A friend of mine once showed me a passage in the Talmud. It was talking about the red colour seen on the horizon when the Sun is setting and rising. If I remember rightly it said that the red from the setting Sun is from gehinom and the red from the rising Sun is from gan Eden. Does anyone know the exact source?
1 Answer
Gemara Bava Basra 84a. I am copying the full sugia for clarity:
שְׁחַמְתִּית וְנִמְצֵאת לְבָנָה כּוּ׳. אָמַר רַב פָּפָּא: מִדְּקָתָנֵי ״לְבָנָה״, שְׁמַע מִינַּהּ הַאי שִׁמְשָׁא סוּמַּקְתִּי הִיא. תֵּדַע, דְּקָא סָמְקָא צַפְרָא וּפַנְיָא. וְהַאי דְּלָא קָא חָזֵינַן כּוּלֵּיהּ יוֹמָא – נְהוֹרִין הוּא דְּלָא בָּרִי.
§ The mishna teaches that if the seller said that he was selling reddish-brown [sheḥamtit] wheat and it is found to be white, both the seller and the buyer can renege on the sale. The Gemara assumes that sheḥamtit means the color of the sun [ḥama]. Therefore, Rav Pappa said: From the fact that the mishna teaches: White, in contrast to sheḥamtit, and there are two types of wheat, one white and the other red, conclude from the mishna that this sun is red, not white. Know that this is the case, as it reddens in the morning and evening. And the reason that we do not see the red color all day is because our eyesight is not strong and we cannot discern the redness of the sun.
מֵיתִיבִי: ״וּמַרְאֵהוּ עָמֹק מִן הָעוֹר״ – כְּמַרְאֵה חַמָּה עֲמוּקָּה מִן הַצֵּל. וְהָתָם לָבָן הוּא! כְּמַרְאֵה חַמָּה – וְלֹא כְּמַרְאֵה חַמָּה; כְּמַרְאֵה חַמָּה – דַּעֲמוּקָּה מִן הַצֵּל, וְלֹא כְּמַרְאֵה חַמָּה – דְּאִילּוּ הָתָם לָבָן, וְהָכָא אָדוֹם.
The Gemara raises an objection to this claim: With regard to a verse that speaks of leprosy: “And, behold, if its appearance is deeper than the skin” (Leviticus 13:30), the Sages explain: This means that it is like the appearance of the sun, which is deeper than the shadow. But there, leprosy is white and yet it is likened to the sun. The Gemara answers: There, it means that it has an appearance like the sun in certain respects, but it is not like the appearance of the sun in all respects. It is like the appearance of the sun in that it is deeper than the shadow, and it is not entirely like the appearance of the sun, as there the leprous spot is white, and here the sun is red.
וּלְמַאי דִּסְלֵיק דַּעְתִּין מֵעִיקָּרָא – הָא קָא סָמְקָא צַפְרָא וּפַנְיָא! בְּצַפְרָא – דְּחָלְפָא אַבֵּי וַורְדֵי דְּגַן עֵדֶן, בְּפַנְיָא – דְּחָלְפָא אַפִּתְחָא דְגֵיהִנָּם. וְאִיכָּא דְּאָמְרִי אִיפְּכָא.
The Gemara asks: And according to that which entered our mind initially, that the sun is white, doesn’t it redden in the morning and evening? The Gemara answers: In the morning it becomes red as it passes over the site of the roses of the Garden of Eden, whose reflections give the light a red hue. In the evening the sun turns red because it passes over the entrance of Gehenna, whose fires redden the light. And there are those who say the opposite in explaining why the sun is red in the morning and the evening, i.e., in the morning it passes over the entrance of Gehenna, while in the evening it passes over the site of the roses of the Garden of Eden.
The last italicized line is incorrect in Sefaria (i.e. Koren / Steinsaltz). Because it states in Bereshis 2:8 that Gan Eden is in the east. The Artscroll translates this very last point like Rashbam that rays get reflected accordingly and not like Sefaria above: i.e. in the morning the Sun is in the east and shines west and its rays fall at the entrance of Gehenum in the west, so that the Sun gets reddish from the strength of (redness of the entrance of) Gehenum. The opposite in the evening when the Sun is in the west and its rays shine east and fall on Gan Eden and the Sun gets reddish from the strength of redness of the roses at the entrance of Gan Eden.
