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Jewish Astrology? Some Jewish sources.

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muman613:
As we were discussing in the Rambam thread there is some disagreement between Rambam and other sources which I would like to discuss and possibly explore further. While I intend to fully explain my understanding in a future posting, at the moment I do not have the time to provide my full 'thesis' on this topic.

In the meantime I will provide the following link and excerpt from the Chabad answer on the topic. I cannot disagree with what the Chabad site says and it is certain that I will provide further sources in later postings.


http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/269721/jewish/Is-Astrology-Kosher.htm

Is Astrology Kosher?
By Levi Brackman


Predicting the future is big business. From newspaper astrologers to corporate consultants, there are many people out there ready to profit from our insatiable desire to know the unknown. Often, when contemplating major changes in my life, I am tempted to check my astrological reading. Is there anything wrong with this? Can an intelligent person believe in astrology without feeling ridiculous?

It is fascinating to note that the rabbis of the Talmud gave considerable credence to astrology. The Talmud states that “upon entry into the month of Adar one should become increasingly joyous. Rav Papa said: ‘Therefore a Jew should avoid litigation with gentiles in the month of Av, because his mazal is bad; and he should move the court case to the month of Adar, when his mazal is good.’”1 The Hebrew word which Talmud uses here, mazal, is usually translated “luck” but literally means “constellations.”

Astrology is not only a factor to be taken into account when planning future events—it also influences human nature. According to the Talmud, one born under the constellation of the sun will achieve eminence, and one born under Venus will become wealthy and immoral. One born under Mercury will be wise and have a retentive memory. One born under the Moon will suffer evil. One born under Saturn will suffer frustration, one born under Jupiter will be righteous, and one born under Mars will become either a surgeon or a slaughterer.2 A birthday is therefore viewed by the rabbis as a day on which personal astrological fortune is at its most potent.3

There is an uncomfortable contradiction inherent in all this. Although astrology is prominent in rabbinic thought, Jewish law cautions against seeking the advice of astrologers.4 But if astrology is a true science, why not consult it? The following Midrashic parable sheds light on this.

A king conquered a new province, the elite of which decided that they needed to forge connections with the new rulers. Some decided to become acquainted with the dukes, others with the knights and yet others with the ministers. The wisest amongst them declared, “I will forge a connection with the king himself.” He reasoned, “All the ministers, knights and dukes change; however, the king will always remain king.5

So, too, continues the Midrash, some people attribute power to the constellations and wish to serve them. Monotheistic believers, however, realize that G‑d is the supreme power, and that all other powers are no more than obedient servants who carry out His will.

Since everything in the universe is subject to the laws of cause and effect, according to nature the month of Adar is an astrologically lucky month, and a birthday has unique astrological potential for the celebrant. However, reliance on astrology could lead one to conclude that nature has a life of its own, and that the celestial spheres have powers independent of G‑d’s will. In fact, these are no more than a manifestation of the divine will. This is why prayer is so important. Mundane life seeks to convince us that life is dictated by the laws of nature. Prayer reminds us that nature is controlled by G‑d.

The message is clear: nature and its rules—including astrological truths—do exert an influence on our lives. It presents us with auspicious times and circumstances, and inauspicious ones; it imbues our character with certain traits and tendencies. However, one must recognize that ultimate power rests not with “nature” but with the Creator of heaven and earth.6


FOOTNOTES
1.   Talmud, Taanit 29a–b.
2.   Talmud, Shabbat 156a. Although rabbinic consensus holds that Jews are not affected by mazal, the great medieval Talmudist Ritva (Rabbi Yom Tov ibn Asevilli, circa 1300) suggests that in this context the word mazal is to be understood as a generic term for “decree” rather than constellations. He thus suggests that when the rabbis of the Talmud say that Jews are not affected by mazal, they mean that they can subvert divine decrees through the performance of good deeds (Taanit 29a).
3.   See Jerusalem Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 3:8, regarding the Amalekites: in their war against the Israelites they used soldiers who were celebrating their birthday that day, so that they would have an astrological advantage over the enemy.
4.   Talmud, Pesachim 113b.
5.   Midrash Rabbah, Eichah 3.
6.   It must be noted, however, that not all the rabbis believed in the truth of astrology. In fact Judaism’s great codifier and philosopher, Maimonides (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, 1135–1204), dismissed astrology as having no validity. See his Epistle to Yemen, Chapter 3, and his Commentary on the Mishnah, Avodah Zarah 4:7.

It should also be noted that none of this is intended as an endorsement of the modern-day “astrology” practiced by pop astrologers and published in Internet and newspaper “horoscopes,” which probably bear little or no relation to the ancient science of astrology mentioned in the Talmud.


My basic premise, I will admit, is that the lesson is that Jews are above the natural laws of the world. That when we are able to rise to the role which Hashem actually intends us to, that no law of nature will stand in our way. The world, the sun, and the stars are moving according to observable patterns and yet the Jew is not subject to these natural patterns, and through teshuva and prayer, we can alter the 'gezira/decree' which may be against us.

muman613:
Here is an aspect of the belief I have concerning 'Mazal'...


http://www.inner.org/responsa/leter1/resp28.htm

Q: Does astrology determine destiny? Is there a difference in this respect between a Jew and non-Jew?

A: There is a difference of opinion in the Talmud as to what factors determine a Jew's destiny. The accepted opinion is that ein mazal l'Yisrael, the stars do not determine a Jew's destiny.

The Ba'al Shem Tov explains that ein mazal l'Yisrael is to be read aiyin mazal l'Yisrael. The fate of Yisrael is the Divine state of "Nothingness." The fate of all other mankind is a state of being. Every non-Jew has a fate which is from destiny. Whether inscribed in the stars or some other dimension of reality is not significant. There is some fate which is almost impossible for the non-Jew to overcome.

A Jew, on the other hand, can overcome his mazal. This is because the origin of his fate is the "Divine Nothing" itself which is not well defined, as it is from the essence of G-d which is also not well defined. Just as G-d cannot be defined, so the destiny of a Jew cannot be defined. This is what is meant by Aiyin, "nothingness" is the mazal of Israel.

On every birthday the mazal of a person becomes stronger and shines from the super conscious level of the root of his soul into the consciousness of his soul. The mazal gives him strength to use to the maximum his power of free choice. This is just the opposite of thinking that mazal is not free choice.

In his book Etz Chaim, the Arizal explains that non-Jewish astrology only reaches a certain level of the 12 constellations or signs of astrology, but there are many levels above this. The highest of all levels are the 12 permutations of G-d's Name, Havayah. Only the Jewish People are connected to this level. By being connected to this level they have the power to re-create. (The Name Havayah means "continual creation".)

Astrology is very limited. The Torah and the Jewish People transcend this limitation of the non-Jewish astrology. When something is transcended it doesn't nullify its abstract source. Transcendence occurs by reaching the abstract source. That is what the Ba'al Shem Tov meant when he said that Israel's mazal is aiyin.

muman613:
Here is a discussion of the great sage Ramchal, the author of Da'at Tevunot, and his view toward Jewish astrology..


http://www.torah.org/learning/ramchal/classes/daat6-8.html

Ramchal

Da'at Tevunot - The Knowing Heart: Section 6, Chapter 8

1. Like the stars, each and every moment alternately shines and dims, shines and dims. Each moment matters, has its needs, makes its demands, gets its due, offers its help, and then steps aside for the next one. And again like the stars, each moment is fed by forces higher, wider, and deeper than it, and subsequently feeds phenomena lower, thinner, and shallower than it.

Not only is that so, but we find in fact that each moment is affected by a star (or a swatch of them) which is itself affected by the moment itself, after which the moment passes on its influence to another one, and so one down the line. This is the thrust of the theory of Astrology in the context of the passage of time, which will be stressed later on here. Astrology, the study of the influence of the celestial upon the terrestrial, is an ancient art which, while having passed from favor in the modern world, was nonetheless once perceived as the system par excellence of gaining insight into reality.

2. Many of our greatest sages discussed the reality upon which Astrology might be based and its efficacy, and we’ll offer some insights now into their thinking before we explore Ramchal’s own. We do this because Astrology is about to be cited in Da’at Tevunot and we wanted to lay out the various Torah perspectives on it since it’s usually and often automatically pooh-poohed and written off by most of us -- either justifiably or not, as we’ll see.

First off, let it be noted that Astrology is never cited in the five books of the Torah, a fact that simply cannot be denied and that undoes its truth in the eyes of many. But gravity doesn’t figure in the Torah either, nor do other things of that order which while fundamental to reality have no bearing on the Torah’s concerns. But it is cited several times in the other books of Tanach where its practitioners are scoffed at (see Isaiah 47:13 and Jeremiah 10:2) or where its simply cited as a fact of life (see Daniel 2:2, 4, 5, 10; 4:14; 5:7, 11).

The Talmud and later works often cited it and sometimes sided with it, while other times rejected it. On the one hand, Avraham and we, his descendants, are said to be above the subjection to the stars (see Breishit Rabbah 44:12), while on the other hand we’re told that the blessing bestowed on Avraham in Genesis 24:1 is to be interpreted as the gift of Astrology (see Tosefta to Kiddushin 5:17). And there are positive views of it cited in other places (see Shabbat 119a, Kohelet Rabbah 173, etc.).

The great Sa’adia Gaon wrote a commentary to Sefer Yetzirah based on Astrological principles, and Ibn Ezra wrote about it extensively, as did Yehudah HaLevi. But the mighty Rambam was famously against it on all levels, which clinched it for many. The Zohar and the Kabbalists accepted Astrology as a truism, and so did Ramchal, as we’ll now see.

3. The first thing to note is that when he discussed it at length in Derech Hashem, Ramchal spoke of it in terms of one of the systems that G-d uses to govern the world, thus indicating from the very first that G-d alone is behind everything even when He uses various phenomena to help carry out His wishes. And he spoke of the stars and constellations as “having influence over” the world, as acting as “pipelines” of G-d’s light rather than as controlling things., and as being limited in scope and not capable of revealing very many element s of reality (2:7:1-4).

In any event he’ll soon cite Astrology as a means of understanding many things about G-d’s interaction with the world, which is our concern here.

muman613:
Here is some of Ramchals sefer, "The Way of G-d", where he is discussing Divine Providence:



http://www.torah.org/learning/ramchal/classes/wog2-7-1.html

Part 2: "Divine Providence"
Chapter 7: "The Influence of the Stars"

Paragraph 1

It's ironic that we in modernity are more thunderstruck by the millions of lights on the ground when our plane descends at night over a city than we are by the sight of millions of stars and planets in the sky. The ancients, though, were indeed nonplused by the over arching ring of galaxies over their heads. Is it because they were more Heaven-centered than we, and we more earth-centered than they? Probably. But be that as it may, it's clear that they realized the power of the galaxies while we simply don't.

Perhaps that's why the following statement by G-d doesn't quite move us. G-d is revealed to have told us the following: "I created twelve constellations in the firmament, and I created thirty hosts for each one. For each host I created thirty legions; for each legion I created thirty cohorts; for each cohort I created thirty maniples; for each maniple I created thirty camps; and I attached three hundred and sixty-five thousand myriads of stars to each camp... *all for your sake*" (Berachot 32b). The implication is of course that the universe is vast, opulent, and chock full of stellar life, and that somehow or another it all serves *our* needs. So let's now explore the role the various planets and stars play in our lives.

Ramchal starts by reminding us of the point he'd made a while back: that there's a Heavenly "backdrop" behind everything in our world that includes transcendent forces and angels (see 1:5:1). Included among them, we now find, are the stars and planets, too. What they do is draw out and transfer the "information" stored in the transcendent forces to our world, and make sure it's all applied in the appropriate material form.

Like everything else, the exact number of stars and planets, and the potency accorded each is specific to the tasks at hand and purposeful. Each serves to fulfill G-d's purposes, and the lot of them help to maintain the material world and to turn spiritual essences into matter.


http://www.torah.org/learning/ramchal/classes/wog2-7-2.html

Part 2: "Divine Providence"
Chapter 7: "The Influence of the Stars"

Paragraph 2

Let's lay out the cosmic process of interaction between Heaven and Earth again in more detail.

Everything that happens on Earth is initiated up Above, as we've said. By G-d at first, then through the transcendent forces, where the "information" to be communicated is then stored. The planets and stars then transmute and "translate" all this information into earthly form in general, as we learned last time. The point to be made now is that that information is then applied to a form that's appropriate to each individual and for every happenstance.

The broad, overarching, and far-reaching life-themes touched by this process include our mortality, well-being, sustenance, intellect, family life, and the like.

But the stars and planets don't only transmute this information from Heaven as a matter of course. Each one lends a particular hue and tone to whatever it affects. Thus, each element of our life is affected by a particular star or planet with its own makeup, character, and idiosyncrasies as well as by the combination of stars and planets in the cosmos.

And the whole of it -- from on high down to each element and every moment below -- is one grand, roiling cosmic stew.


http://www.torah.org/learning/ramchal/classes/wog2-7-3.html

Part 2: "Divine Providence"
Chapter 7: "The Influence of the Stars"

Paragraph 3

Each and every one of us, Jew and Gentile, is effected by the draw and reach of the stars. Much the way we're all subject to the same laws of nature and share a common physiognomy.

But just as the laws of nature can be overridden by miracles and wonders, the influence of the stars can be countermanded as well -- when G-d wants it to be.

That explains the dictum that the Jewish People aren't beholden to the rule of the constellations (see Shabbat 156A). That doesn't mean to say that we're oblivious to or utterly above the laws of nature or the influence of the stars.

It's just that there are times when G-d's ultimate will -- which we play a direct role in -- surpasses the natural order of things. And those are the time when extraordinary things happen to us despite the planets and stars.

http://www.torah.org/learning/ramchal/classes/wog2-7-4.html

Part 2: "Divine Providence"
Chapter 7: "The Influence of the Stars"

Paragraph 4

Never forget, though, that the planets and stars aren't independent entities with powers of their own, as some mistakenly assume. Indeed, the Jewish understanding of their role in the grand scheme of things is very different from others'.

Others believe that the planets and stars hold sway over our lives and are a force not to be denied. As we've been indicating, we believe that G-d uses their electric and majestic push and pull to affect us, but not to determine our "fate" in any sense of the word. For the constellations indeed are beholden to rules G-d has them follow and they're limited in what they can do.

So let's try to illustrate the actual role the constellations play in our lives by means of an analogy.

Imagine, if you will, that we were seeds in the soil of a boundless field rather than indiviuals in vast space. Look upon the planets and stars in that context as relatively large pebbles and clumps of soil in close-enough proximity to us to affect the way life-giving water and minerals reach us, and thus our quality of life. See them and us in that context and you come closer to the idea of the place of the constellations in the big picture. It's not that they have power over us and rule the heavens -- G-d forbid! It's just that in their relative proximity to us they affect our experience of G-d's life-giving radiant splendor to a very great degree.

Some individuals can determine approximately how much the constellations affect us by "reading" them. But those individuals can indeed be far off, since our knowledge of the forces behind the planets and stars is limited. Also because the planets' and stars' influences are often overridden by G-d's will, as we've indicated.

muman613:
And one more before I take a break... I hope to post my own observations later this evening...

http://www.oztorah.com/2007/10/astrology-ask-the-rabbi/

Q. Abraham is promised progeny as numerous as the stars. How does Judaism regard star-gazing and astrology?

A. Ben Sira says in the Apocrypha, “The beauty and glory of heaven are the stars, gleaming ornaments in the heights of God. At the word of the Holy One they take their prescribed places and they sleep not at their watches” (Ecclesiasticus 43:9).

But there are divergent views as to whether the stars and heavenly bodies influence events in the universe. The Song of Deborah declares, “The stars in their courses fought against Sisera” (Judges 5:20); but this was no mere astrological superstition, as the Century Bible points out in its comment, “The heavenly bodies that rule the seasons and weather helped the Hebrew against Sisera by flooding the Kishon”.

However, the less rational approach was hard to shake off. There is a legend that Abraham had a diagram that charted the power of the stars, but when told to abandon astrological calculations he complied. The simple people were harder to convince and were reluctant to question the influence of the stars, though one prophet after another trenchantly condemned it. Divination came under attack by Hosea, Amos, Micah and others. Isaiah scorned “the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators” (Isaiah 47:13). Jeremiah insists on the absurdity of being influenced by “the signs of heaven” (Jer. 10:2).

Yet astrology become entrenched regardless; Josephus says it was widespread in his day, and even Talmudic sages took it seriously. The great Rava said that “Life, merit and sustenance depend not on merit but on the stars” (Mo’ed Katan 28a), though Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Yochanan and others declared that the stars had no power over the destiny of Israel (Shabbat 156a, etc.).

A number of great medieval thinkers regarded astrology as a respectable science, though Maimonides unambiguously rejected and condemned it. However, many later writers took no notice of him, and the Zohar says, “There is not one blade of grass in the whole world over which a star or planet does not preside” (2:171d).

To the modern mind it is difficult to ascribe credibility to astrology, but there are presumably Jews amongst the eager readers of the astrological columns. Simplistic popular superstitions are hard to shake, even the habit of saying mazal tov, which is literally, “May you have a good planet”. The only way one can say mazal tov without being superstitious is to regard mazal as the initial letters of “Makom, Z’man, La’asot“, i.e. be in the right place (makom) at the right time (z’man), and you can achieve something (la’asot). This is an acknowledgement of historical forces, not an assertion of mere heavenly co-incidence.

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