Hi,
Thank you for your wonderful articles.
Over the years I was puzzled about the “Mayim Elyonim”; What is it, can we see it?
This morning during Pesukei Dezimrah; I had an idea. In the third Halleluka we say, “Halleluhu shemei hashamayim, v’hamayim asher me’al hashamayim,” “Praise Him, heavens of heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens.” You wrote that after 9 years of travel, they were able to see mountains of ice on Pluto! Perhaps we are beginning to see some of the upper waters.
All the best,
S.B.
RESPONSE:
Thank you for the kind words, and for sharing your thoughts.
Rav Avigdor Miller, in his sefer The Beginning, explains the waters above the rakia in Bereishis as the clouds and water vapor in our own atmosphere. In his view, the rakia that divided the waters on the second day was the space right above the earth, and only later does the word include outer space as well. On the other hand, when he learned the Gemara in Taanis where Rabbi Yehoshua says the whole world drinks from the upper waters, Rav Miller said it was an opinion he couldn’t explain. He then mentioned the idea that there may be great bodies of water out in space, and called it “an interesting idea.”
There’s apparently much more water out there than many people suspect. Besides the ice mountains of Pluto, comets are largely made of ice. Whether any of that is what the Torah means by the mayim elyonim, I can’t say, but it’s an interesting thought.
Kol tuv,
Yaakov Astor
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