For that reason alone, it is worth sharing a brilliant and inspiring explanation by Rav Moshe Shapira, zt”l, who passed away on this past Asara B’Teves. His insights changed the way so many of us look at the world, and this one is no exception. In the spirit of mitzvah l’farsem, and in his memory, his perspective on the eclipse is presented here (expressed as best I can – any mistake is my own).

Before examining his words, which are found in a shiur he gave just before Tisha B’Av in 2008, consider how strikingly unusual it is that we have eclipses at all. The sun is about 400 times bigger than the moon: how can the moon block the entire sun? The answer, of course, is that Hashem placed the moon at just the right distance from Earth for it to appear, from our perspective, to be the same size as the sun. If the moon were a little farther away from Earth, it would not block the sun; if it were a little closer, it would block the sun but would also appear much bigger, preventing us from seeing one of the prime features of an eclipse, the corona of the sun (more on that later). Hashem aligned the sun and moon just in the right way to create a solar eclipse. There must be a reason for this. What could it be?

Rav Shapira explained that it is based on the famous Gemara about the relationship between the sun and the moon. Originally, the Gemara says, the sun and the moon were the same strength: they both provided light that was equally bright. But the moon pointed out that this arrangement could not last in olam hazeh, where “two kings cannot share the same crown”: only one of them could be the dominant luminary. In that case, Hashem told it, “go and make yourself small”, which is why the moon provides only a reflection of the sunlight and does not shine with light of its own.

However, this state of affairs does not last forever. In Kiddush Levanah, we describe the future of a moon restored to its former glory: may it be Your will, Hashem, that you make whole the missing portion of the moon and that it should have no diminishment, and let the light of the moon be like the light of the sun and like the light of the seven days of Creation. The Jewish people, as we know and say in Kiddush levanah, are compared to the moon. Like the moon, whose light gets darker and disappears every month, we also go through times when our light dims; like the moon, whose light always comes back, our light always returns to shine once again. And just as the moon will one day return to the fullness of its former glory, shining with its own bright light, the Jewish people will shine with our fullest light, which will finally illuminate the whole world.

Now, in the world as we know it, we see the moon only in its current form. But there is one event where, for a brief moment, the moon takes its place as something of an equal to the sun. That event is a solar eclipse. Although it lasts for only about two minutes, during an eclipse the moon fits so perfectly over the sun that it takes away the sun completely: the earth goes dark, the stars come out, and the birds fly back to their nests. The moon removes the sun and turns day into night.

For those moments, we have a glimpse of the true power of the moon: a celestial body that has the potential to be the sun’s equal. It is for us, in olam hazeh, the one hint we have of the way things will be when Hashem returns us, and the moon, and the world, to our full power. Seeing the moon fit right over the sun is the experience that shows us that (again as expressed in Kiddush Levanah): [Hashem] said to the moon that it is destined to renew itself as the glorious crown of [the Jewish people] who are borne by the womb, and who are destined to become renewed like it. An eclipse is a brief portal into the world as it is meant to be.

With this, Rav Shapira adds another fascinating wrinkle. One of the most noteworthy effects of a total eclipse is that the corona of the sun becomes visible. The corona, which literally means the crown, is the outermost layer of the sun’s atmosphere, which shoots out into space but is completely invisible to us at all times except during the brief moments of totality. But during totality, the sun’s corona is suddenly visible as an aura of light surrounding the moon: it becomes the moon’s crown. After all, that was the moon’s original complaint: “two kings cannot share the same crown”. In this world, the moon was correct and Hashem made it lose its crown. But during an eclipse, we get a glimpse of a moon with a crown. We can see, if only for a moment, the crown of the moon, and understand something of how the world is supposed to look.

Hopefully, that day when the moon and the Jewish people will be restored to their glory will happen before August 21. But if it does not, we can take advantage of this rare opportunity, so obviously designed by the Creator, to appreciate a glimpse into the power of the moon, a picture of the world to come and the destiny of the Jewish people.