Halakhah for Daniel 2:22

Strange as that thesis may appear, it serves, in this writer's opinion, to explain two difficult aggadic statements³²Another source, Midrash Tanḥuma, Parashat Ki Tissa, sec. 36, cites Daniel 2:22 and Psalms 139:12 as establishing that there is no darkness in heaven and proceeds to discuss how Moses, during the forty days in which God transmitted the Torah to him, could tell when it was day and when it was night. Teshuvot Rav Pe‘alim, II, Sod Yesharim, no. 4, cites that discussion in support of his position that the day is determined on the basis of twenty-four hour periods. See, however, the sources cited supra, note 16, who maintain that the references of such nature are to Jerusalem time. Moreover, that discussion may be understood metaphorically whereas the two aggadic statements discussed herein have halakhic ramifications. that have long been a source of puzzlement. Scripture records that in the war against Gibeon undertaken by Joshua the sun stood still in the sky in order to enable the conquest to become complete: "And the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the nation avenged itself of the enemies … and the sun stayed in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down for a whole day" (Joshua 10:13). Based upon differing interpretations of that verse, the Gemara, Avodah Zarah 25a, records a dispute with regard to whether that "day," i.e., the hours of daylight, was twenty-four, thirty-six or forty-eight hours in duration. In Avodah Zarah 25a there is no hint that the entire time period described together with the normal period of darkness counted for other than a single calendar day. However, Pirkei de-Rabbi Eli'ezer, chapter 52, adopts the view that the sun shone for thirty-six hours and reports that the battle occurred on Friday "and Joshua saw the anguish of Israel lest they desecrate the Sabbath … and each [of the luminaries] remained stationary for thirty-six hours until the conclusion of the Sabbath."