Q. When teaching children science how should one approach the concept of the earth's orbit? Chazal indicate that the sun rotates the earth; however, the current scientific approach is that the earth rotates the sun
A. It is common, both in scripture and in the Oral Torah to describe the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars in a geocentric setting, as we frequently encounter terminology of sunrise and sunset, Yehoshua (10: 12) ordering "Sun, stand still upon Gibeon, and Moon in the valley of Ayalon" , Koheles (1: 5,6) censuring. "The Sun rises and the Sun sets, and to its place it yearns and rises there - it goes to the south and goes around to the north" or Antoninus questioning Rebbi "Why does the Sun rise from the east and sets on the west?" (Sanhedrin 91b). This however, may or may not be an intended reflection of the true real scenario, but rather of the better elucidation of it. By using the expressions that we can easily understand, and the way common human beings would experience it and describe it, the Torah complies with what our sages often say; "the Torah speaks in the language of men", (Neddarim 3a). The fact is that even in the heliocentric culture of today any well-educated scientist would still use that same vocabulary, since it simply reflects what our eyes see.
The Rambam (Yesodey Hatora 3) describes in detail the geocentric structure. Although in Kidush Hachodesh (17: 24) he writes that the source for many of his calculations and observations in astronomy is based on the prevalent Greek philosophers theories, since the seforim written by the Bnay Issoschor in the days of the prophets were not available to him, the portrait he describes was widely accepted by most Gedolim throughout all generations.
On the well-known 1971 letter from Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, to a member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt"l wrote; "To declare categorically in the name of science, that the earth revolves around the sun, and not vise versa, is, as noted above, turning the scientific clock back to the 19th century and Medieval science. It is also at variance with the theory of relativity, which has likewise been universally accepted. Science now declares—as categorically as it is permissible for contemporary science—that where two bodies in space are in relative motion, it is scientifically impossible to determine which is at rest and which in motion".
This attempt to apply Einstein's theory of relativity to explain this controversy has given rise to hotly debated issues dealing with the better understood and used theory of "special relativity" and the rarely studied or comprehended "general relativity", or whether relativity applies to linear only or orbital motion too and whether it is relevant to objects not only in free fall but affected by other measurable forces such as acceleration and gravity.
Horav Shlomo Miller's Shlit"a opinion is that indeed what orbits around what, depends on the position and the eyes of the beholder. He also added that certainly from the spiritual point of view, the Bais Hamikdosh Shel Maaloh, which hovers in a different dimension over the place of the material Bais Hamikdosh, would be the point of reference as everything else revolves around it.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a
Important Numbers
