Halakhah sobre Génesis 1:13

Perhaps the most widely cited source with regard to Sabbath observance at the North Pole is a note authored by the nineteenth-century authority R. Israel Lipschutz and published in his classic commentary on the Mishnah, Tiferet Yisra'el, as an addendum to his commentary on the first chapter of Berakhot. Tiferet Yisra'el carefully distinguishes between places such as his own city of Danzig, as well as Copenhagen and Stockholm, in which there is always at least a brief period of dusk, and places further north in which "there is no night at all but only daylight during the months of June and July." He also expresses concern with regard to people who sail close to the North Pole in order to catch "whalefish" because in that locale there are a number of months during the summer in which there is only daylight. Tiferet Yisra'el does not cite Mor u-Kezi'ah but adopts a position that is remarkably similar to that of R. Jacob Emden in one salient aspect. As did his predecessor, Tiferet Yisra'el rules that each twenty-four hour period constitutes a day. In support of that conclusion he draws upon the fact that the sun can be observed as completing a full circle above the horizon each twenty-four hour period. However, his position is fundamentally different from that of Mor u-Kezi'ah in that Tiferet Yisra'el maintains that the day is determined objectively rather than individually by each traveler. Thus throughout the year Shabbat occurs at the North Pole the same day as it does on the rest of the globe and is objectively determined by the "revolutions" of the sun in the sky. In the polar regions the sun is observed as moving in a circular pattern and completes a full circuit in the overhead sky every twenty-four hours. Each of those twenty-four hour circuits, maintains Tiferet Yisra'el, represents a single day.¹²R. Kalman Kahana, Ha-Ish ve-Ḥazono (Tel Aviv, 5724), p. 100, quotes an unpublished section of the manuscript of Ḥazon Ish’s “Kuntres Yod-Ḥet Sha’ot” in which Ḥazon Ish similarly declares that, in the polar regions, the sun’s completion of a twenty-four hour circuit represents a full day and the seventh circuit is the Sabbath day. A similar opinion is also espoused by R. Yechiel Michal Tucatzinsky, Bein ha-Shemashot, p. 55, who cites that view as earlier expressed by R. Jehoseph Schwartz, Teshuvot Divrei Yosef (Jerusalem, 5621), no. 8. [See also Teshuvot Even Yekarah, no. 11, who also addresses the problem of the biblical reference to “days” prior to the creation of the sun and comments that the biblical “day” is to be defined as the length of time required for the earth to make a complete revolution on the axis, i.e., twenty-four hours.] However, neither Rabbi Tucatzinsky nor Ḥazon Ish offer a clue with regard to the point in the sky which, when traversed by the sun, marks the beginning and the end of Shabbat. See infra, note 13. R. David Spira, Teshuvot Bnei Ẓion, III, Kuntres Midat ha-Yom, sec. 21, states that, during the polar winter, days are demarcated by the circuit of the stars in the overhead sky. Teshuvot Divrei Yaẓiv, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, no. 108, sec. 11, suggests that the day’s beginning and end should be regarded as congruent with the beginning and end of the day in the Land of Israel. Cf., infra, note 15.
R. Yechiel Michal Gold, Me’asef le-Khol ha-Maḥanot, Oraḥ Ḥayyim 18:25, finds what he terms “clear evidence” for the underlying assumption that the “day” may be defined in terms of the revolution of celestial bodies rather than by the appearance of the sun in the comments of Rabbenu Baḥya, Genesis 1:13. Rabbenu Baḥya questions the cogency of the verse that declares “and it was evening, and it was morning” with reference to the first three days of creation, i.e., before the creation of the sun. Rabbenu Baḥya explains that the reference is not to “the light” but to “the sphere in which it revolves for, with regard to every portion of the sky, when it ascends that is its morning and when it sinks [below the horizon] that is its evening.” See also Ramban, Commentary on the Bible, Genesis 1:5. However, although Rabbenu Baḥya’s comments may provide support for the notion that demarcation of successive days may be determined on the basis of the rising and setting of celestial bodies other than the sun, those comments have no bearing upon the question of whether completion of a 360 degree rotation in the overhead sky has a similar import. See, however, R. Eliezer Ashkenazi, Ma‘asei ha-Shem (Venice, 5343), Genesis 1:5, who asserts that the first day of creation was determined by circuitous movement of the heavens whose return to the point of creation marked the completion of a day. Ma‘asei ha-Shem expressly applies that concept to the polar area in declaring, “There is no doubt that even one [for whom] the pole is above his head is obligated to observe Shabbat on the seventh circuit even though there was no darkness there at all.” However, Tiferet Yisra'el fails to identify a phenomenon that might serve to demarcate successive days during the polar night when the sun is entirely concealed.¹³In a note appended to Mo‘adim u-Zemanim, II, no. 155, R. Moshe Sternbuch opines that “the day changes at precisely the moment that the sun reaches its most distant point and begins to draw closer.” The “most distant point” to which Mo‘adim u-Zemanim refers is presumably the point most distant in the sky from the point at which the sun makes its first appearance at the beginning of the polar spring. Mo‘adim u-Zemanim declares that “night” in such areas is no more than a split second in duration. See also Teshuvot ve-Hanhagot, I, no. 315. See as well Me’assef le-Khol ha-Mahanot, Oraḥ Ḥayyim 18:25, s.v. ve-hineh mah she-katav mori, who also states that the Sabbath must be observed only for the amount of time that it takes the sun to complete a single circuit.
It may be noted that at the North Pole the sun neither rises nor declines in the course of its daily circuit. Rather, the sun is observed as circling the horizon once each day in a constant orbit that is a bit higher over the horizon each day until it reaches a height of approximately 23.5° at the time of the summer solstice. However, as one proceeds some distance south of the Pole, the sun, although it does not descend below the horizon during that period, may nevertheless be observed during the course of its daily circuitous movement above the horizon. In those areas—and only in those areas—it might be contended that day and night begin and end when the sun is at its lowest point above the horizon. See R. Eliyahu Baruch Kepetsch, Koveẓ Bet Aharon ve-Yisra’el, Tishri-Ḥeshvan, 5757, p. 150 and cf., R. David Heber, “When Does One Pray When There Is No Day?” Kashrus Kurrents, Autumn, 2002, pp. 17f.
Adopting a somewhat different position, R. Jehoseph Schwartz, Teshuvot Divrei Yosef (Jerusalem, 5622), no. 8 and idem, Divrei Yosef, Tevu’ot Shemesh (Jerusalem, 5603), Derekh Mevo ha-Shemesh, p. 61b, states that the point in the sky occupied by the sun at its first appearance in the polar region in the spring represents the beginning of each “day” and the point at which the sun is last seen before it sets in the fall represents the beginning of each “night.” Accordingly, “day” and “night” commence when the sun reaches those points in the sky during the course of each twenty-four hour circuit. Divrei Yosef, p. 62a, asserts that during the winter months a similar determination is made on the basis of the position of the “two stars of the Little Bear, [which are in the] vicinity of the star of the Pole (the North Star),” i.e., the position of their first sighting in the fall marks the beginning of the “night,” and “day” begins when those stars have moved 180 degrees across the sky.
Divrei Yosef’s description of the astronomical phenomena during the polar winter is both imprecise and inadequate as a basis for resolution of the problem. Pherkad, a third magnitude star, and Kochab, a second magnitude star, are known as the “Guardians of the Pole” because they circle Polaris (the North Star). All three stars are part of Ursa Minor (the Little Bear). The first two stars of Ursa Minor to become visible are Kochab and Polaris (the North Star). Both are second magnitude stars. However, the first celestial bodies to become visible are the planets Venus and Jupiter. Those planets do not become clearly visible until close to the end of civil twilight, i.e., when the sun drops six degrees below the horizon. At the North Pole civil twilight does not end until October 8. The first star to become visible north of the celestial equator is the zero magnitude star Arcturus in the constellation Bootes and is followed closely by the slightly smaller star Vega in Lyra and then by Capella in Auriga. However, even the largest star is not visible to the naked eye until the sun has declined approximately nine degrees below the horizon. At the North Pole, the sun disappears a little after the time of the autumn equinox but does not reach a declension of nine degrees until October 16, a little more than three weeks later. During that intervening period neither the sun nor any star is visible. The same is true during the period immediately prior to the spring equinox when the sun is not visible but is less than nine degrees below the horizon. Thus, for more than six weeks each year neither the sun nor any star is visible. During those periods, days cannot be demarcated by means of the circular rotation of stars in the overhead sky. Even if Venus and Jupiter are used for this purpose, there are four weeks in the year during the polar twilight in which those planets are not visible. I am indebted to Mr. Joe Rao of the Hayden Planetarium for making this information available to me.

Tiferet Yisra'el cites no evidence in support of his view. The phenomenon of the sun's circular movement over the horizon each day is certainly not a demonstration that each twenty-four hour period in which such a revolution takes place constitutes a halakhic day. Quite to the contrary, Scripture records "and it was evening, and it was morning, one day" (Genesis 1:5). Read literally, the day is defined in terms of alternating periods of light and darkness, not in terms of a revolution of the earth upon its axis or of the circuitous movement of the overhead sun. How this might have occurred prior to the creation of the sun on the third day is a matter that has engaged the attention of numerous biblical commentators, most particularly, Rambam and Seforno, Genesis 1:5; Rabbenu Baḥya, Genesis 1:13; Rashbam, Genesis 1:4 and 1:14; R. Isaac Arama, Akeidat Yizḥak, sha'ar shlishi; and Malbim, Genesis 1:5.