Berakhot 58
“The aura of the comet passes Orion and it appears as though the comet itself passes.”
Ulla appears in a passage that offers insight into grief. The Koren Talmud provides background on Ulla who traveled back and forth from Babylon to Israel (as we are reminded from the earlier comment by Yalta who suggested he carried lice along with him.) He offers advice to Rav Hisda who is devastated by the sight of a ruined home which at one time employed sixty cooks during the day and sixty cooks at night; the home opened its doors in all directions in order to feed the hungry and offer support to those in need. Rav Hisda is inconsolable even after being assured by Ulla that the house will be restored. Ulla further elucidates that God suffers along with us, with these words: “It is enough for a servant to be like his master. Since God leaves His home, the Holy Temple, in ruins, one should not be distraught over the destruction of the houses of the righteous.” God has seen his own home destroyed and grieves along with us in the destruction of our spiritual home. As a result, even when our homes are intact, it is difficult to find comfort when the home of the Jewish people has been destroyed. We are reminded over again in the Talmud of this loss, which is embedded in who we are as a people.
It is conveyed that we should not judge those who are different from us, although there is some parsing on whether they are born with their differences or acquire them later in life. Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” song comes to mind. (I'm beautiful in my way 'cause God makes no mistakes.”)
We are reminded of our relative comforts in life, because Adam had to exert great effort to feed and clothe himself, and we need to appreciate the role those play who do these things for us today. We each have our place in the world. The Talmud tells us that “Human society employs a division of labor, and each individual benefits from the service of the entire world.” This is the natural order of the world that allows our society to operate, just like there is a natural order in nature. We all have our place in operating the large machinery of our civilization.
We are provided with a lesson in Talmudic astronomy. Pleiades is described as “approximately a hundred stars.” The Rabbis were tasked with telling time before there were clocks (as we learned at the beginning of this Daf Cycle), marking holy days on their calendars through lunar cycles, treating diseases and understanding the human body, without knowledge of modern science. They did not have telescopes to see what was in the sky above them and could only discern stars, planets, and comets with their own eyes. The Koren Talmud tells us that it is a mystery how Shmuel would know that Pleiades was comprised of a hundred stars when only a half-dozen would be visible with the naked eye. The telescope was not invented by Galileo until the early 17th Century.
I live in New York City where I can rarely see anything in the sky except the occasional plane heading for LaGuardia or JFK airport. They are gorgeous in their own way in their sleekness and how they streak so quietly through the city sky like a supersonic comet. But it is a strange life living so disconnected from the natural world that is explained in the Talmud. The Rabbis could look to the sky for affirmation of everything they believed in.
I was an English Literature major in college and my science education has been somewhat neglected. I have had to do some research on Pleiades, which the NASA website describes as “Like fireworks illuminating dark clouds at night.” To view such fireworks in the sky must have seemed like a miracle 2,000 years ago.
Can anyone on this website see Pleiades from their vantage point with their naked eye like the Rabbis would have experienced during their time? Here is some help on how to find it:
https://earthsky.org/favorite-star-patterns/pleiades-star-cluster-enjoys-worldwide-renown