Jewish Astrology | Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz | | February 3rd 2026

Okay, good morning everybody. Um, today's share is again dedicated anonymously for the refina galina. May she have a raffle is and dedicated anonymously nish every from today. Um, okay. I hope you had a wonderful tubishwat. Um I think I may have mentioned that uh there is a concept inos that although Hashem decrees uh what we will get in the new year on rashashana we don't draw on the new blessings till meaning until tubishvat we're living off last year's blessings and after tubishvat we're living off this year's blessings we hope it'll be better maybe worse but it will be different it will be different and the kadushim actually says [sighs] particular Particularly in spiritual matters, a person who is sensitive should be able to feel a difference in their connection to Hashem before Tubishvat and after Tubishvat. Again, the hope would be stronger. Maybe not, but but different. So, my hope for all of us [snorts] will number one be Zoha to feel this difference and number two, the difference should be qualitatively greater and better uh than it was. Um we are uh now going to go on to somewhat of a new topic although it is connected we've been discussing for the past few weeks uh the idea of free will and bkira because that is a theme that emerges in the Rambam's letters but it's also a theme that he deals with extensively in the Mishna Torah in the morim in his commentary to prios. So now we're going to move to another letter of the Rambam. A historically important letter a letter that he wrote to the Kakme Mont Pelier. Mont Pelier is a was a city uh in France and in particular Proce uh we often in fact even the rishinum are divided. There are the rishinum of northern France which includes Rashi and the Balatos. they were northern France and Germany but provence is southern and it really was almost a different country uh you had the rivid you had different other other golum who are called proce and uh although it's interesting for various reasons that the northern French reishonim either did not know of the rambom's works or they didn't pay great attention to the rambom's works uh but in provence there was a very early interest in the Rambam's writing. In fact, the rivet I mean you know on one hand you can look at the rivet of Rambid as a critic of the Rambam right he argues of the Rambam like every other line on the other hand it also means he read the Rambam's work extremely carefully uh so even the rivet is an example of the great interest in provenance that the kakame of provenance had in the Rambam's work but you also have auditory readers of the Rambam's work in provenance who greatly greatly admired in fact we're going to see that there'll be a number of letters from Raviona's son Munil. Lunil was one of the towns in Provenance who asks the Rambam many many questions in the Mishna Torah and their many discussions uh and the like. But this is actually the a response to the very first letter that the Rambam received from the Kakme province. And the Rambam responds Melier again an area in Proce and the Rambam responds in Hebrew rather than Arabic for a very good reason because Arabic was not the spoken language of these Ashkanazi Jews. So the Rambam so unlike many of the other letters which were written in Judeo-Arabic that means Arabic in with Hebrew letters and we are reading them in translation here the Rambam himself wrote the letter Bashon Hakodesesh uh and this is a very famous letter about astrology. They they they want to know what the Rambam's views are about astrology. Now if you had to guess you could probably answer the question anyway. uh but the Rambam goes into it at great great length and uh he does make a preliminary point and some say it's a little sarcastic. He says you surely have not yet received my book Mishna Torah because if you would receive my book Mishna Torah and you would read hilosor you would see what my view is about astrology. Now, in truth, it's almost certain. I mean, I wasn't there. I can't tell you, but it was almost certain this was a little bit of a sarcastic because they most certainly did receive the Mishna Torah. In fact, that's why they looked at the Rambam as an authority. I mean, what what made them turn to the Rambam in the first place was the Mishna Torah. But the Rambam is simply saying to them, "Oh, you must not have received it because if you would receive it, you would certainly know the answer to the question." Uh again astrology is called and astrology again not to be confused with astronomy because the Rambam himself will make that differentiation. Astrology was a belief that was very very very prevalent in the ancient world and even some people quite a few people believe it today both people who are not Jews and people who are even religious Jews. uh and that is the idea that somehow what happens in the world is and what happens to you as an individual is governed by the various configurations uh and patterns of the stars as they move through the heaven. uh your personality might be determined by the configurations when you were born and even the things that happened to you and happened to the world are going to be governed by the movements of the uh this is now I do want to point out that many many many reaim were very much into astrology now again I don't mean necessarily the modern astrology which is not rooted in Torah sources I mean these are whatever it is but there was in the Jewish tradition an idea of the Ebenezra the great biblical commentator who was roughly the Rambam's contemporary a little older and the Rambam was aware we're not sure if he knew the Ebenezra but the Rambam was aware of the Ebenezra and the Ebenezra was a great commentator onsh well and that's not only on Tanakh and the Ebenezra was also a very great grammarian He wrote classic works on dict in fact even his commentary in Tanakh [snorts] focuses very much on grammar. He was a great grimaran but people don't know because these books are often not reprinted that he wrote around 10 swarim 10 big books on astrology kind of validating it supporting it considering it to be a very very valuable wisdom a way of uh both knowing what's going on knowing your personality and even predicting the future I will also mention a little later on that even in the gammor itself There's quite a few references uh even the statement mault right a guy was writing a person who wrote a book on this said you know he was at a wedding and he was at the smoresport and he was just trying to uh eat some sushi and uh a friend of his walks by and he just gives him a mazo and he wants to go back to his sushi and the person says oh I didn't know you were connected to idolatry and superstition. So the person said, "I just want to eat sushi and all of a sudden I get into a discussion. I wish somebody masleto because what does mazle mean?" Nobody say, "Congratulations, Mazle. May your constellations be good." Mazle, in fact, I don't know. I I if I was at um the Rambam's bris for a Rambam, the Rambam's only son. Uh I would be a little scared to wish the Rambam Mazar. Uh he might kick me out. uh and and and the like. I'll talk about the talmudic references a little later, but this was a general letter from the province in Montelier [clears throat] and it's not to a single individual about and the Rambam writes number one if you would have seen my Mishna Torah you would understand that all of this is garbage all of this is not uh true whatsoever. And then the Rambam has a very interesting discussion of how do you test truth right people make people write all sorts of books and the Rambam makes the point that somehow people think what'sever in a book must be true once it's in a book you know I read it in a book or today people say I saw it on YouTube must be true and the Rambam says there are three ways that we test the proposition of truth number One is by demonstrable logical premises. And he gives an example of mathematics, especially geometry, in which something is true simply because it is logically proven to be true based on premises that are incontestable, based on axioms. Now the truth of the matter is this was certainly a foundation of philosophy in the middle ages going back to Aristotle even before that that there are self-evident axioms that are you just know are true and then you reason from there the truth is in modern even in modern mathematics and modern systems like everything is kind of uncertain and the notion of a self-evidence axiom that is one you know one one plus one is I don't know if you saw this. This was a very very cute uh video. It was about a teacher who was it was it was a joke video, but the teacher was was fired because a student uh when he was asked to add one and one, he said it was 11 or something. And the teacher said it was two. And the teacher is very very patient, etc. But eventually the parents said, "Who are you to tell me that it's uh that it's two, etc. uh you're just imposing your opinion on other people and what type of teacher are you? And they essentially got her fired. And then there was some situation where they owed her some back pay of uh like $2,500 and she said it was a much higher amount because she did the same addition. I don't remember the as the kid did, you know, whatever it would be. But the truth is uh even though this is a joke, but modern science is not so far from that in which many many things are indeterminate. But the Rambam is working within the Aristotilian framework of axioms. In fact, uh there was a famous mathematician who was Einstein's friend uh Kurt, I think he pronounced it gel. It's G O D E L, but it's a funny pronunciation. Um and God basically said that um you know the axioms that that are the foundation of mathematics are actually unprovable and untestable. And uh he even got in trouble. Um he uh came from Germany. He wanted to be a US citizen. So Einstein took him uh was already a citizen. Einstein took him to to the federal court to be sworn in. And Goodell was such a brilliant thinker that he had figured out a fundamental flaw in the United States Constitution [snorts] that would totally destroy the system of government in the United States. So Einstein warns him, please do not discuss this with the judge. you know when the when the judge says do you uh do you take on obedience to the constitution just say yes so the judge you know asks the the question of citizenship do you uh do you do you assume li feel to the constitution and gdell started giving a dr started giving his pill well the constitution is self-contradictory and um you know there's a fatal flaw that will destroy the government of the United States so Einstein had spoken to the judge ahead of time. The judge said, "Well, we can discuss this later. Just uh I'll just put you down as a citizen." Okay. But going back to the Rambam, the Rambam says, "The first source of truth are self-evident propositions and the corollaries that we infer from those propositions." And the example he gives is geometry. The second source of truth is that which we perceive by our five senses. what I see, what I hear. Again, you you can guess that modern philosophy has problems even with that. But the Rambam says that sensory input is a second way that we measure truth. And the third way, which is actually uh a lot of religious Judaism, is information that we get from reliable sources that we know we can trust. So uh these are the three ways we acquire knowledge. Self-evident axioms and the logical corollaries that come from them. Uh number two sensory input and number three received traditions from reliable sources. Uh the Rambam says astrology fails all three of those tests. There is certainly no logical basis for it. There is nothing that we see that would in would indicate some control by the stars. And he says the sources are just fraudulent, filled with lies, not reliable. And he says he almost says it's such a waste that thousands of people who thought they were wise wasted their lives on constructing all sorts of edififices uh based on this false knowledge. And it is absolutely shehaz. Uh now I will say and again he quotes certain sources that you know Abrainu saw in the stars that he would not be able to have children and it says Hashem took him above the stars and said you are not governed by the stars. Now in reality there's a certain ambiguity here. Is the Rambam saying astrology is just a non-existent lie or is the Rambam saying it is true but it doesn't apply to Jews who are above it. It see the text that says Hashem took Araim above the stars that is not a negation of astrology per se. That just says hashkah practice divine uh providence can take a person out of that system but that's not a negation of the system. So I'll come back to that. The Rambam on on the other end seems to understand this very differently. The Rambam seems to understand this is not a system. It just is not true. It's not that God took Ara out out of the system. There is no system. It is a lie. It's non-existent. And the Rambam says that people who believe in it are are very very foolish. Now the emmesis I want to go back a little bit and uh reference an earlier discussion of astrology that we actually looked at briefly but now we're going to look at a little more detail [snorts] in Tman. If you remember Timman was the letter that the Rambam wrote to the community in Yemen uh who were being persecuted by Islamic fanatics and as well they really were hit in both ends. They had the Islamic persecutions not allowing them to keep the Torah and at the same time they had false messianic personalities who were claiming to be Mashiach and redeeming them. And you understand the correlation when things are very tough for the Jewish people they are much more vulnerable to messianic claims. So the Rambam was addressing both issues. If you remember one issue was to be strong to have faith to have courage not to give up. And then on the other hand the Rambam spent a lot of time negating the false claims of the Mashiach. But in the middle there there's a very fascinating little discussion uh in which some of the ammonites claimed that because of the arrangement of the stars this was an auspicious time for redemption. So the rama minigan reiterates a lot of what he later wrote is earlier what he later wrote in his letter to the Montelier but what's fascinating is that you see that in spite of the fact that the Rambam considers astrology to be junk he he mastered it quite well and he went through a very elaborate discussion of the astrology that he doesn't believe in in fact the Rambam says in this letter that He has read every book on a vodora ever written. So he says and he examined all of the claims and he dismisses them. Which means he said he claims to be very very conversant with all astrological books, all idolatry books, all superstition books because he truly investigated it. This itself raises a very interesting question. You know if a let's say if a student would come to me and say I would like to read the New Testament you know the Christian Bible I would like to read books on Buddhism I would like to read books about Hinduism. Why? Because I want to know what they're saying so I can determine whether they're true or false. [snorts] Well I can tell you that by and large there may be exceptions for individual people. By and large, almost every yeshiva is going to strongly strongly discourage that type of reading because the argument is going to be you'll be led astray. You may not understand. It may undermine your Yiddishkite. Better not to read the books of atheism or the books of Aodora or the books of astrology because it may undermine your beliefs. And in truth, the basis of that view is a of the Rambam himself, which apparently the Rambam didn't keep. The of the Rambam is it is forbidden. The Rambam, it is forbidden to read books of heresy or books that espouse idolatrous or superstitious belief. It is forbidden lest it undermine your faith in God. Well, I think we have to say that by the Rambam's own admission, he did not follow his own rules because he read all of these books and he then came to his determination what was true and what was false. So what's going on? It's like it's okay for him, not okay for us. The Ramba might say, "Yeah, that's exactly right. It's okay for me because I know how to handle it." Okay. I mean you see there's a little bit of a problem here although lisa uh it is probably a true statement meaning this issue is some people are able to handle it without undermining their faith other people are going to get dragged down so maybe for most people better not to get involved better not to open the Pandora's box because it may drag you down but for people who are very strong in their faith or people who need to teach others ers, right? To teach others to uh not follow these ways. They need to know what it is that they're attacking. Um some of you might know uh Rabbi Mati Burgerer teaches atra for many many years, but he was the founder of the organization Jews for Judaism. He doesn't run it anymore. He's here, but uh Jews for Judaism is an or it's been around a long time. uh this is an organization that combats uh Christian missionary attempts against Jews by basically exposing to Jews what is false about Christianity uh or misunderstandings about Judaism and the like Jews for Judaism. So he started this organization maybe almost 50 years ago. It's been been a long time. And um he felt that he needed to really master I shouldn't call the New Testament. let's say the Christian Bible in order to refute the missionary claims etc. And we normally said you're not supposed to look at it. So he asked Ravakov Weinberg, Rav Noak's brother, Roshiva of Ner is uh if he would be permitted to study in depth the Christian Bible to be able to refute missionary claims and theak that he got was yeah so he's a big expert you know he's bashm he's an expert in the Jewish Bible as well but uh but he's an expert in the in the Christian in the Christian Bible so it's understood that sometimes you have to look in these things and the Rambam acknowledges that but at the same time there are certain dangers. So within the Rambam there's a certain almost schizophrenia in which he did the very thing that he tells most of us that we're not allowed to do. Actually it's kind of I mean different example but uh would discourage from going to college. You know if you're a Bou that's one thing but but you know if you were born and bred uh you would be discouraged from going to college. So the obvious question is the Rebi went to college. Rebby has an engineering degree and everything else. So somebody you know had the to kind of ask well you know Rebby you know uh you went to college he says precisely because I went I know how bad it is. So now I'm in a position now I'm in a position to tell you that you shouldn't uh you shouldn't go. All right. So um I I understand that from a superficial standpoint we sometimes think these are double standards but in reality uh double standards are appropriate when people are holding at different spiritual levels. So it's not you know it's superficial to say everybody's the same and everybody can tolerate the same types of information. Okay. And uh so the Rambam says he was very familiar with astrology and he discusses an interesting astrological phenomenon which he doesn't believe in but it's s such an interesting discussion I'm going to mention it. Oh, even though the Rambam says it's totally false, but he discusses it. So, it's it's worthwhile and you will see this in contemporary astrology as well, which again the Rambam doesn't believe in, but this is an idea in astrology and that is the issues of conjunction. when you take the planets right the planets uh and they're called ka they are called in in in our tradition traveling stars because unlike the zodiac constellations which are fixed I mean they move in the sky but they're always fixed relative to each other the different zodiac signs are always 1 2 3 4 5 6 the kas the traveling planets can appear within any sign of the zodiac back. Okay. So that's why they're called leas. So in astrology there's a very big concept called conjunction because planets have different orbits and very often the orbits don't cross, right? They're just moving in different orbits. But a conjunction is a point at which two orbits cross. The planets pass each other. And in astrology a very major conjunction and this is all in the Ram's discussion is between Shapsai and Sedc. Shapsai is Saturn and Sedc is Jupiter. The conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter is said to bring great great divine influences into the world. Now you take the 12 signs of the zodiac and they are divided into four triads. Then 1 2 3 4 5 6 four triads. And these triads are called mishim you know triangles so to speak. And the triads [snorts] are identified are connected to the four elements of fire, water, earth, and wind. So triad number one, I don't remember the exact order. It's not important for our purposes. One triad is represents the kak of one represents the kak of one represents the kak of ru of ruak. One represents the kak of maya. So what happens in the world is affected by in which Mishulash did the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter take place. If the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter takes place in the Mishulash that is symbolized by offer there will be depression and poverty in the world. If it is in the mash of a is not destructive, it's a positive force. There will be enthusiasm and progress etc. So therefore astrologers paid very careful attention to which mishash did the conjunctions take place in. Again the Rambam who doesn't believe in any of this devotes time to explain this process and he points out that there are three numbers to keep in mind. Number one the conjunction of shapsai and sedk occurs every 20 years and that's called kibbut katan that is the small conjunction etc. However, it will occur 12 times within [clears throat] the a single mash and then it'll move to another mash. Which means 20 * 12 is 240 years. Every 240 years it'll move from one mash to another mish every 240. That's after 12 conjunctions. And then he says it'll go back to its original starting point uh 240* 4 after it goes through the former shashim it'll go back to number one and that is what years so as a result these are given terms the uh conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter is every 20 years that is called kibbut katan the conjunction moving to a different misha every 240 years. uh that is called kibbut and the middle conjunction and then returning to its original point after 960 years is called kibbut and part of what the were arguing was that the reason they're being oppressed is because they're living at a time when the conjunction of shapsai and sedc is occurring in the mash of afar And the Rambam writes that after he explains this, and again it's fascinating to me because I actually never knew this until I read it in the Rambam. After the Rambam explains this, he then says it's a bunch of garbage. Uh and he proves that Arak and Yakov lived precisely when the conjunction was in the offer of Mashulash and obviously it did not affect them uh in in in any in any way. Okay. So what's interesting to me is this kind of confirms that even the wisdom that the Rambam rejected he was very conversant in and perhaps the Rambam felt he could not reject anything until he had investigated it. So even the stuff that he eventually rejected I see now I just came across that this is actually a very big debate in physics and the physics is very interesting field um there's this guy Eric Weinstein uh and he's just he's kind of a gatfly in physics and I was listening to something he said and all of a sudden he starts saying hashem does crazy things. Hashem is Eric Weinstein an orthodox Jew? So I looked it up. Eric Weinstein is an atheist. I don't know what where he gets to the Hashem thing, but somehow he likes bringing up bringing up Hashem, but apparently in physics, there's an idea that what was once the great great exciting breakthrough of physics, which was uh string theory, has now become such a conventional wisdom, it is like the main wisdom of physics, that anyone that has another idea is just shut down. And apparently many in physics feel that there's a crisis that people are no longer open to new ideas. I mean string theory goes back to the 1980s. It's been a while already. And what was new innovative creative breakthrough has now become a conventional wisdom. Uh they even point out that anyone that gets a Nobel Prize in physics uh is because of work that was done before the 1980s. like nothing no kushim since then. Uh and the the defense that some of the old physicists offer is we don't have time to examine ideas that we think are false. We don't have time. It's a waste of our time which I hear but you see the Rambam apparently had a different approach. Somehow he made the time to examine ideas that he probably thought was false to begin with, but he felt they needed a hearing. How he managed to do all that is really beyond our understanding. I'll mention another that the Rambam didn't keep. The Rambam writes in when he talks about health regimen, taking care of your health, he says you got to sleep eight hours a day. eight hours. Well, we know for sure that the Rambam probably was closer to three or four hours uh as it were. So once again, uh what is maybe appropriate for most people or average people there are that are going to be different. The first GB used to say someone asked him how he could survive on such little sleep. So he said, you know, some people are geniuses that they can learn a 100 pages in an hour. He says, I'm a genius in sleep. I can do in one hour what it takes other people eight hours. So you can be a genius in sleep u in sleep as as well. Of course, he was a genius in Torah, but he wasn't he wasn't boasting on that. He was just saying that he can compress his his sleep. Okay. So this is the idea of the Rambam saying that is worthless. And then he differentiates. Now this is an obvious distinction today but it was not so obvious in the middle ages. He distinguishes between what we call what we call astronomy and what we call astrology. Now again this is an obvious distinction to the modern 21st century person. But in the middle ages it was not because the two were considered to be together. I mean even the conjunction thing I just told you about it is based on the astronomical observations of conjunctions and that is an scientific fact. Astrology then draws certain conclusions that may be species. And the Rambam says astronomy, the movement of the stars, the movement of the planets, the uh the the the lunar months are number one scientifically important and number two halibly very important. The Jewish calendar is based in all of this. uh the the um revolution of the moon around the around the earth and uh when you do leap years because because given the fact that 12 lunar revolutions are approximately 354 days and one solar the earth's revolving around the sun is appro I'm just going to use approximations here is 365 so there is approximately an 11year 11 a difference and as a result uh the Jewish date visav the solar calendar is going to get 11 days earlier every year. Eventually that would result without adjustment PES being in the middle of the winter and the Torah requires that PES be in the spring. So every few years we got to push Pesak later in the year and we do this by the leap year uh by adding a month to kind of synchronize the lunar calendar and the solar calendar unlike for example the Arabic calendar which is totally lunar without a solar adjustment. That is why Ramadan, the the the month-long fast of Ramadan can be any time of year. There could be Ramadan winter, summer, of course, I understand that uh if I would be a a Muslim, I would prefer Ramadan to be in the winter. Uh it's a much shorter uh shorter day. Maybe that's why they don't have an utter sheni to keep Ramadan in the uh in the spring. So the Rambam says that astronomy is a very very valuable and indeed the Rambam has in the Mishna Torah hilos where he actually devotes a number of chapters to astronomical calculations. I have to admit that that is a part of the Mishna Torah that many many people do skip because the mathematics is a little daunting. Although to keep us modest, the Rambam writes, "I'm going to give you calculations that any eight-year-old or nineyear-old should be able to understand." Well, you know, >> [clears throat] >> um the weakness of the modern student in math is well documented. Uh I know in the United States if you looked at the math books that kids did in the 1890s of course most of them didn't go to school but those who went to school uh and the books are really of high school high school level you know the elementary math books would be high school level or beyond uh beyond uh to date. Okay so that's that's the basic uh idea of the Rambam's letter. So the thing I do want to talk about a little bit is uh the references in kazal themselves to astrology to mazle and the like obviously it all but you said that many of the rel >> yes >> so 100% um you know >> no saying that that the ram bombs opinion is not universally the case. Um many re shown him. The Ebenezra especially was very enthusiastic about astrology and he wrote about these conjunctions and the like and later in literature well not just before that in the Zor and in the writings of the makubalim there is a great deal about the khabim and uh that was picked up by Slater. In fact, there's even a modern book I can call your attention to. Interesting book. It's called kosher astronomy [snorts] in which he basically describes the astronomy of the ebenezra and the like. Now, is it kosher? Well, the ram would say it's not kosher, but but he's he's rooting astrological teachings on traditional sources. And there are plenty of traditional sources. In fact, uh this guy is so committed to this, he tries to show that the Rambam himself would accept kosher astrology. I I think that's a very very big jump. Uh so I don't accept what he says about the Rambam. But on the other hand, when he brings the Ebenezra and the light, that is true. And Rafs, if you ever look at Rsodok, the great Rs of Luplid, so every roes, he talks about the masle of the month, etc., which are the constellations. Uh so you know we're we almost kind of live in a schizophrenic existence. I mean you know right after you say astrology is garbage you then look at the zor and look at and everything is about the masle of every month and that becomes a very significant feature. So let me start off with one gammorus braos. The gammor braos says bunny bunn is a shortand Aramaic children banim life sustenance bunnis. It does not only depend on your merits. It depends on your constellation. It depends on your zodiac sign. That a person could be very very righteous. But his masle isn't good and quite literally his mazle isn't good. That could affect him in negative ways, presumably positive ways as well. And the Gomorrah gives a very graphic examples of this. Abay and Rava. Abaya and Rabba are two of the greatest rabbis of the Gammorim many throughout Shas. Abaya and Ra. And is like Ra. Ra was considered to be even greater than Abayim. And it mentions Abayad had a long life and Abayad had children and Abayad had parnasa. And Rava died amazingly at the age of 40 beset by many many tragedies in his life. And the Gomorrah says it's because of mazel which seems to indicate a certain determinism that you're locked into the mazle. That's one source. A second source is a gammorrah in mas shabas and this is a famous gamorrah that talks about the personality of a child is formed in part in part by the astrological influences at the time of his birth. [snorts] In fact, interestingly enough, this is the basis for the min of keepa of men covering their head. It mentions that nakman's mother [snorts] saw in the astrological signs that her son would have an inclination towards theft or violence. So she put a covering on his head to remind him that there's a god above. Right? In fact, the word yarma, which is Yiddish for keepa, uh it's not clear what the etmology is, but some say yarmoka is a corruption of mala, if you say it quickly enough, yat mala, the fear of the king in Aramaic, fear of the king, right? We wear yamaka to be aware of Hashem above. And this was to counteract the negative impact of the mazel. And then the garra says as well if you're born under the constellation of Mars [snorts] which is called maadim the red planet you will be a you will have a blood lust. you will have a thirst for blood because we'll talk about how you supplementate that. So that's the second source. So one source is the braos that the success a person has in life is not always connected to his merit. It is connected in part to the mazle. A second source is the garin chabas that talks about personalities being shaped by mazle. And but then we have a third source that says a mazal is some people look at it like a a humorous remark has no maz that that that's not the there what it's saying is a Jew is not governed by the constellations. A Jew is governed by God. Now once again a statement like that is subject to two interpretations. One is there is an astrological system but Jews are not governed by it and even that contradicts the Gmoran brahos and the gummoran shabus. The other interpretation is that there's no system at all and that would even be a bigger contradiction. >> Where is this written of Israel? It's the Gomorrah the Gomorrah the Gmoran titus is the Gomorrah. So there's a lot of difficulties here. So without the Rambam if we factor out the Rambam let's say how how would the Ebenezra reconcile all of these things. So the reconciliation is not so difficult. There is a system of kohavim and the kohavim initially like a default setting determine your personality determine what's going to happen to you. There is such a thing but through and chuva you can appeal to god to override the system. So a mazo is does not mean there is no mazo framework there is a mazo framework but a Jew has the capacity to get themselves exempted meaning it's not a done deal so that's a relatively simple reconciliation of the different sources but like the Rambam you have a genuine problem the ram Rambam does not say you can get yourself out of the system. The Rambam says there's no system to begin with. So what does the Gammorrah what what does the Gmorrah possibly mean by saying depend on maz and what does the gammoran chabis mean when it says that uh your personality is formed by the maz. You see like the ebanzra there is a mazle but you can get out of it like the rambom no such thing. So the truth is the Rambam karto often does not feel a compunction to reconcile every view in kazal. Again it's a little in fact let me digress for a moment. If you compare the approach to tomudic analysis generally between the Rambam and let's say the tovos to the school of the tovos were were started by Rash's grandchildren and there were literally hundreds of bal toos in France and Germany and they wrote comments on the Gammorra that we still study and the one thing about toos is toos always starts off with the assumption that we got to try to make everything consistent. How could the Gomorrah say this here if it says that there? And Tossos proposes differences and answers. Toss had a certain sense [snorts] that everything got a fit. Sometimes that got Tossos in trouble. Sometimes they had to introduce what you might call artificial subtle distinctions to reconcile the text. The Rambam had a very different approach he thinks. The Rambam simply said, "Okay, if there's a contradiction in the Gmorrah, these two garas simply represent different views and we follow this one and not that one." The Rambam did not feel an obligation to reconcile. So the way he would approach this is not by giving an answer. He simply said, "Well, we got those sources, but then we have a lot of other sources that say astrology is no good." So, we use our reasoning to figure out which is the more authoritative source. So, if you were going to ask me how would the Rambam answer the references to Masle in the Gomorrah, my answer would be he didn't he would not feel an obligation to answer them. He would just say they represent individual views which are not necessarily the normative part of the Jewish belief. Very different than the approach of tossus. Yeah. >> So so how do we hold? >> So again how do we hold? So it depends who the we depends who the we uh who the we is. Uh it's hard it's hard for me to say. Um again the Rambam of course was the supreme rationalist and he did not see any logic in astrology and remember the Rambab's three tests something is accepted as truth either because it's demonstrabably logical or there is direct sensory perception or you receive it from a trusted source although I would think the tone I I would have I would have thought is a trusted source but the but the Rambam rules strangely that astrology fails all three tests. On the other hand, what can I say? Uh the zor, the Arizal, the ramach, the cabalist, the all consider astrology and the ebanzra vishonim do consider it. So I think there is something in it. Of course, let me point out another aspect to this. Even if you consider astrology to have some validity, it may actually be forbidden to use because you're not supposed to try to tell the future. Uh so what the advocates of astrology say is the following. This is what the kosher astrology guy says and I think he's correct. I'm not saying astrology is correct but the permissibility. He says you cannot use astrology to predict future events but you can use astrology for personality analysis that you want to know what type of person you are you want to you want to understand yourself yourself better because that could help you in shidukim and the like so assuming astrology is valid again I'm not taking any assumption he says astrology can permissibly be used for personality analysis, compat compatibility of shik and the and the like. You cannot use it to predict the future. Yeah. act here in Narit Israel uh one of the oldest I think it may be the oldest banessa that we have at a very elaborate mosaic of the mazolots but again I want to point out mazolots are not directly necessarily astrology remember zodiac was used and the rabbam uses zodiac for astronomical calculations as well but still in all probability uh those who Did that mosaic or that bacon did subscribe to the power of the kavim? Yeah. >> According to the people of hell by astrology, >> where is it in terms of asset are independent? Is it in some power? Is God controlling it? Are they in like where are they? >> Yeah. So, so the the way the way it's understood is that the kavim are simply a form of angel. uh that were given certain authority over this world but at any point through choua you can ask Hashem to override his subordinates meaning you look at it like a default setting so you don't you don't pray even the nobody says you pray to the uh but they are operating the world unless unless Hashem intervenes um now I want to I want to mention one That another reference to mazo or least planets is every hour of the day. This is in the Gomorrah itself is said to be governed by one of the seven planets. By the way, I it's interesting that's another issue because we've discovered more than seven planets. What do you do with Pluto and some of the newer ones? um in in classical Jewish astronom astronomy not just astrology there are seven planets and that was the belief in the middle ages generally where do you put Pluto in all of this and even things after Pluto uh I don't know but putting that aside every hour of the day is governed by a planet so I can tell you that between and it's very convenient because there are seven planets. So they it goes through a rotation 24 * 7 over a week. So I can tell you that the hour between 6 and 7 Friday night, Friday evening is governed by the planet Mars if you look at the calculations. So I remember [clears throat] when I was a law student in Boston and um I used to spend many many chabases I mean me and 100 other people it wasn't unique to me with the bosi the father of the present basi and [clears throat] um he would never make kdish they don't make kdish between 6 and 7 Friday night because that is governed by the planet of blood. So I remember you know when you have 100 people 100 guests it takes a while to get ready. So if we finished my a4 to 6, there was an absolute mad mad rush to get seated as soon as we possibly could because if it was 6:00 and 1 second, we would have to wait a whole hour, right? He would make kittish 5 to 6. He would not make kittish at at 6. Now once again, I mean, the Rambam would say frankly that that's ridiculous. What are you doing? Uh but nevertheless, as I say, this is an example of Cabala still being very connected to the masel and planetary systems here. >> Didn't hear you there time. [clears throat] >> Uh yeah, you have to recaliate. You have to recalibrate that. That's correct. That's correct. You don't take advant you don't use u. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. >> Is there a difference between >> well listen traditionally many manyard have been much more connected to cabala than Ashkanazim. So they may take it more seriously. On the other hand the influence of Polish on Ashkanazim has been very very strong. So many many ashkanazm are also connected to this via saddox via now I just want to answer one final point because we have to stop that is the gammoran shabas makes a very interesting beautiful observation on one hand it says he who is born under the planet Mars will be a sheddder of blood can't change that but will be a sheddder of blood >> but he can choose to be a moel a or a murderer. Now, put aside the issue of astrology, which I'll get back to next week. Put that aside. Even if you don't believe in astrology, all of us believe that people are born with certain personalities. Right? And what the Gumar is teaching us is that what you're born with doesn't automatically determine what you will become and what you can become. So again, I think the astrology point may even distract us a little bit because the Gumar is making a much larger and much more profound point that you can supplement even what might be your negative traits and utilize them in a positive manner. And that I think is the much more important thing to walk away with from the Gomorrah than whether you believe in maso. Okay. So let's say I don't believe in astrology. I believe in DNA. In other words, I think there is an aspect of the human personality that is predetermined. Some say it was the stars, but we could call it DNA. Whatever you want to call it. And what the Talmud is saying is, and this actually segus back to you're born a certain way and maybe that's not changeable, but how you choose to use what you were born with, that is a function of your behavior. So there is a much much much larger point than the issue of astrology. Although I will I will get back to the astrology issue. You have a wonderful week and be well.