Pensamento Judaico sobre Deuteronômio 2:19

God then made a consolatory gesture to the moon, giving it a measure of sovereignty during the day and at night as recompense for it having made a proper statement. For God’s attributes are such that He does not withhold reward from any created being.²³Cf. Pesachim 118a. For example, Lot’s younger daughter received a reward for naming her son in a manner that reflected modesty, as Rashi states.²⁴See Rashi’s commentary to Bereishis 19:37. The comparison to Lot’s daughter adds a further insight: Her act was far from a modest one. Nevertheless, because Lot’s younger daughter named her son in a modest manner, she was granted a certain measure of reward. Similarly, as a whole, the moon’s conduct reflected jealously. Nevertheless, “since it made a proper statement,” the moon was granted a measure of appeasement. The fact that sovereignty was granted the moon during the day and the night, as the author of the passage in Chulin states, does not require support from additional verses, for it is obvious from the narrative itself. If the intent of the verse “to rule during the day and during the night” was that the sun would rule during the day and the moon would rule during the night, the phrase, “to rule during the day and during the night,” would be superfluous, for the verse already stated that the sun and the moon were created “to separate between the light and the darkness.” Why then is it necessary to further state that the sun and the moon were placed in the heavens “to rule during the day and during the night”? Also, were the passage’s intent that the sovereignty referred to in the verse reflects the same concept as the separation between light and darkness, the verse should have stated that one luminary would rule during the day and one luminary would rule during the night.