothing about the miracle….Yet I think it is telling that he does not even say something like, “according to tradition a cruse of oil with enough for one day burnt for eight.”” Another traditional author who ignores the miracle was Rabbi Zev Yavetz, a founder of the Mizrachi movement. The miracle of the oil is simply not mentioned in his fourteen volume Toldot Yisrael. Marc also points out that the miracle of the oil is omitted in R. Joseph Hertz’s  Authorized Daily Prayer Book, (or, as it is known by its short title, The Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire,) used by orthodox Jews in Britain for generations.

Whether you believe that the miracle was an improbable military victory or long-lasting oil, Chanukah remains a beloved holiday for the Jewish people. On that, at least, we can all agree.

From the Talmudology Archives: Rashi and Why Women Light the Menorah

Don't Share This With Your Young Children

The festival of Chanukah begins this evening. Ask a well-educated Jewish child about the origins of Chanukah, and she will likely tell you about the wicked Greeks who defiled the Temple, about the brave Maccabees who fought them, and about the miracle of the oil.  But in Rashi's commentary to the Talmud there is another part of the story. Here it is:

דאמר רבי יהושע בן לוי: נשים חייבות בנר חנוכה, שאף הן היו באותו הנס

 רש"י שם:  שגזרו יוונים על כל בתולות הנשואות להיבעל לטפסר תחלה  

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Women are obligated to take part in the lighting, for they were included in that miracle...

Rashi: For the Greeks made an edict that all virgins who were about to marry must first have intercourse with the Prefect...

The great French exegete Rashi (d.1105) is referencing the Law of the First Night - Jus Primae Noctis, also known more graphically as The Right to the Thigh - Droit du Cuissage. We first encountered this when studying Ketuvot 3a. So let's go back to that daf.  

MAZAL TOV; WHEN'S THE WEDDING?

Today, when a bride and groom wish to secure a wedding day, it will depend on their budget and the availability of the caterer. My, how things have changed. In the times of the Mishnah, the wedding day was decided by the availability of the local rabbinic court, the Bet Din. Then, a wedding (of a virgin) could only take place on the night before the Bet Din convened.  This would ensure that if, after their magical first night, the groom suspected that his bride had not been a virgin, he could take his claim to court the very next day.  

“מפני מה אמרו בתולה נשאת ליום הרביעי שאם היה לו טענת בתולים היה משכים לב”ד

Why did they teach that a virgin must only marry on a Wednesday? So that if the groom questioned her virginity, he could hurry to the Bet Din...
”

— Ketuvot 3a

The Talmud (Ketuvot 3a) explains that this happy custom changed during a period of persecution. Rabbah, a forth century Babylonian sage, explained what this is all about: "[The authorities] said, "a virgin who gets married on Wednesday will first have intercourse with the governor" (הגמון). In order to avoid this awful legal rape, the wedding was moved a day early, to fly, so to speak, under the radar of the local governor. 

JUS PRIMAE NOCTIS IN THE TALMUD & MIDRASH

The law that Rabbah referenced is the same one that Rashi claims was imposed on Jewish brides by the Greeks. Its origins are further explained in the Talmud Yerushalmi, which dates it to the time of the Bar Kochba revolution:

 תלמוד ירושלמי כתובות פרק א הלכה ה  

בראשונה גזרו שמד ביהודה שכן מסורת להם מאבותם שיהודה הרג את עשו...  והיו הולכין ומשעבדין בהן ואונסין את בנותיהן וגזרו שיהא איסטרטיוס בועל תחילה התקינו שיהא בעלה בא עליה עודה בבית אביה 

In the beginning, they [the Romans] decreed destruction in Judea (for they had a tradition that Yehuda killed Esau) ... and they enslaved them and raped their daughters, and decreed that a soldier would have intercourse [with a bride] first. It was then enacted that her husband would cohabit with her while she was still in her father's house. 

A reference to Primae Noctis also appears in the Midrash Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic homilies edited sometime in the forth or fifth century. As told in Genesis 6, “the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were beautiful (tovot), and they took wives from whoever they chose.” The Midrash focuses on that word beautiful, and explains:

בראשית רבה (וילנא) פרשת בראשית פרשה כו 

אמר רבי יודן טבת כתיב, משהיו מטיבין אשה לבעלה היה גדול נכנס ובועלה תחלה, הדא הוא דכתיב כי טבת הנה, אלו הבתולות ויקחו להם נשים מכל אשר בחרו, אלו נשי אנשים, 

“Rabbi Judan said the word tovot (טבת) – beautiful – is written in the singular, [but read as a plural]. Meaning that the bride was made beautiful for her husband, but the lord of the nobles had intercourse with her first...”

JUS PRIMAE NOCTIS...IN THE MOVIES

There are numerous references to Primae Noctis in ancient and modern literature, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to The Marriage of Figaro. One recent example can be seen in the movie Braveheart, when the evil King Edward gallops into a village, to interrupt a wedding celebration. “I’ve come to claim the right of Primae Noctis. As lord of these lands, I will bless this marriage by taking the bride into my bed on the first night of her union.”  And as the groom is restrained by Edward's henchmen, Edward reminds the peasants “it is my noble right.”  

Jus Primae Noctis. Is there a more fearsome example of feudal barbarism? Of what one scholar called “a male power display…coercive sexual dominance…and male desire for sexual variety”?  But the legend, despite its appearance in many guises, is, fortunately, likely to be nothing more than just that: a legend.  

JUS PRIMAE NOCTIS...IS A LEGEND

Perhaps the most comprehensive investigation of the legend of Primae Noctis is The Lord's First Night: the Myth of the Droit de Cuissage, by the French social scientist Alain Boureau. His careful analysis is particularly important since, as we have seen, Rashi, our favorite French commentator, cites this legend twice. After a meticulous two-hundred page review of every alleged appearance of the legend, Boureau is clear:

“[T]he droit de cuissage never existed in medieval France. Not one of the arguments, none of the events insinuated, alleged or brandished, holds up under analysis.
”

— Alain Boureau, The Lord's First Night.

Others scholars agree with Boureau. In 1881, the German historian Karl Schmidt concluded that the right never existed.  In 1973, the historian J.Q.C. Mackrell noted that there is "no reliable evidence" that it existed. And Prof. Tal Ilan, now at the Free University of Berlin, addressed the myth of Primae Noctis in a magnificently titled 1993 paper: Premarital Cohabitation in Ancient Judea. Prof. Ilan noted that that “all medieval literature that evokes the custom of Jus Primae Noctis has been proven to be folkloristic and has no historical basis.” But what about the evidence from the Talmuds, and the Midrashim? Don’t they provide evidence that Primae Noctis was indeed practiced in the time of the Talmud? Not so, claims the professor:

If a motif of this sort could have appeared in a sixteenth-century document and upset the entire history of medieval Europe for the next two centuries, the same motif likewise could have cropped up in the fourth -or fifth-century Palestinian Talmud, falsely describing events of the second century.

Instead, Prof Ilan suggests that the Talmud used the myth of Primae Noctis to excuse the behavior of some prospective couples, who would engage in sexual relations before they married.  “the jus primae noctis was conveniently drawn in order to explain and justify a custom that seemed to the rabbis to undermine their view of proper conduct in Jewish society.”

“Some events do take place but are not true; others are—although they never occurred.”

— Elie Wiesel, Legends of Our Time

There is some further support to the claim that primae noctis never existed, and it is not one I have seen suggested before.  It is a claim from silence.  I've checked over 100,000 responsa, and there is not one on this topic. Not a single one.  If primae noctis really was a law of the Greek and Roman empires, and a feudal right across medieval Europe, then why were its implications for the Jewish community never discussed in the responsa literature?  This silence supports the conclusions of work done by Boureau, Ilan and others: it never existed. In fact Boureau wonders what muddled thinking would lead anyone to believe it existed in the first place: 

It has been clear from the start that no matter what social restrictions were put on conduct and the management of wealth, and no matter how violent mores became, the principle of free choice of an unfettered matrimonial life was the most sacred area of individual liberty in medieval Europe. The Church, European society's principal normative center, very early removed all restrictions on the marriage of dependents, and it imposed consent as a sacramental value. No juridicial form, no custom, could attack that principal...sanctified in the twelfth century by the establishment of the sacrament of matrimony.

HISTORY AND HERITAGE

The historian David Lowenthal has explained the differences between history and heritage. While history "seeks to convince by truth," heritage "passes on exclusive myths of origin and endurance, endowing us alone with prestige and purpose." Heritage, continues Lowenthal, commonly alters the past: sometimes it selectively forgets past evils, and sometimes it updates the past to fit in with our modern sensibilities. Sometimes it upgrades the past, making it better than it was, and sometimes it downgrades the past, to attract sympathy.  And so, how we read the Talmud will depend on whether we see it as a work of history or as a book of our heritage.  

“There you have it...some of it fact, and some of it fiction, but all of it true, in the true meaning of the word”

— Miles Orvel, The Real Thing: Imitiation and Authenticity in America

There are stories both wonderful and terrible from our Jewish past. Some are factual, and some are not, and a measured approach to how we might approach these stories has been suggested by Judith Baumel and Jacob J. Schacter. They explored the claim (published in The New York Times) that in 1942, ninety-three Beis Yaakov schoolgirls in Cracow committed suicide rather than face rape by their German captors. They concluded that the evidence to support the truth of the story is not conclusive one way or the other. 

Whether or not it actually happened as described is difficult to determine, but there is certainly no question that it could have happened...in response to those claiming that the incident was "unlikely" to have occurred, let us remind the reader that the period in question was one during which the most unlikely events did occur, when entire communities were wiped out without leaving a single survivor...Maybe it did happen. But maybe again it didn't. Could it have happened? Of course.

So Why Should Women Light the Menorah?

It seems very unlikely that Rashi's explanation for why women should light the Menorah has any factual basis; the legend of Primae Noctis is not likely to have been true. But some stories are true, even though they never happened. Ask yourself, from what you know about Jewish history, could it have been true? Yes. And that's what makes it all the more terrifying. Sadly, we have plenty of tragic stories from our Jewish history, and there is no need to create one that probably never happened. 

But if Rashi's reasoning was based on a myth, then why should women light the menorah on Chanukah, since they are exempt from a positive time-bound command?  For an answer that should satisfy moderns, we need look no further than the Code of Jewish Law - the Sulchan Aruch (written about 460 years after Rashi's death).   

שולחן ערוך אורח חיים הלכות חנוכה סימן תרעה סעיף ג 

 אשה מדלקת נר חנוכה, שאף היא חייבת בה

 A women should light a light on Chanunkah, for she is obligated to do so...

So there you have it. Women should light...because they should light. We need no more of a reason than that.

Happy Chanukah.

Tomorrow on Talmudology: Was There A Chanukah Miracle?