Q&A: Twilight
Twilight
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Does the Rabbi know what kind of doubt twilight is (a factual doubt or an epistemic/conceptual one)? I would be happy to receive references to sources. In addition, why does this doubt exist only in the transition between day and night, whereas between night and day the transition is sharp and clear (dawn)?
Thank you.
Answer
As far as I remember, there is the same doubt in the morning too, except that there it does not have much practical significance (because the day begins from the night).
It is quite clear to me that this is not a factual doubt. The question is where the night begins, that is, what the definition of night is. This is not a factual question but one of definition.
In general, regarding the nature of this doubt, I assume you can look for sources online. I recall a lengthy discussion in Rabbi Menachem Kasher’s book, Deciphering Hidden Things, on the Rogatchover’s approach.
Discussion on Answer
N,
Thank you.
I have some vague memory that Rabbi Ovadia and Rabbi Moshe Levi disagreed about this. Rabbi Ovadia thought that the doubt of twilight is a legal doubt, as seems straightforward, and Rabbi Moshe Levi thought it was a factual doubt. Apparently Rabbi Moshe Levi was a real metaphysical realist. The practical difference is whether this combines into a double doubt together with the dispute between Rabbeinu Tam and the Geonim regarding sunset (which was understood as a legal dispute and not a factual one; that’s a problematic point that my vague memory is completely dark about). Because Rabbi Moshe Levi held in general that one legal doubt and one factual doubt do not combine into a double doubt.