Pemikiran Yahudi Habakuk 3:11: Akeidat Yitzchak & Derush Chiddushei HaLevanah

Rava, in Nedarim 39, says that the verse "sun and moon stood still in their habitation," (Chabakuk 3,11) teaches that the sun and moon stood in front of G'd and said: "Lord, if You will judge Moses' case against Korach, we will assume our positions in our regular orbit; if not, we will not perform our tasks." G'd flung arrows at them, saying: "You are concerned about the honour of a mere mortal, yet you have never protested in defence of My honour!" This is why the verse continues "they are proceeding according to the light of Your arrows."

Coming back to the opening statement of our chapter, we now have a better understanding of the argument of the sun and the moon. We do not merely regard this as a parable, but just like our sages, we conceive of the celestial bodies as equipped with intelligence of their own, since they are described as inhabiting the sphere called zevul. They did not tell G'd that they would refuse to function, but that if ben Amram is not vindicated the institution of prophecy would be undermined, i.e. a fundamental pillar of Torah would be missing. If there will be no Torah, the raison d'etre of the entire universe will disappear, the world would revert to tohu, to the anarchy that had preceded the six days of creation. (see details about the Torah/universe relationship in chapter twelve) G'd flinging arrows at the sun and moon, expresses His rejection of their argument that the action of a few fools like Korach and his assembly would be allowed to bring about the undoing of G'ds entire handiwork. Since sun and moon must have been well aware of the fact that the world had not come to an end in spite of millions of people having worshipped them, (instead of G'd) why would they suddenly be concerned about the consequences of the actions of a Korach! It had not seemed to bother them that by having become objects of worship without their withdrawing their services, they themselves had in fact undermined the Honour and Glory of their Master! The reason the universe had been kept going then was for the sake of the true believers. There may have been an additional reason for this dialogue reported by Rava. The sun and moon were indignant about the challenge to the prophecy of Moses and Joshua respectively. The sun, possessing light of its own, was jealous of the honour of Moses, since the latter's kind of prophecy was similarly perceived as an emanation. (His face emitted rays of light) The moon, being merely the source of reflected light, was jealous on behalf of Joshua, who likewise seemed to reflect the inspirations he had received. G'd was angry since He perceived that both sun and moon had failed to understand that in challenging the authority of Moses, Korach had in fact challenged the authority of G'd Himself. Since G'd did comply with the request of the sun and the moon, why was He so angry? The answer may be that G'd did not use celestial bodies to orchestrate the punishment of Korach, but He used the earth. This showed the sun and moon that they had been guilty of a serious error. The insurrection of Korach would normally have elicited visible protests both from below and from above. Due, however, to the attitude displayed by the celestial bodies, the latter were not fit to become the instruments of Korach's punishment, seeing they were not free from guilt themselves. Although we are still plagued with Korach "types," the reason no supernatural events occur to punish those types, is the one quoted by Rava, namely that G'd decreed for the sun and the moon to carry on business as usual. All the foregoing underlines how right our sages were when they taught in Avot 5,2, that G'ds patience is so great, that He waited for ten long generations before bringing on the deluge in retribution for man's corruption.

There is no basis for questioning this interpretation based on the verse cited above,⁴Chabakuk 3:11, which was cited towards the end of the preceding section. “The sun and the moon stood in their domains,” where a masculine form is used for the word “moon.” True, the passage from the Zohar Chadash discussed here uses a feminine form when referring to the moon, but the passage in Chulin also uses a feminine form when referring to the moon. Tosafos explains the apparent difficulty as follows: “The moon said. Although here, our Sages use a feminine form, in Scripture, a masculine term is used for the moon, as it is written וירח עמד, ‘and the moon stood.’”