New evidence that the 165 missing years are fictitious

VAT 4956

An intellectually enterprising sophomore at a well knowמ yeshiva high school in the NY area has been trying to convince me of the error of my ways in asserting that Chazal's chronology is correct and the secular chronology in accurate.

In his eagerness, he introduced me to VAT 4956, a tablet from the 37th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.

Indeed, with utterly flawed reasoning, this site:

http://www.lavia.org/english/archivo/vat4956en.htm

used that tablet to "prove" that the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar was 568 BCE, and that the Churban was in 586 BCE. He even coaxes the translation of obverse, line 17, to prove his point.

But his translation is probably doctored by him for his own purposes...  Although even he couldn't gloss over the actual dates.

Hers is another translation, from http://2043ad.com/timeandprophecy.pdf, page 87:

"The 9th, solstice. Night of the 10th, first part of the night, the moon was balanced 3½ cubits above á Scorpii. The 12th, Mars was b cubits above [á Leonis ...] The 15th, one god was seen with the other; sunrise to moonset: 7E30N. A lunar eclipse which was omitted ... "

The 15th is the 15th day of Sivan, the third month. 

There is one year, only, in which there was a lunar eclipse on the 15th day of Sivan.

Now, for the same reason that the Churban of Bayis Sheni is often cited as 70 CE even though it really took place in 68CE (problems with the switch from negative to positive numbering), 409 BCE by our count corresponds to 410 BCE by the Roman count (see http://www.cgsf.org/dbeattie/calendar/?roman=-409

In that year - and only  in that year - was 15 Sivan the requisite number of six days after the solstice on the 9th of Sivan ("The date varies between June 20 and June 22, depending on the year, and the local time zone." - https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/june-solstice.html).

409 BCE

-409 Jun 28 12:50:51 Tot A 0.0152 1.8301 342.3 222.5 102.7 10:59:36 11:59:30 13:42:12 14:42:06 [219]

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_5th-century_BCE_lunar_eclipses

To be perfectly honest, this leaves us with a discrepancy of about seven years, as it would place the Churban at 427 BCE as opposed to the traditional 420 BCE. But as I told that budding young scholar, I can't live with 165 missing years, but I can live with 7 missing years.

ברוך אשר בחר בחכמים ובמשנתם

The Rambam and Kabbalah

I stumbled across this interesting Torah Sheleimah on the Rambam and Kabbalah, on Shabbos.

Fortunately, I shared it with my talmidim Meir Machlin and Yoni Rovt, because today I could not recall where it was in the sefer and Yoni did! 

Meir took these pictures for me. 

The first is of the entire page, the second is of the specific section, enlarged.

Approaching Agadata

A short sichah I gave today's at the girls' high school in Vancouver in which our daughter, Mrs. Meira Federgrun, is the Menaheles. It is transcribed by my daughter.

Each week at Shalhevet, we are privileged to hear divrei Torah from a Rabbi or Rebbetzin in our community, a visiting guest speaker, or an out-of-town speaker. The inspirational words they share with us will be written in this column to enhance your Shabbos. This week, Rabbi Bechhofer, Rabbi and author, spoke to our students.

Chazal (our Sages) tell us that Pharaoh had three advisors who advised him about what to do with the Jewish People: Yisro, Bil'am and Iyov. Yisro advised Pharaoh to leave the Jewish Nation alone. Bil'am advised him to kill all the Jewish males. Iyov stayed quiet. Chazal say that each one was repaid according to his actions: Yisro was rewarded, Bil'am was punished and killed by Hashem (G-d) and Iyov suffered.

R' Tzadok HaKohen asks: Chazal say in another place that Bil'am was 34 when he died, and we know that he died in the 40th year of the Jews wandering in the Desert. If so, he was only born six years after the Jews left Egypt! How, then, could he have been on of Pharaoh's advisors?!

R' Tzadok explains that often Chazal use a name to describe a person's state of mind, rather than literally referring to that person. So Chazal are not saying that these three men were actually present when Pharaoh was making his decision. Rather, he had these three possibilities in his head and was conflicted about what to do. These were the Yisro, Bil'am and Iyov parts of his brain/thought process. Ultimately, he chose to do the wrong thing and tormented the Jewish Nation.

We find this often when learning Chazal: names can refer to something deeper, numbers, as well, are not always meant to be taken literally but allegorically, and more. When we understand this idea, we can uncover deeper ideas in Torah and walk away with lessons that are very relevant to our lives.

Sforno Shemos 19:6 - Everything else is commentary...

Casa Sforno. Rabbi Ovadia Sforno's house (the middle dwelling).
https://www.bolognawelcome.com/en/home/discover/places/architecture-and-monuments/historical-buildings-and-streets/casa-sforno/

ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים

ובזה תהיו סגולה מכלם כי תהיו ממלכת כהנים

להבין ולהורות לכל המין האנושי

לקרוא כלם בשם ה', ולעבדו שכם אחד

כמו שיהיה ענין ישראל לעתיד לבא

כאמרו ואתם כהני ה' תקראו

וכאמרו כי מציון תצא תורה

And you shall be for me a nation of priests - and with this you will be unique among them, for you shall be a kingdom of priests to understand and to instruct the entire human race that all of them shall call out in the name of God and serve Him as with one shoulder. And this will be the accomplishment of Am Yisroel in the eventual future, as it says, And you shall be known as the priests of God, and as it says, For from Zion will the Torah emanate.

!ואידך פירושא, זיל גמור

Brought to my attention by my dear talmid, Reb Ari Brandwein.

RIETS Talk on Issues in Machashavah part 2