On Monday, a total eclipse of the sun will pass over Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. Mira Fox delves into the ways Jewish texts have understood this celestial phenomenon, suggesting that biblical passages such as Amos 8:9, “I will make the sun set at noon, I will darken the earth on a sunny day,” refer to eclipses. She then turns to later sources, which tend to see an eclipse as a bad omen, but not always:
In the talmudic tractate Sukkah, for example, the rabbis say that an eclipse where the sun appears red means war is coming, while a black shadow predicts famine. Thankfully, not all of the meanings are quite so threatening. Later in the same tractate, the sages say that solar eclipses are sometimes the Heavens’ eulogy for someone who was not mourned properly. . . . Other times, they’re a punishment for people chopping down fruit-bearing trees, or forging false documents, or not coming to the aid of a woman being raped.
Regardless, though, solar eclipses seem to always be some sort of marker of bad behavior. The Maharal [Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, ca. 1512–1609], a renowned talmudic scholar from Prague, wrote that if humanity did not sin, we would live in eternal light. That’s why, while most natural phenomena have blessings in Judaism—there are a specific brakhot for rainbows, as well as thunder, lightning, and earthquakes—eclipses don’t merit a prayer.
Read more on Forward: https://forward.com/culture/563106/the-coming-solar-eclipse-may-look-cool-but-the-bible-says-it-portends-doom/