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From: R. Feldman
Subject: Baseline representation
Date: 25 Kislev 5780
The committee has heard two objections to the mechanical reference:
1. R. Miriam's point: does the device reading tell you what you need to know? "18:00" does not indicate whether the sun has set. The number is an abstraction that requires interpretation.
2. Rav Halevi's point: the framework itself encodes particular assumptions. To adopt it is to accept those assumptions.
But perhaps there is a third path. As I mentioned to Dr. Stern when we discussed this privately, the observations attested in our sources (three stars, the reddening of the eastern sky, the behavior of animals and markets) are grounded not in any single location but in the lived experience of the observer. They require no external reference. They are verifiable by anyone who can see the sky.
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