Faith
What is the relationship between the size of the Earth and the size of the sun?
Question
If I am not mistaken, the Rambam in Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Deot, states explicitly that the size of the sun is about one hundred and seventy times the size of the Earth. As far as is known today in science, the ratio between the sun and the Earth is one million three hundred thousand. How is this contradiction reconciled?
Answer
Hello and blessings
The Rambam's words regarding the size of the sun were not taken from Jewish literature, but from Greek literature, which was known at that time, as the Rambam himself wrote in Hilchot Kiddush HaChodesh, end of chapter 17. Thus, the difference in the ratio between the sun and the Earth, between what was accepted then and what is accepted today, should be seen only as scientific progress. There is no contradiction here that we need to reconcile.
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