How hot is the Sun?

At the core it is 15 million degrees Celsius or 27 million degrees Farenheit. On its surface, it is 5505°Celcius or about 10,000°Fahrenheit.

It has enough energy from nuclear fusion to last at least another 5 Billion years.

The Choshech (Darkness) of Mitzrayim (Egypt), the ninth plague, was a very dense darkness.

V’yamush Choshech – “and the darkness will be tangible.” (Exodus 10:21)

The Torah continues:

Vayeit Moshe is yado ahl hashamayim, vayehi Choshech afeila b’chol eretz Mitzrayim shloshes yomim – “Moses stretched out his hand toward the heavens and there was a thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days.” (10:22)

Rashi comments that the choshech had two parts to it, each one lasting three days. The first three days were a deep darkness where each Egyptian could not see his brother; for the next three days, the darkness became so thick that the Egyptians could not move – “One who was sitting could not stand and one who was standing could not sit”; i.e. they were frozen in place by the denseness of this darkness.

Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Shilt’a, in his Tefillah Shiur, taught about the eighth beracha of Shemoneh Esrei, Refa-euinu Hashem v’neirafei – Heal us Hashem and we shall be healed. Rabbi Weinberg asked, “Isn’t it obvious that if Hashem, the Master Rofei (Healer) heals us, that we will be healed? Why the double language?”

Rabbi Weinberg explained:

In his elucidation on the Siddur, the 18th-century master, Rabbi Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman Kramer, known as the Vilna Gaon, explains that the beracha means that the refuah (cure) is always created before the makkah (illness or pain). "Refa'einu Hashem" means we know that the refuah already exists; "v'neirafei" means we are asking Hashem to allow us to access the refuah for this person.

To ask for a miracle to heal someone, borders on apikorsus (heresy) because if the cure is already in place when the disease rears its ugly head, we don't need a miracle. We need only to be able to access the cure, the refuah. We ask Hashem to help us access the refuah that already exists.

In the Purim story, the refuah-before-the-makkah scenario plays itself out. Esther was already the queen when Haman rose to a position of power. We were saved through the actions taken by Esther because she was already in place when the problem of Haman reared its ugly head.

That being the case, that the refuah (cure) is always created before the makkah, what was the refuah for the makkah of Choshech?

On the first day of creation, God created light:

Vayomer Elo-kim yehi Or, vayehi Or –

“And God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light.’ “(Genesis 1:3)

This light was created by God speaking it into existence.

On the fourth day,

Vaya’as Elo-kim es shnei ha-m’oros hagedolim, es ha-maor hagadol l’memsheles hayom, v’es ha-maor hakaton l’memsheles ha-laylah, v’eis hakochavim –

“And God made the two great luminaries, the big luminary to rule over the day and the small luminary to rule over the night; and the stars.” (Genesis 1:15).

What was the difference between the light of the first day and the Sun of the fourth day?

What was that light that God created on the first day? What was the nature of that light?

And why was it necessary to create the Sun on the fourth day if light was already created?

What do we know about the Sun?

The mass of the Sun is 1.9891 x10³⁰ kg., which is 333,000 times the mass of the Earth. And while the Earth is made up of rock, the Sun is almost entirely hydrogen and helium; the two lightest elements in the Universe.

The Sun’s diameter is 1.4 million kilometers (the circumference is 4.4 million km around), which is 109 times the Earth’s diameter.

The Sun’s total surface area is 6.1 x 10¹⁸ square meters, which is the same as 11,900 Earths.

The total volume of the Sun is 1.4 x 10²⁷ cubic meters, the equivalent of the volume of 1.3 million Earths.

At its core, the Sun is 15 million degrees Celsius or 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

The Sun is the source of most of the energy on Earth--the power source for plants, the cause of flows of atmosphere and of water, the source of the warmth which makes life possible. None would exist without it. Its gravitational pull keeps the Earth and the other planets in orbit.

The first beracha of Keriyas Shema in the mornings is a quote from Isaiah 45:7 – Yotzeir Or u’vorie choshech . . . –

“Who forms light and creates darkness . . .”

Yotzeir, the act of forming means shaping something that already exists. Compare this to the prayer we say in Maariv, the evening service on Yom Kippur, Ki hinei kachomer b’yad HaYotzeir – Like clay in the hand of the potter (the molder or the shaper).

On day one, God created light by speaking it into existence: Vayomer Elo-kim . . . – “And God said . . .”

On day four, God formed the light that already existed: Va-ya’as Elo-kim . . . “And God made . . .”

Rashi (quoting the Talmund Chagiga 12a, and the Midrash Bereishes Rabbi 3:6) says that the light of creation was a special, very powerful light called the Or haGanuz, the Hidden Light. God saw that this light was not good for the wicked to have access to, so He hid it for the use of the righteous in the future.

So on day four, seeing that this powerful light, the Or HaGanuz, could be abused by the wicked,

God formed the light that He had already created on day one – He gathered all this light together and shaped it into a giant ball called the Sun, and He hid it away in a part of the universe that man cannot access, 93,000,000 miles from Earth.

For the first three days, that Or HaGanuz permeated creation and planet Earth. The sun was not formed (Va-ya’as – and He made {shaped or formed}) until the fourth day.

The Choshech of Mitzrayim was a deep darkness for the first three days, and then Hashem invoked a choshech afeila, or a Choshech HaGanuz, if you will, a Hidden Darkness, for the next three days - a dense darkness where the Egyptians could not move. Whatever position they were in when that darkness fell, they were stuck in that position for three days – the Choshech HaGanuz.

Which brings out yet another amazing point:

Let’s go back to the Pasuk about the three days of darkness:

Lo ra-u ish es echov v’lo kahmu ish metachtov shloshes yomim, u-l’chol b’nei yisroel haya Or b’moshvosom –

“No man could see his brother nor could anyone rise from his place for three days; but for all the Children of Israel there was light in their dwellings.” (10:23)

Rashi says that the choshech was brought for two reasons:

First because there were wicked people among the B’nei Yisroel in that generation who did not want to leave Mitzrayim who died during the three days of darkness so that the Egyptians would not see them fall and would not be able to say that the B’nei Yisroel were also punished during that time.

The second reason for the darkness, Rashi continues, was so that the B’nei Yisroel could search out the utensils of the Egyptians. And when they left Mitzrayim and they asked to borrow utensils from the Egyptians, and the Egyptians each said “I don’t have anything to lend you,” the Israelite would say, “Yes you do – I saw such and such in your house in your den closet and in your kitchen cabinet next to the back door.”

The Pasuk says, u-l’chol b’nei yisroel haya Or b’moshvosom –

“No man could see his brother nor could anyone rise from his place for three days; but for all the Children of Israel there was light in their dwellings.” (10:23)

There are interpretations that the B’nei Yisroel went into the homes of the Egyptians and scouted around, looking in all their closets and cabinets, so that when the time came to leave, they could tell the Egyptians that they saw X and Y in this place and in that place in the Egyptians ‘ homes. But the Pasuk clearly states:

“. . . but for all the Children of Israel there was light in their dwellings.” That means if they went outside their dwellings into the homes of the Egyptians, there would be no light for them, only in their own dwellings. So how were they able to see the utensils of the Egyptians?

The answer is that this light that the B’nei Yisroel had in their dwellings must have been the Or HaGanuz, the Hidden light, which enabled them to see into the homes of the Egyptians without leaving their own homes. The B’nei Yisroel were given access to the Or HaGanuz for that three day period.

The refuah for the makkah of Darkness, the deep, dense, palpable darkness of the second three days, the Choshech HaGanuz . . . was the Or HaGanuz – the hidden light that God hid away for the use of the righteous in the future, which He gave the B’nei Yisroel access to, during the Choshech HaGanuz.

The refuah before the makkah. . . as always.

Copyright © By Harvey (Heshie) Klein, MD