ברכות נח,ב
שְׁמוּאֵל רָמֵי. כְּתִיב ״עֹשֶׂה עָשׁ כְּסִיל וְכִימָה״, וּכְתִיב: ״עֹשֵׂה כִימָה וּכְסִיל״. הָא כֵּיצַד? אִלְמָלֵא חַמָּה שֶׁל כְּסִיל, לֹא נִתְקַיֵּים עוֹלָם מִפְּנֵי צִינָּה שֶׁל כִּימָה, וְאִלְמָלֵא צִינָּה שֶׁל כִּימָה — לֹא נִתְקַיֵּים עוֹלָם מִפְּנֵי חַמָּה שֶׁל כְּסִיל
On the subject of stars, the Gemara notes that Shmuel raised a contradiction between the implications of two verses with regard to constellations. On the one hand it is written: “Who makes Ursa Major, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south” (Job 9:9); Orion precedes Pleiades. And on the other hand it is written: “He Who makes Pleiades and Orion” (Amos 5:8); Pleiades precedes Orion. So how is this reconciled? The Gemara replies: Were it not for Orion’s heat, the universe could not exist because of the cold of Pleiades; and conversely, were it not for the cold of Pleiades, the universe could not exist because of the heat of Orion.
Which of course raises the question of what, precisely, he meant by the term Kimah.
A color-composite image of the Pleiades from the Digitized Sky Survey ...
...and now in Hebrew.
Just where, and what, is Kimah?
The term Kimah (כימה) appears three times in the Bible. Here they are, along with the JPS translation.
עמוס ה', ח
עֹשֵׂה כִימָה וּכְסִיל, וְהֹפֵךְ לַבֹּקֶר צַלְמָוֶת, וְיוֹם, לַיְלָה הֶחְשִׁיךְ
Him that maketh the Pleiades and Orion, And bringeth on the shadow of death in the morning, And darkeneth the day into night.
איוב ט', ט
עֹשֶׂה-עָשׁ, כְּסִיל וְכִימָה; וְחַדְרֵי תֵמָן
Who maketh the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, And the chambers of the south.
איוב ל"ח, ל"א-ל"ב
הַתְקַשֵּׁר, מַעֲדַנּוֹת כִּימָה; אוֹ-מֹשְׁכוֹת כְּסִיל תְּפַתֵּחַ
Canst thou bind the chains of the Pleiades, Or loose the bands of Orion?
But none of these verses in their original help us understand where in the sky Kimah can be found. Back in 1982, Chaim Milikowski, now a professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University, published a paper with the catchy title of Kima and the Flood in Seder 'Olam and B.T. Rosh Ha-Shana. Stellar Time-Reckoning and Uranography in Rabbinic Literature. Here's what he says about the word Kimah:
... there is no doubt that it refers to a star or configuration of stars. It is generally taken to be the Pleiades, but various scholars have also suggested Sirius, Scorpio and Draco. Unfortunately, in none of its occurrences can kima be identified on the basis of its context, nor does it appear in any contemporaneous cognate language. The identification of kima as Pleiades is based upon two considerations,neither conclusive.The Septuagint to Job 38:31 translates kima as Pleiades, as does also Symmachus and the Vulgate. However, at Amos 5:8, while Symmachus and Theodotion have Pleiades, Aquila and the Vulgate have no material contemporaneous ...but it does occasionally appear in the Babylonian Talmud and in the midrashim. A number of these passages support the identification of kima as the Pleiades….
From the statement of R. Papa (fourth-century Babylonian Amora) in B.T. Baba Mesi'a' 106b it follows that the position of kima at nightfall around February or March is the middle of the sky: this is roughly true of all astral bodies from the Pleiades to Sirius.
Melikowski ultimately concludes that Kimah is indeed the Pleiades, (at least it was for the authors of Seder Olam Rabbah). Identifying Kimah with the Pleiades is fairly common. The JPS translation of the Bible did it. The Artscroll Complete Tisha B'Av Service (page 63) does so, as does Rabbi Avraham Rosenfeld in his Tisha B'Av Compendium (page 38) and Feldman in his 1931 Rabbinic Mathematics and Astronomy (page 77). Lazarus Goldschmidt (d. 1950) who translated the Talmud into German, uses the word Siebengestirn, or the Seven-Star, which is Pleaides. The Soncino English Talmud translates Kimah as...Kimah, which is not very helpful, but in a footnote point out that Jastrow does not identify Kimah with the Pleiades. Marcus Jastrow (d.1903) was a lone voice who did not agree with the general consensus. In his famous dictionary he wrote that Kimah was probably Draco and not Pleiades - though he did not elaborate. So let's follow the majority and move on.
The Pleiades
The Pleiades are a cluster of hundreds of stars all about 400 light years from earth. They are often called the Seven Sisters, after their six brightest stars (go figure). With the naked eye on a clear night you can see about six of them; with a really good pair of eyes you might get to see eleven. In In 1769, Charles Messier included the Pleiades as number 45 in his first list of comet-like objects, published in 1771, which is why the group is also referred to a M45. You may not have noticed them in the sky, but I'm fairly sure you've noticed them on the front of a Subaru.
Rashi places this group in the tail of the constellation of Aires, based on his understanding of today’s Talmud (Berachot 58b). Most modern astronomy books place them in the shoulder of the constellation Taurus, but as you can see from the diagram below, there's nothing to drive this decision one way or the other.
Tomorrow we continue with the theme of astronomy, as we discuss the rarest blessing in Judaism. it is known as Birkat HaChammah “the Blessing over the Sun” and is recited only once every 28 years.
The Pleidas (M45) sits right in between Taurus and Aires...
“Samuel (third-centuryBabylonian Amora) gives an etymology of the name kima: like a hundred (keme’ah) stars. Though only six or seven stars are easily visible to the naked eye, the Pleiades consist of several hundred stars bunched closely together. Consequently, Samuel’s description is very applicable though it remains a question how he can have known this.”
“Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid.”
