Rabbi David Gans (1541–1613) was the first Rabbi to accept the Copernican view of the universe. Before we look at his life and writings, we will examine how some rabbis of the Talmud viewed the universe (and the halachic implications of that view), how Rambam rejected that view and offered the Ptolemaic understanding.
Rabbi Gans’s teachers were Rav Moshe Isserles (Rema) and Rabbi Yehuda Loew (Maharal) so we will also look at what they wrote about cosmology.
Then we will start to learn about Rabbi Gans’s books, beginning with his history book, Tzemach David. This book was almost unique because while volume 1 is a history of the Jewish people, volumes 2 and 3 tell the history of the kings of the world.