Page "Hebrew astronomy" Paragraph 36

The sun has 365 windows through which it emerges ; 182 in the east, 182 in the west, and 1 in the middle, the place of its first entrance.

The course described by it in a year is traversed by the moon in 30 days.

The solar year is longer by 11 days than the lunar year ( Yer.

R. H. ii.

58a ).

The sun completes its course in 12 months ; Jupiter, in 12 years ; Saturn, in 30 years ; Venus and Mars, in 480 years ( Gen. R. x.

4 ); however, an objection is raised here ( in a gloss ) against the last-mentioned number.

King Antoninus asked the patriarch why the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

At the time of the Deluge it traveled in the opposite direction ( Sanh.

91b, 108b ).

Every 28 years it returns to its original point of departure, and on Tuesday evening of the spring solstice it is in opposition with Saturn, although Plato maintained that the sun and planets never return to the place whence they started.

This is the cycle of 28 years ( Ber.

59b ); the moon-cycle of 19 years may have been meant in the Targ.

Yer.

Gen. i. 14.