In order to set the boundaries of a city with regards to where it may be permissible to carry, the Talmud states that one should “square” it, meaning an imaginary square is drawn to include within it the entire city.
This is a simple enough instruction, but we are not done. The sides of this imaginary square are to be aligned with the four cardinal directions, North, East, South and West. We are not told why this must be done. Instead the Talmud explains how this squaring is done. Here is one suggestion.
עירובין נו, א
תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: בָּא לְרַבְּעָהּ — מְרַבְּעָהּ בְּרִיבּוּעַ עוֹלָם, נוֹתֵן צְפוֹנָהּ לִצְפוֹן עוֹלָם וּדְרוֹמָהּ לִדְרוֹם עוֹלָם, וְסִימָנָיךְ: עֲגָלָה בַּצָּפוֹן, וְעַקְרָב בַּדָּרוֹם.
With regard to the measurements of a city’s boundaries, the Sages taught the following baraita: If, in order to measure the Shabbat limit, one comes to square a city, i.e., to extend the city’s boundaries to include all of its protrusions within an imaginary square, he squares it so that the sides of the square align with the four directions of the world. He sets the northern side of the square to align with the north of the world, and its southern side to align with the south of the world. And your sign by which you can recognize the directions of the world is as follows: The constellation of “eglah” is in the north and Scorpio is in the south. The directions of the city are determined by these constellations.
The Bull vs The Bear
These two constellations should be easy to identify. Let’s start with the second one mentioned. The word עַקְרָב means a scorpion, and Scorpio is one of the twelve signs of the zodiac. Good. But what about the first constellation eglah or agalah (there is a big difference as we will see). To what constellation might this refer? Agalah - עֲגָלָה means either a “wagon” or, when the same letters are vocalized as eglah, a “calf.” And then things really get interesting.
Eglah is Taurus
TheArtScroll English Talmud indeed identifies עֲגָלָה with Taurus, (as does the ArtScroll Hebrew translation). This would depend on vocalizing the word as “eglah” meaning a calf. This would most likely identify it as the bovine constellation we know as Taurus, the “Bull.” This was also the opinion of the great medieval commentator Rashi. He doesn’t explain the word’s meaning on this page of Talmud, but he does elsewhere. In the tractate Berachot (58b) he explains the meaning of the phrase רישא דעגלא - “the head of the eglah” as the constellation Bull, or Taurus:
רשי ברכות נח,ב
רישא דעגלא – ראשו של עגל והיינו מזל שור
But we are not done. When these two constellations are mentioned in Pesachim (94b), the medieval commentary known as Tosafot remarks that eglah cannot be Taurus, (and Scorpio cannot be Scorpio). It is all to do with a description of the universe that we cannot get into now, but will do so on February 23rd next year, when we study that page in the Daf Yom cycle. Here is that Tosafot:
תוס׳ פסחים צד, ב
מעולם לא מצינו עגלה בדרום ועקרב בצפון - צ"ל דעגלה לאו היינו מזל שור כדפי' בקו' ועקרב נמי אינו עקרב די"ב מזלות דבפ"ק דראש השנה (דף יא:) קאמר די"ב מזלות לעולם ששה למטה מן הארץ וששה למעלה וכשהא' עולה שכנגדו שוקע והכא אמר שאינן זזים ממקומן ושניהם לעולם למעלה אלא אחרים הם
So to sum, Rashi believed that eglah is Taurus - and that is the ArtScroll understanding. Tosafot claimed it cannot be Taurus, though he does not offer an alternative. Now let’s consider some more contemporary translations and explanations.
Eglah is Ursa Major
The Koren (Steinsaltz) English Talmud identifies eglah as another constellation entirely, and one that is not part of the twelve signs of the zodiac. It is called Ursa Major, “The Great Bear.” Ursa Major was called Ἄρκτος μεγάλη Arktos Megale - The Great Bear - by the second century astronomer Ptolemy, and was long associated with things north. (That’s where we derive the word arctic.) So this description could certainly have been known to the rabbis of the Talmud.
The classic Soncino English Talmud translates עֲגָלָה as “The Great Rear.” And it’s not a typo in which an “R” replaced a “B.” But why the Great Rear? Well as you can see from the image below, there are seven stars within the Ursa Major that are known as the Big Dipper. And where are they located? At the very rear of the bear.
Of course that only works if you imagine the stars forming a bear in a particular way. Here for example is how H.A. Rey - the creator of the Curious George series - depicted the The Great Bear in his wonderful book The Stars: A New Way to See Them. As you can see, the Great Bear is now made up by a very different set of lines, and the Big Dipper is no longer at its “Great Rear” but is instead part of the head of the bear.
H.A Rey. The Stars: A New Way to See Them. Houghton Mifflin 1980. 35.
So not everyone looks at a constellation and draws the same images. Here is another example, from Goldshmidt’s German translation of the Talmud which reads the word not as eglah but as as agalah: “der Wagen.” Actually, Ursa Major or more precisely seven of its stars that are called the Big Dipper was once called Charles’ Wain, a name that came from the
…Middle English Charlewayn, from Old English carles wǣn, apparently from a common Proto-Germanic *karlas wagnaz (cognate with forms in other Germanic languages). It seems that this common Germanic name originally meant the ‘peasant's wagon’ (the churls' wagon) in contrast to the ‘woman's wagon’ (Ursa Minor). Later it was interpreted as ‘Charles's wagon’ and associated with Charlemagne.
So in another culture the seven stars of the Big Dipper were seen as a wagon. Which is precisely how you could vocalize the Hebrew word in question: agalah. If you take a look at the stars it is easy to see why. But in Holland the stars are popularly known as the "Saucepan" (Steelpannetje). Which you can also make out. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.
Here is a summary of what we found:
| The Meaning and Pronunciation of the Constellation "עגלה" |
||
|---|---|---|
| Eglah = Calf | Agalah = Wagon | |
| Rashi | Taurus |
X |
| Tosafot | Not Taurus | X |
| Goldscmidt (German) |
The Wagon = The Big Dipper |
|
| Soncino (English) |
X |
The Big Rear = The Big Dipper |
| ArtScroll (English & Hebrew) |
Taurus | X |
| Koren (English) |
X | Ursa Major |
Which of these possibilities, Taurus, Ursa Major, or the Big Dipper, is the most likely? To find out let’s do some astronomy.
Taurus is a large constellation that is best seen (in the Northern Hemisphere) from November to February. In late November and December it can be seen the entire night. However by late March it appears for only a short time before sunrise and then almost completely disappears in the summer months. Although Taurus is always found in the northern sky moving from northeast to northwest, because it is sometimes only barely visible for an hour or so right before sunrise it could not always be used to find North.
Taurus. Image from the excellent app StarWalk 2.
Ursa Major “The Great Bear” is the third largest constellation in the sky, and is visible for the entire year. This constellation is circumpolar, meaning it never sets below the horizon. And because it is always near the north celestial pole, it is always in the northern part of the sky. So it could reliably be used year round to identify north.
As part of Ursa Major, the Big Dipper is also circumpolar. In fact it can be used to identify Polaris, the Pole star, around which the stars seem to revolve each night. And the Pole Star is also known as the North Star, because it is always in the north.
Ursa Major. Image from StarWalk2.
So Which is the Most likely?
While Taurus, Ursa Major, and the Big Dipper are all found in the northern sky, the most reliable of them for finding which direction is north are the last two, and particularly the Big Dipper. Here is how H.A. Rey draws its relationship to the North (Pole) star:
The relationship of the Big Dipper (aka the Wagon aka the Saucepan) and two of its “pointer” stars to the Pole star and hence to the North.
So if you are ever lost in the wilderness without GPS or a compass, remember this page of Talmud, look for the agalah (and not the eglah), and find your way back home.
