Minha Gedola Part 5 - Hatam Sofer's Question on the Ramban
Part 1
Part 2 (which alludes to this Hatam Sofer)
Part 3
Part 4
Spreadsheet
The famous Ramban on Bereishit 2:3 posits that Mashiah should come by the year 5118 (1358). Besides making a calculation of 1290 years after the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, he also explains that it should happen about 1/10th of the way into the millennium since sunrise is 1/10th of the way into the day, and it says:
referring to the throne of Mashiah.וְכִסְאוֹ כַשֶּׁמֶשׁ נֶגְדִּיand his throne as the sun before Me
The Hatam Sofer asks on the Ramban, saying that a day should really be 24 hours since day follows night. Therefore, the first 500 years of the millennium are the years of "nighttime". Furthermore, he says, that "כשמש נגדי" (like the sun opposite Me) is not referring to Haneitz HaHama, but sometime afterwards.
The Hatam Sofer wrote his holy words in the year 5563, which is 13 years after 1/10th of the daylight hours. He had his own calculation (of אחרי נמכר גאולה תהיה לו, mentioned here, but detailed elsewhere) which didn't pan out. However, perhaps, one (=yaak) could say that once it's pushed off from sunrise, it's pushed off much later to a known halachic time. One can very well say that "opposite Me" means when it starts heading toward the West (opposite Hashem) enough to see the shadows. This time begins at Minha Gedola.
posted by yaak @ 10/12/2010 01:53:00 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I have a few questions, but the first one is:
(quoting from the Book of Daniel) - the 1290 days link):
"there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Happy is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days."
What will occur during these extra 45 days (years) that will make us happy? And anyway, why does it say "days" when it really means "years". ?
Much is talked about what happens within those 45 days/years. There are Midrashim and other explanations. Those 45 days/years are actually not supposed to be so happy. When one waits until the end of the 45 days/years - that's when one is fortunate/happy.
The Hebrew word "ימים" often denotes "a year" in the Torah. Also, the word ימים in both verses seems out of place. If it meant straight days, it should have put ימים at the end of both verses. That's not to say it definitely doesn't mean "days". As verses 9 and 10 indicate, it's very confusing and meant to be so.
And what if the amount of time between th end of 1290 days and the end of 1335 days is... 1335 days?
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