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By Yaakov, February 11, 2007 7:08 pm

אז ידבר יהושע ליהוה, ביום תת יהוה את האמרי לפני בני ישראל; ויאמר לעיני ישראל, שמש בגבעון דום, וירח בעמק אילון. וידם השמש וירח עמד, עד יקם גוי איביו – הלא היא כתובה על-ספר הישר; ויעמד השמש בחצי השמים, ולא-אץ לבוא כיום תמים. ולא היה כיום ההוא, לפניו ואחריו, לשמע יהוה, בקול איש: כי יהוה, נלחם לישראל

Then Joshua spoke to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered the Amorites before the children of Israel; and he said before Israel: ‘Sun, stand still upon Giv’on, and Moon – in the valley of Ayalon.’ And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Yashar? And the sun stayed in the midst of heaven, and did not to go down for a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel. (Yehoshua 10:12-14)

According to the simple meaning of these verses, as Bnei Yisrael was chasing after the give Canaanite nations that attacked the Giv’onim, Yehoshua called upon the sun and moon to “wait” and temporarily, time stood still. He did this so that the Jews would be able to complete the battle and completely vanquish their fleeing adversaries, something they might not have been able to do had the sun gone down (Metzudat David). This interpretation of the pesukim is accepted by Rashi, Radak and the Malbim, and is supported by the Gemara in Avodah Zara (25a, also in Pirkei d’Rebbi Eliezer 52) which states that the sun stayed in its place for 26 straight hours.

There is one commentator though who disagrees with the notion that the sun actually stood still. The Ralbag in his commentary on this verse expresses his opinion that this could not possibly have happened as described above. His reasoning is that if the sun were to have ceased in its (perceived) movement, this would have been a miracle of a higher degree than that occurred for Moshe. Moshe’s miracles changed the way that natural processes worked. This miracle completely removed one of the natural processes (the sun) from fulfilling its role (rising, setting, etc). If this were to have happened, it would be a contradiction of the verse that says that “no prophet will arise in Israel like Moshe” (Devarim 34:10-12). (It would also not make sense to say that Moshe had performed miracles of this magnitude and they were just not recorded in the Torah – since the Torah mentions these miracles in order to cause people to believe in and fear God). The Ralbag goes on to give proofs from the language used that the expression “there was no day like that before it or after…” was not referring to changes in nature, but rather referred to the battle itself, and the magnitude of the great victory that Bnei Yisrael experienced.

The position of the Ralbag (whose views on other philosophical matters were also not widely accepted) is not accepted by other commentators. (In fact, other commentators like the Malbim and Radak both take a very opposite approach from the Ralbag, saying that the miracle that happened here was in direct fulfillment of promises of wondrous miracles that were made to Moshe in Shemot 34:10: “Behold, I will make a brit, before all of your nation I will perform marvels…”). However, the main theme of his commentary here – that a miracle stated in the text may not have happened exactly as stated – is worth noting (see the commentary of Radak on Yehoshua 4:11 for an example of a different commentator disagreeing with the views of others who believed that certain miracles happened in specific ways).