Lightning or Thunder First? A Talmudic Insight That Anticipates Modern Science

Which comes first- lightning or thunder? And how does this align with the statement of Rabbi Acha in the Talmud?

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In the Talmud (Berachot 59a) it states: “It was taught: What causes thunder?

Shmuel said: Clouds rub against one another, as it is written (Tehillim 77): ‘The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook.’

The Rabbis said: The clouds pour water into one another.

Rabbi Acha bar Yaakov said: A powerful lightning bolt flashes within the cloud, and fragments of hail break from it — this produces the sound of thunder.

Rav Ashi said: The clouds are hollow, and the wind blows within them, producing a sound like wind blowing across the mouth of a barrel.

It is most reasonable to follow the view of Rabbi Acha bar Yaakov — that lightning flashes, the clouds roar, and then the rain comes.”

(Explanation of the passage according to Tehillat Pinchas on Perek Shirah, p. 72)

As is evident, the Sages offered several explanations for the origin of lightning and thunder and how these phenomena occur. On the straightforward, literal level, Rabbi Acha’s view aligns remarkably well with modern scientific understanding. Today we know that lightning is generated by electrical charges (static electricity) that build up within clouds. The internal collision of electrical charges inside the cloud produces both the lightning and the sound of thunder, and this same process causes microscopic water droplets within the cloud to condense into larger droplets and hail that fall from the sky.

Rabbi Acha’s opinion attributes both lightning and thunder to the internal activity taking place within the cloud itself, and he further explains that following the lightning — namely, the electrical activity, the thunder is heard and rain and hail descend. In this sense, Rabbi Acha’s explanation corresponds more closely than the others to what contemporary science teaches us today.

However, it is possible that there is a deeper, more inner explanation for this Talmudic debate, that relates to the essence of the blessing recited over thunder. This touches on the chain of forces within creation, and on how the power of speech influences reality and the human being, and how reality, in turn, influences the human being.