Berakhot 59a — the Talmud in English

And it appears

Kima

like a torn vessel

like a vessel that has been diminished and whose hole was sealed with its own body, by striking it with hammer blows until its cavity was filled,

and this one that goes “

Ash

after it

after “Kima,” is because

it says to it, “Give me my sons”

the stars that were taken from me and given to you.

For when the Holy One, blessed is He, wished to bring a flood upon the world, He took two stars from “Kima,”

and through this He opened the windows of heaven

and brought a flood upon the world. And when He wished to close it

to stop the flood,

He took two stars from “Ash”

and closed it,

and with them He sealed the deficiency of “Kima.” It follows that “Ash” is the tail of Aries, for it follows “Kima,” which is in the constellation of Aries.

The Gemara raises an objection:

And let Him return them to it

to “Kima,” those two stars that He took from it; and why was it necessary to take them from “Ash”?

The Gemara answers:

A pit is not filled from its own excavated earth.

One who digs a pit in the ground cannot fill it with the earth removed from the place of the pit, because some of it will always still be lacking and will be lost. Therefore, He had to bring stars from another constellation in order to fill the deficiency of “Kima.”

Alternatively, a prosecutor does not become a defender.

Since those two stars that were taken from “Kima” brought the flood, He therefore did not use them to stop it.

The Gemara again raises an objection:

And let Him create for it

for “Kima”

two other stars,

from nothing, in order to fill its deficiency.

The Gemara answers: There is no innovation in creation after the six days of creation, as it is written [Ecclesiastes 1:9]:

“There is nothing new under the sun.”

Rav Nahman said: In the future, the Holy One, blessed is He, will return them to it

to “Ash,” its two stars.

As it is stated: “And Ash over her children will comfort itself.”

And they expounded the expression “will comfort itself” also in the sense of “consolation.”

We learned in the Mishna:

And over the earthquakes

and so on, he says: “Blessed is He whose strength and might fill the world.”

The Gemara discusses:

What are “earthquakes”?

Rav Ketina said: Guha.

And this is an earthquake.

Rav Ketina was traveling on the road. When he reached the entrance of the house of a necromancer,

a baal ov who performs sorcery with the bones of the dead,

a guha groaned

the earth trembled.

Rav Ketina said: Does the necromancer know what this guha is,

and what its cause is?

He raised his voice to him,

the necromancer

a sound

he raised his voice to him, and said:

“Ketina, Ketina, why would I not know?”

I certainly know why it comes, because

when the Holy One, blessed is He, remembers His children,

who are

distressed among the nations of the world,

He

lowers two tears into the Great Sea, and His voice is heard from one end of the world to the other. And this is the guha.

For through this the earth trembles.

Rav Ketina said: The necromancer

the baal ov

is a liar

a false one,

and his words are lies

and his words are false. It is not for this reason that the earth trembles, because

if so,

according to his words, why did only one “guha” come? For

a guha, a guha, should have been required

the earth should have trembled twice, corresponding to the two tears.

The Gemara rejects this:

No,

a proof

it

is not, for in truth

it makes “a guha, a guha,”

and the earth trembles twice, as the necromancer said.

And the reason that he did not acknowledge it to him,

Rav Ketina to the necromancer, was

so that everyone would not go astray after him,

and believe in his sorceries.

And Rav Ketina

of

his own

said: The earthquake comes because the Holy One, blessed is He,

strikes

His

palms

against one another, and from this sound the earth trembles. And we find that He strikes His palms

as it is stated

[Ezekiel 21:22]:

“I also will strike My palms against My palms, and I will cause My wrath to rest,

I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Rabbi Natan says

: The earthquake comes because of an

sigh

that the

Holy One, blessed is He, sighs

the Holy One, blessed is He.

As it is stated

there [Ezekiel 5:13]: “And I will complete My anger,

and I will cause My wrath to rest upon them and I will be comforted.”

As though, so to speak, He were a person filled with wrath, and through sighing He is comforted.

And the Sages say:

The earthquake comes because the Holy One, blessed is He,

kicks the firmament, as it is stated

[Jeremiah 25:30]:

“He will roar mightily like those who tread grapes; against all the inhabitants of the earth.”

For He treads upon and kicks the firmament.

Rav Aha bar Yaakov said:

The earthquake comes because the Holy One, blessed is He,

presses His feet beneath the Throne of Glory,

and the earth trembles. For it is His footstool.

As it is stated

[Isaiah 66:1]:

“So said the Lord: The heavens are My throne, and the earth is the footstool for My feet.”

We learned in the Mishna:

And over thunder.

The Gemara discusses:

What is “thunder”?

Shmuel said: Clouds on the wheel.

The clouds roll and rub against one another, and through this a noise is heard,

as it is stated

[Psalms 77:19]:

“The sound of Your thunder is in the wheel; flashes of lightning illumined the world, it trembled

and the earth quaked.”

And the Sages say:

What is thunder?

Clouds that pour water into one another,

from one cloud to the other,

as it is stated

[Jeremiah 10:13]:

“At the sound of His giving a multitude of water in the heavens.”

Thus the pouring and giving of the water in the heavens produces the sound of thunder.

Rav Aha bar Yaakov said:

What is thunder? Through

a powerful flash

flashes of fire,

which flashes in the cloud and breaks the pieces of hail

that are in the clouds, the sound of thunder is heard.

Rav Ashi said:

What is thunder?

Clouds with perforations perforated

slightly hollow,

and the wind comes and blows through their mouths, and the sound of the wind resembles

the sound of the wind

a flask

that blows

through the mouth of a barrel

the mouth of a barrel. And this is the sound of thunder.

The Gemara’s conclusion:

And it is reasonable according to Rav Aha bar Yaakov,

who said that thunder comes through the flashes that break the hail in the clouds, for we see

that

first

a flash flashes,

and immediately afterward

they thunder

the clouds,

and rain comes

because of the breaking of the clouds.

We learned in the Mishna:

And over winds.

The Gemara discusses:

What are “winds”

over which one blesses, “whose strength and might fill the world”?

Abaye said: A tempest

a storm wind.

And Abaye said: It has been taught, that a tempest does not occur at night,

but only by day.

The Gemara is astonished:

But we see that

even at night

there is a tempest.

The Gemara explains:

That

tempest that appears at night is considered a daytime tempest, since

it began during the day.

And Abaye said: It has been taught, that a tempest does not last two hours.

And they continue only less than two hours,

to fulfill what is stated

[Nahum 1:9]:

“Distress shall not rise up twice.”

And an hour is called “a time,” and it follows that the meaning of the verse is: the tempest will not rise for two hours.

The Gemara is astonished:

But we see that it lasts,

for the tempest sometimes continues for more than two hours.

The Gemara explains: A tempest does not continue for two consecutive hours, but

it is interrupted between

between

one and another.

We learned in the Mishna:

And over lightning he says: “Blessed is He whose strength and might fill the world.”

The Gemara discusses:

What is lightning?

Rava said: A flash.

Flashes of fire, and the expression derives from “flashing.”

And Rava said: “A solitary flash

that flashed only once,

and ‘a white flash’

whose color is white,

and ‘a green flash,’ and clouds that rise

that ascend

in the western corner

of the firmament

and come from the southern corner, and two clouds that rise, one facing the other

and strike one another,

all of them are difficult,

and are not a sign for blessing.

The Gemara explains:

What practical difference is there?

To request mercy,

so that no harm should come from any of these.

And these words

that they are difficult apply specifically when they come in this manner

at night. But

if they come

in the morning, there is no substance in them.

And they cause no harm.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Yitzhak said: These morning clouds have no substance,

and there is no blessing in them.

For it is written

[Hosea 6:4]: “

What shall I do with you, Ephraim? What shall I do with you, Judah?

Your kindness is like a morning cloud,

and like the dew that rises early and goes away.” For all your kindness and righteousness are nothing. And since He compared them to a morning cloud, it follows that it too is nothing.

Rav Pappa said to Abaye: People say

if it happens that

when you open your door

when you open your door in the morning, rain will fall,

rain,

if you are

a donkey driver,

one who leads donkeys,

fold

fold up

your sacks

beneath you,

and sleep

lie down to sleep, and do not ride your donkey to go and bring grain, for rain that falls in the morning is good for grain, and since grain will become plentiful, wheat will become cheap, and you will profit only a little from it.

It follows that morning rains are a blessing, which presents a difficulty for Rabbi Shmuel bar Yitzhak, who said, “There is no substance in them.”

The Gemara answers:

It is not difficult.

For

this

which is a sign of blessing is in a situation

that the sky became overcast

the heavens became covered

with a cloud

with thick clouds, whereas

this

that “has no substance” is in a situation

that the sky became overcast

the heavens became covered

with clouds

that are thin.

Rav Alexandri said in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: Thunder was created

only in order to straighten

the

crookedness in the heart.

For no benefit is known to exist in it, apart from the fact that it terrifies hearts into returning in repentance.

And Rav Alexandri said in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: One who sees the rainbow in the cloud must fall upon his face.

For it displays the honor of the Lord.

As it is stated

in the account of the Chariot [Ezekiel 1:28]:

“Like the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud

on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness around; it was the appearance of the likeness of the honor of the Lord,

and I saw and fell upon my face,

and I heard the voice of one speaking.”

They cursed [one who does so] in the West,

cursed whoever does so.

Because it appears as though he is bowing down to the rainbow.

But he certainly recites a blessing

upon seeing the rainbow.

And what blessing does he recite? —

“Blessed is He who remembers the covenant.”

For the rainbow is a sign of the covenant that God made with Noah, that He would not again bring a flood upon the world.

In a baraita it was taught: Rabbi Ishmael, the son of Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Beroka, says:

“Blessed

is He who is faithful to His covenant and fulfills His word.”

Rav Pappa said: Therefore, let us say both of them.

And he should say as follows:

“Blessed is He who remembers the covenant and is faithful

to His covenant and fulfills His word.”

In this formulation he includes both of the stated opinions concerning this blessing.

We learned in the Mishna:

“Over mountains and over hills,

and over seas, and over rivers, and over deserts, he says: ‘Blessed is He who performs the work of creation.’”

The Gemara raises an objection:

“Is it so that all these that we have said until now

in the Mishna, such as lightning and the like, whose blessing is ‘Whose power and might fill the world,’

are they not acts of creation? And it is written [

Psalms 135:7]:

‘He makes lightning for the rain,’

so why was their blessing changed from that of mountains and hills?”

Abaye said: Join together

all these mentioned in the Mishna,

and teach

them in one clause, because in all of them he recites these two blessings together.

Rava said: There,

with regard to lightning and the like,

he recites

one of

two,

and he may recite either

“Blessed is He whose power fills the world,”

because they are heard and seen from afar,

or

either

“Who performs the work of creation” .

But

here,

with regard to mountains and hills, he recites only

“Who performs the work of creation,”

because

“Who performs the work of creation” applies

to them, but

“Whose power fills the world” does not apply

to them, for they are seen only in their place, and not throughout the entire world.

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said: One who sees the firmament in its purity

when it is clear of clouds

says: “Blessed is He who performs the work of creation.”

For this is how the firmament appeared at the time of its creation, and only afterward was it covered by clouds.

And

when

is the firmament found in its purity?

Abaye said: When rain comes all night,

and in the morning the north wind comes [

the northern wind] and disperses the clouds,

and reveals the heavens to them.

And

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi and Abaye disagree with the statement

of Rafram bar Pappa who said in the name of Rav Ḥisda, for Rafram bar Pappa said in the name of Rav Ḥisda: From the day the Temple was destroyed, the firmament has not been seen in its purity, as it is stated [

Isaiah 50:3]:

“I clothe the heavens with blackness, and sack

I make their covering.”