Explanation: This is a journey of 500 years (below, 13a), for it says "Shakai" - Hash-m said "Dai" (enough), that the world should not expand more;

It says "Ani Kel Shakai Pere u'Rve" - I am the One who said "Dai" to the world.

Question: What is the source that it is a journey of 500 years, and not more or less?

Answer: We learn from "Shakai", which has three letters - Shin (this letters itself is spelled Shin Yud Nun), Dalet (Dalet Lamed Tov) and Yud (Yud Vov Dalet);

Take Yud Nun, Lamed Tov, and Vov Dalet, which is the hidden part of Shakai (the added letters used to spell the letters of Shakai. They are called hidden, for when one pronounces "Shin" for example, we hear the Shin, but not Yud Nun), and their Gematriya adds up to 500. I heard this from R. Menachem b'Ribi Ezri'el.

Question: According to the opinion in Pesachim (94a) that the entire [inhabited] world is under one star, how is there room for all the stars seen in the sky?

Note: In Pesachim (94a) Tosfos cites [Bereishis Rabah 3:17] that the world is a third water, a third settled, and a third Midbar. If so, it is at most three times as wide [and long] as the inhabited world, so it should fit at most 27 stars. It could fit more due to the height of the Galgal (a spherical shell that houses the stars). I.e. some stars are partially above others, but since they are higher, we do not see the overlap), but our Sugya says that the height equals the width of the world, so this at most triples the number of stars it can hold.

Answer #1: [Almost all] are over the Okainus (great ocean), like it says in Pirkei d'R. Eliezer, that all the Shi'urim are only for the other seas, but [only] the One who created the Okainus knows its measure.

Question: Another Midrash says that the oki comprises a third of the world!

Strengthening of question: R. Binyamin established in his Yotzer (a Piyut for Shacharis) "this sea is a third of the world. It ends after 166 and more (two thirds) [years journey, i.e. a third of the world].

Answer #1: We must say that the Midrash argues with that opinion in Pesachim.

Answer #2: We can establish [that opinion in Pesachim] (94a) to mean that the entire [inhabited] world is under one star, i.e. constellation of the Galgal, but other stars are [much] smaller.

Answer #3: I say that we can resolve all of the Midrashim. [The stars] are fixed in the dome of the sky, which is much bigger than the earth, if it would be stretched over it like this, based on the boundaries of the earth;

Come and see a tent stretched over the land, like a dome very tall in the middle. In spans [many times] the area [of the ground below it], if it would be stretched on the land.

Question: It says regarding Sisera "Min ha'Shamayim Nilchemu ha'Kochavim mi'Mesilosam";

It is clear from Rashi's Perush, and it says in a Midrash, that a star is a journey of 500 years long, like from Shamayim to the earth, for one end was inserted in the sky, and the other end was on the ground.

How could it enter the air of the world, since the entire world is under one star?! (Perhaps Tosfos asks how stars (plural) were able to descend and fight Sisera, since even one fills the entire world. The Ya'avetz (Pesachim Sof 118b) says that Roshan, i.e. their sparks and staff, reached to the ground.)

Conclusion: We must say that the Midrashim disagree, unless we will distinguish between constellations of the Galgal and other constellations.

Observation: This is unlike the opinion in Tamid (32a) that east and west are further. (The Maharsha (Tamid 32a) proves that "east and west" refers to the distance from the east or west to the middle, and so says the Mizrachi.)

Support (for our Sugya): If you will not say so [that they are the same, rather, from east to west is longer, according to Rav], how could Adam ha'Rishon stand, since it says mi'Ketzei ha'Shamayim v'Ad Ketzei ha'Shamayim?

Rejection: [Rav] holds that he was in Gan Eden until he was diminished.

Explanation: We expound Sevivosav Sukaso [to teach that a line surrounds the world].

Explanation: If not for "v'Es", I would say that both of them were created together, but the verse wrote them one after the other, because two names cannot be written together, like Rashi explained.

Implied question: Above, Beis Hillel said that Eretz was created first, for it says "b'Yom Asos Hash-m [Eretz v'Shamayim]", and it does not say v'Es! (We should say that both were created together, but they cannot be written together.)

Answer: There we expound because the verse deviated from its order, to put Eretz next to Asiyah (making).

Alternate explanation: However, in Rashi's Perush on Chumash, he explained that "Es ha'Shamayim" includes its offshoots. This is another Midrash. It argues with here.

Explanation #1 (Rashi): It enters its case, and automatically the light leaves and it is seen. It exits at night and covers the light, and darkens the world.

Question (my Rebbi): If so, how are stars seen at night, since they are fixed in the second firmament, like we conclude?

Answer: Perhaps they are seen through it, just like [they are seen] through clouds, but most of the time the clouds darken it [a star] and cover it.

Explanation #2 (my Rebbi): [Vilon] enters the world in the morning, and light exudes from it. It leaves the world at night, and the light departs, and therefore the stars are seen.

Explanation: He still did not finish the matter of seven firmaments that he began to explain.

Explanation: Some of them (storehouses) are prepared for punishments, and some are for good, like it says in Ta'anis (3b) that snow is good for mountains like five rains for the land.

Also, it says "ka'Asher Yered ha'Geshem veha'Sheleg... Ki Im Hirvah Es ha'Aretz..."

Question (R. Elchanan): It says "Ki ka'Asher Yered ha'Geshem veha'Sheleg Min ha'Shamayim"!

Answer #1 (R. Elchanan): Since [snow] comes down from the clouds, it looks like it descends from Shamayim.

Answer #2: [David] brought down only [snow] prepared for punishments, but what satiates the ground remained above.

Explanation: This is not a verse, rather, "Lo Yegurcha Ra." This is how we expound it. (In Shabbos (149b) and Sanhedrin (103a) [the verse is cited] properly.)