Friday’s daf is dedicated to my brother-in-law Barry’s special birthday.
Today knowing when to light Shabbat candles is easy. I just check an app on my smart phone and it tells me the correct time no matter where I am in the world. Back in Talmudic times when twilight begins was not so clear. More than one opinion is offered on Friday’s daf Shabbat 35.
“ And what is twilight? From when the sun sets, as long as the eastern face of the sky is reddened by the light of the sun. If the lower segment of the sky has lost its color, and the upper segment has not yet lost its color, that is the twilight period. If the upper segment has lost its color, and its color equals that of the lower one, it is night; this is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. Rabbi Nehemya says: The duration of the twilight period is the time it takes for a person to walk half a mil after the sun sets. Rabbi Yosei says: Twilight does not last for a quantifiable period of time; rather, it is like the blink of an eye: This, night, enters and that, day, leaves, and it is impossible to calculate it due to its brevity. (TB Shabbat 34)
“Rabbi Nehemya says: The duration of twilight is the time it takes for a person to walk half a mil after the sun sets. Rabbi Hanina said: One who wants to know the precise measure of Rabbi Nehemya’s twilight should do the following: Leave the sun at the top of Mount Carmel, as when one is standing on the seashore he can still see the top of Mount Carmel in sunlight, and descend and immerse himself in the sea, and emerge, and that is Rabbi Nehemya’s measure of the duration of twilight.
“With regard to the period of twilight, Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: When one can see one star in the evening sky, it is still day; two stars, twilight; three stars, night. That was also taught in a baraita: When one can see one star in the evening sky, it is still day; two stars, twilight; three stars, night. Rabbi Yosei said: This is neither referring to large stars that are visible even during the day, nor to small stars that are visible only late at night. Rather, it is referring to medium-sized stars.” (Sefaria.org translation)
What was a Jew to do? The rabbis gave the populous ample warning when Shabbat would enter by blowing the shofar.
“The Sages taught in a baraita: They sound six blasts on Shabbat eve to announce that Shabbat is approaching. The Gemara details what each blast signifies. The first blast is in order to stop the people from work in the fields. The second blast is to stop those who are working in the city, and to inform the proprietors to close the stores. The third is to inform them to light the Shabbat light; that is the statement of Rabbi Natan. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: The third blast is to inform those who don phylacteries throughout the day to remove their phylacteries, as one does not don phylacteries on Shabbat. And he pauses after the third blast for the length of time it takes to fry a small fish or to stick bread to the sides of the oven. One who forgot to do so and needs those foods for Shabbat may do so then. And he sounds a tekia, and sounds a terua, and sounds a tekia, and he accepts Shabbat. It is then that Shabbat begins in every sense.” (Sefaria.org translation)
“One of the more fascinating finds originating on the Temple Mount is a stone from the southwest corner of the Temple platform (then one of the highest points in Jerusalem), engraved: “for the place of trumpeting.” Close to both the Upper City (today’s Jewish Quarter) and the Lower, this spot would have been an ideal place to proclaim the start of the Sabbath – and the daily Temple service.
“The Shulhan Arukh (Orah Haim 256), the 16th-century codex compiled in Safed by Rabbi Joseph Karo, reports that this pre-Sabbath tradition no longer existed in its author’s day, although he had heard of it. In Kraków, Karo’s colleague Rabbi Moses Isserles recommended the practice accepted in his community, which had replaced the pre-Sabbath shofar blasts with a town crier. One of the few vestiges of this custom is the sounding of the air-raid siren in Jerusalem and other Israeli cities a few minutes before candle lighting.” (https://segulamag.com/en/articles/shofar-blasting-away/)
When I was a student at Hebrew University, I remember hearing thsat siren and in some neighborhoods the sounds of the shofar erev Shabbat.
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