Rotation of the Sun and Earth

Question

Someone told me that the Torah claims, I don’t know if explicity or implicitly, that the sun travels around the earth. I would appreciate if you can elaborate on what he meant and if there is real substance or reason behind his contention.

Answer

I wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. Certainly the Bible describes things from the earth-bound point of view, where we see the sun rise in the east, set in the west, etc. It’s not describing “orbits” or trying to help us do astronomy.

Since you’ve mentioned it, though, I’ll point out that the modern theory of gravitation, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, accepts any free-fall frame of reference as being as good as any other. Since the earth is in free-fall orbit (as is the sun), it is perfectly in order to look at the earth as being fixed and the sun orbiting it. The laws of physics work fine either way, and neither is any “truer”. As I said, I don’t think this has anything to do with the Torah’s presentation, which is just describing things as we see them.

Best wishes,
Michoel Reach

Follow-up question

Question

I would be interested to know how the sun could revolve around the earth.

Answer

Hi! I’ll try to explain, but it’s been a while since I took gravitational physics (1980). Still, this theory came from Einstein in the early 1900’s, so I guess it will be around for a while yet. You may want to consult a real expert.Here’s how I understood it: In Newtonian physics (that is, pre-Einstein), the point of view was that there was an objective “unmoving” frame of reference, and everything was compared to it. That no longer makes a lot of sense, in a universe with stars and galaxies all moving around with respect to each other. There is no unique way to identify something that is “stationary”. Anyhow, for other reasons, Einstein’s theory uses as its basic frame of reference anything in free fall, not subject to forces other than gravity. That would include more or less any planet, star, or moon, among other things. Any such frame of reference can be used as well as any other; the laws of physics can be worked out within it, and there is no way to pick one as better than another. The Sun is certainly no better than the Earth; they both move under gravitational forces from innumerable sources. Even as seen within our solar system it is not completely stationary; it moves (slightly) under the gravity of the various planets.

I should add that while the earth in its orbit is thus just as good a frame of reference as the sun, the actual people standing on the surface of the earth are not themselves a frame of reference; they are not in free fall, but are held in their places by the pressure of the ground holding up their weight and its friction keeping them in a 24-hour rotation.

As I said before, I think this has nothing much to do with the understanding of the Torah, which is simply “written in the language of Man”. The Torah is focused on mankind. Its first chapter talks about the creation of the universe, but the whole rest is about people. We live in a very big universe, but sheer size is irrelevant to the G-d who made it all in a word. Humanity is more important than all the universe put together; we alone make the moral choices that give purpose to the world.

Best wishes, Michoel Reach