Reflecting Brilliance and Truth
Question
The Torah describes G-d’s creation of two great lights: one for the daytime (presumably the sun) and one for the night (presumably the moon). Scientists have studied the sun well and determined that it indeed provides the light we see in the daytime. But humans have been to the moon and have clearly seen that it is not a source of its own light, but a big ball of rock. And it lights up at night only because it is reflecting the light of the sun. How do we reckon with that?
Answers
According to the Rabbis, the moon was never a source of light – the light of the moon was always a reflection of the sun’s light. However, we are taught that when they were created, they were of equal size, and the amount of light that the moon reflected was originally the same as that of the sun.
Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team