Astrology is mentioned in many pages of the Talmud, but today we study one of the most important of them. The Talmud does not question whether astrology works, for it assumes that it does. Rather, the discussion centers around the details of producing an astrological map for a person, and how the Jewish People can avoid their astrologically determined fate.
The first topic is how the the alignment of the planets define a person’s fate. According to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi the planets influence the day of the week. So if you are born on Sunday, you will be a person of extremes:
שבת קנו, א
אִי כּוּלֵּיהּ לְטֵיבוּ, אִי כּוּלֵּיהּ לְבִישׁוּ. מַאי טַעְמָא? דְּאִיבְּרוֹ בֵּיהּ אוֹר וָחוֹשֶׁךְ
Rather, one born on a Sunday is either completely for the best or completely for the worst. What is the reason for this? It is because both light and darkness were created on the first day of Creation.
If you are born on a Monday, you will be “a short tempered person” because on that day the upper waters were divided from the lower; there was division, which translates into a person who “divides” with his temper. And so on. Now given that 1/7 of the world’s population will be born on any given day of the week, this is rather a generalization, but let’s leave that aside. This opinion is challenged by Rabbi Chaninah, who explains that it is rather more complicated:
שבת קנו, א
אֲמַר לְהוּ רַבִּי חֲנִינָא, פּוּקוּ אֱמַרוּ לֵיהּ לְבַר לֵיוַאי: לֹא מַזַּל יוֹם גּוֹרֵם אֶלָּא מַזַּל שָׁעָה גּוֹרֵם. הַאי מַאן דִּבְחַמָּה — יְהֵי גְּבַר זִיוְתָן, יְהֵי אָכֵיל מִדִּילֵיהּ וְשָׁתֵי מִדִּילֵיהּ, וְרָזוֹהִי גַּלְיִין, אִם גָּנֵיב — לָא מַצְלַח. הַאי מַאן דִּבְכוֹכָב נוֹגַהּ — יְהֵי גְּבַר עַתִּיר וְזַנַּאי יְהֵי. מַאי טַעְמָא? מִשּׁוּם דְּאִיתְיְלִיד בֵּיהּ נוּרָא. הַאי מַאן דִּבְכוֹכָב — יְהֵי גְּבַר נָהִיר וְחַכִּים, מִשּׁוּם דְּסָפְרָא דְחַמָּה הוּא. הַאי מַאן דְּבִלְבָנָה — יְהֵי גְּבַר סָבֵיל מַרְעִין, בָּנֵי וְסָתַר, סָתַר וּבָנֵי, אָכֵיל דְּלָא דִּילֵיהּ וְשָׁתֵי דְּלָא דִּילֵיהּ וְרָזוֹהִי כַּסְיִין אִם גָּנֵב — מַצְלַח. הַאי מַאן דִּבְשַׁבְּתַאי — יְהֵי גְּבַר מַחְשְׁבָתֵיהּ בָּטְלִין. וְאִית דְּאָמְרִי: כל דִּמְחַשְּׁבִין עֲלֵיהּ בָּטְלִין. הַאי מַאן דִּבְצֶדֶק — יְהֵי גְּבַר צִדְקָן. אָמַר רַב נַחְמָן בַּר יִצְחָק: וְצַדְקָן בְּמִצְוֹת. הַאי מַאן דִּבְמַאְדִּים — יְהֵי גְּבַר אָשֵׁיד דְּמָא. אָמַר רַב אָשֵׁי: אִי אוּמָּנָא, אִי גַּנָּבָא, אִי טַבָּחָא, אִי מָהוֹלָא. אָמַר רַבָּה: אֲנָא בְּמַאְדִּים הֲוַאי. אָמַר אַבָּיֵי: מָר נָמֵי עָנֵישׁ וְקָטֵיל
Rabbi Chanina said to his students who heard all this: Go and tell the son of Leiva’i, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: It is not the constellation of the day of the week that determines a person’s nature; rather, it is the constellation of the hour that determines his nature.
One who was born under the influence of the Sun will be a radiant person; he will eat from his own resources and drink from his own resources, and his secrets will be exposed. If he steals he will not succeed, because he will be like the sun that shines and is revealed to all.
One who was born under the influence of Venus will be a rich and promiscuous person. What is the reason for this? Because fire was born during the hour of Venus, he will be subject the fire of the evil inclination, which burns perpetually.
One who was born under the influence of Mercury will be an enlightened and expert man, because Mercury is the sun’s scribe, as it is closest to the sun.
One who was born under the influence of the Moon will be a man who suffers pains, who builds and destroys, and destroys and builds. He will be a man who eats not from his own resources and drinks not from his own resources, and whose secrets are hidden. If he steals he will succeed, as he is like the moon that constantly changes form, whose light is not its own, and who is at times exposed and at times hidden.
One who was born under the influence of Saturn will be a man whose thoughts are for naught. And some say that everything that others think about him and plan to do to him is for naught.
One who was born under the influence of Jupiter [tzedek] will be a just person [tzadkan]. …
One who was born under the influence of Mars will be one who spills blood. Rav Ashi said: He will be either a blood letter, or a thief, or a slaughterer of animals, or a circumciser. Rabba said: I was born under the influence of Mars and I do not perform any of those activities. Abaye said: My Master also punishes and kills as a judge.
The dispute is whether the planets influence everyone born on a specific day of the week, regardless of the time of their birth, or whether the influence of all the planets is felt daily, with each celestial body influencing successive hours. Or as Rabbi Chaninah puts it on today’s page of Talmud: לֹא מַזַּל יוֹם גּוֹרֵם אֶלָּא מַזַּל שָׁעָה גּוֹרֵם - it is not the celestial sign of the day that influences the nature of a person, but the celestial sign of the hour of birth that influences their nature.
“There is no constellation that rules over Israel”
So in the Talmud, everyone agreed that astrology was a real phenomenon. They just differed in some of its details. Later we read of another dispute, this one between Rabbi Chananiah and Rabbi Yochanan. The former believed מַזָּל מַחְכִּים, מַזָּל מַעֲשִׁיר, וְיֵשׁ מַזָּל לְיִשְׂרָאֵל- “A constellation makes one wise and a constellation makes one wealthy, and there is a constellation for the Jewish people that influences them.” But Rabbi Yochanan believed אֵין מַזָּל לְיִשְׂרָאֵל- “there is no constellation that rules over the Jewish People.” Now at face value Rabbi Yochanan meant precisely what he stated - that the Jewish People is somehow immune to the usual influences of the stars and planets. Except his words were never understood in that way. For example the great medieval commentator Rashi explained that through prayer and charity, Israel could change its destiny, a destiny that would otherwise have been predicted by astrology.
This is also how another great medieval exegete, Ibn Ezra (d. 1164) explained how Israel was not subject to astrological determinism.
אבן עזרא שמות פרק לג פסוק כא
ואתן לך משל חשוב, שהיתה מערכת הכוכבים שיגדל נהר על עיר אחת וישטוף אנשים או ימותו. ובא נביא והזהירם, שישובו אל השם בטרם בא יום רעתם. ושבו אליו בכל לבם. ובעבור שדבקו בו, נתן בלבם, שיצאו אנשי העיר לחוץ להתפלל אל השם. והנה עשו כן. וביום ההוא גדל הנהר פתאום כמנהגו, כאשר ראינו בעינינו פעמים רבות ושטף כל העיר. והנה לא סרה גזירת השם והוא הצילם,
I will explain this with an important analogy. Perhaps the alignment of the stars caused a river to overflow and flood a town, sweeping away its inhabitants or drowning them. Now if a prophet came and warned them of the impending danger, and told them to repent before God lest this terrible event would occur, and they truly repented, this would not happen…for on that predicted day of the flood, God would cause all of the inhabitants to flee the city to pray to him. And when the river suddenly burst its banks, God would have saved them…
That’s the meaning of “there is no constellation the rules over Israel.” Your destiny is always written in the stars, but you can, if you try hard enough, manage to change it. So really even the Jewish People are subject to the rules of astrological prediction, but they have, as it were, an escape clause.
“...together with its rational appearance, astrology has the immense advantage to proposes a global, holistic approach for apprehending the world, via a link between humans and the cosmos.”
How Talmudic Astrology worked
For many centuries there were thought to be only seven celestial bodies that determined a person’s future. They are the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (though not in that order). The order of these bodies was based on how quickly they appear to move across the sky, with Saturn moving the slowest, and the Moon the quickest. So the order would be
Saturn-> Jupiter ->Mars-> Sun->Venus->Mercury-> Moon->Saturn…etc
This sequence is also the furthest from the Earth (Saturn) to the nearest (Moon) in the Ptolemaic system, in which the earth is at the unmoving center of the universe. This pattern was common to most of those who practiced astrology, and is by no means a uniquely Jewish creation.
Each of these celestial bodies rules over one day, or according to Rabbi Chaninah, one hour of each day starting with sunrise. So at sunrise on Day One (which we happen to call SUNday) the Sun is dominant. In hour two it is Venus, hour three, Mercury, and so on until all the hours of the week are filled. Here is how Rabbi Chaninah’s system works, shown for the first three of the seven days of the week:
| The Controlling Mazzalot and The Hours of the Week* | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Night of Sunday | Day of Sunday | ||
| Hour | Mazzal | Hour | Mazzal |
| 1 (Sunset) | Mercury | 1 (Sunrise) | Sun |
| 2 | Moon | 2 | Venus |
| 3 | Saturn | 3 | Mercury |
| 4 | Jupiter | 4 | Moon |
| 5 | Mars | 5 | Saturn |
| 6 | Sun | 6 | Jupiter |
| 7 | Venus | 7 | Mars |
| 8 | Mercury | 8 | Sun |
| 9 | Moon | 9 | Venus |
| 10 | Saturn | 10 | Mercury |
| 11 | Jupiter | 11 | Moon |
| 12 | Mars | 12 | Saturn |
| Night of Monday | Day of Monday | ||
| Hour | Mazzal | Hour | Mazzal |
| 1 (Sunset) | Jupiter | 1 (Sunrise) | Moon |
| 2 | Mars | 2 | Saturn |
| 3 | Sun | 3 | Jupiter |
| 4 | Venus | 4 | Mars |
| 5 | Mercury | 5 | Sun |
| 6 | Moon | 6 | Venus |
| 7 | Saturn | 7 | Mercury |
| 8 | Jupiter | 8 | Moon |
| 9 | Mars | 9 | Saturn |
| 10 | Sun | 10 | Jupiter |
| 11 | Venus | 11 | Mars |
| 12 | Mercury | 12 | Sun |
| Night of Tuesday | Day of Tuesday | ||
| Hour | Mazzal | Hour | Mazzal |
| 1 (Sunset) | Venus | 1 (Sunrise) | Mars |
| 2 | Mercury | 2 | Sun |
| 3 | Moon | 3 | Venus |
| 4 | Saturn | 4 | Mercury |
| 5 | Jupiter | 5 | Moon |
| 6 | Mars | 6 | Saturn |
| 7 | Sun | 7 | Jupiter |
| 8 | Venus | 8 | Mars |
| 9 | Mercury | 9 | Sun |
| 10 | Moon | 10 | Venus |
| 11 | Saturn | 11 | Mercury |
| 12 | Jupiter | 12 | Moon |
| Etc | |||
| *Based on Judah Landa, Torah & Science, Ktav 1991 | |||
Why is bloodletting prohibited on a Tuesday?
This chart had very practical ramifications. Earlier in this tractate Shabbat, in a long passage about how and when to perform the medical intervention called bloodletting, we read the following:
שבת קכט,ב
אָמַר שְׁמוּאֵל: פּוּרְסָא דִדְמָא — חַד בְּשַׁבְּתָא, אַרְבָּעָה, וּמַעֲלֵי שַׁבְּתָא, אֲבָל שֵׁנִי וַחֲמִישִׁי — לָא
בִּתְלָתָא בְּשַׁבְּתָא מַאי טַעְמָא לָא? מִשּׁוּם דְּקָיְימָא לֵיהּ מַאְדִּים בְּזָוֵוי
Shmuel said: Bloodletting should be performed on a Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, but not on a Monday or Thursday. And why may bloodletting not be performed on a Tuesday? Because we know that Mars is dominant during the even hours.
A quick glance at the table above will reveal that on Tuesday (the third day of the Jewish week) sunrise (or hour one) is under the influence of Mars, and so is the eighth hour of the day. As Rashi explains, this is particularly dangerous,
שמזל מאדים משמש בו בשעות זוגות ומזל מאדים ממונה על החרב ועל הדבר ועל הפורעניות והזוגות קשין שהן רשות לשדים
For Mars is dominant during an even hour, and Mars has control over the sword, over pestilence, and over punishment, and during an even hour there is an increased danger, because this is when demons are given permission to destroy…
It seems that Tuesday is a very bad day to let blood, since Mars, the “destroyer” has influence in the eighth hour, and 2x2x2=8, so there are a lot of dangerous even hours (or something like that). As a result, best not to undergo the procedure.
But does Astrology work?
No. There a a myriad of reasons why not. Here is just one: why should randomly picked patterns of stars, light years from one another should influence anything here on Earth? The constellations are, after all, a human construct. It is as if an actor on stage picked out a man in the second row, a woman in the mezzanine, and another woman at the front of the balcony, and saw in their pattern a triangle. That is what happens when when we “see” constellations. Here is a second problem: How can object so far from Earth could influence our lives, for their gravitational effects are far weaker than those of the table lamp sitting next to you on your desk. Are we now going to suggest other kinds of yet to be discovered material waves that “influence” us? A third: why do astrologers not take into account the constellations in the southern hemisphere? Surely they too must have an important effect, but they are not part of the Talmudic system, nor of many modern astrology charts. Just because the people who developed the whole notion of astrology were not aware of them, surely does not negate the influence they must exert on out futures?
More importantly than a lack of a mechanism is the simple fact that in study after study, astrologers have not been able to predict anything that would not have ben expected by chance. My favorite example of this is the 1985 study by Shawn Carlson, published in the prestigious journal Nature. It is important because it was designed with input from both scientists and astrologers.The thesis was that
the positions of all the planets (all planets, the Sun and the Moon plus other objects defined by astrologers) at the moment of birth can be used to determine the subject’s general personality traits and tendencies in temperament and behavior, and to indicate the major issues which the subject is likely encounter
and it sounds very much like the astrological beliefs found in today’s page of Talmud.
So a group of volunteers told astrologers the details of their birth, and from these a “natal chart” (or horoscope) was drawn up. There could be no identifying clues in the chart. Each volunteer was then given three natal charts; her own and two others, and asked to pick out the one that best described themselves. There were 83 volunteers, whose natal charts were drawn up over a ten week period. If the astrologers could accurately predict a person’s future, that chart should stand out and be correctly chosen by the person to whom it belonged. If it could not, then the correct chart would only be chosen 1/3 of the time. And guess what, it was indeed chosen….only 1/3 of the time. (There are many more details about the study including other tests that were performed, and how the statistical analysis was performed.)
Of course there are critics of this experiment, and those in one camp will generally not be swayed by the other. One may object to astrology because it is not “scientific”, but there are lots of things that are true and are not scientific; like love, or longing. And as anyone who has recently perused a bookshop in Israel can testify, the whole astrology thing has had a renaissance there.
Maimonides’ opposition to Astrology
But don’t just take my criticisms of astrology. None other than Maimonides himself was absolutely opposed to its practice in any way, as he outlined in his Mishnah Torah. In addition, in his famous Letter to the Jews of Marseilles of 1194 he went further, and denounced astrology as “an irrational illusion of fools and a baseless deception that was subversive to the faith and teachings of Judaism.” Here are a few choice excerpts:
no man should believe anything unless attested by one of three principles. First, rational proof as in mathematical sciences; secondly, the perception by one of the five senses… and third, tradition derived from the prophets and the righteous…
Some misguided people wrote thousands of books on the subject and many ignorant people wasted their precious years pouring over them, mistaking vanity for knowledge and ascribing consummate wisdom to their authors. There seems to be a fatal disease and abysmal mischief among most people, with the exception of a select divinely inpired remnant, to the effect that whatever is found in books is instantly acceptable as truth, especially if the books are ancient…Know my masters that I investigated these matters extensively… There was not a single book translated into Arabic on the subject that I have not studied and investigated in depth…
…all the assumptions of the astrologers with regard to the forecasting of impeding events, or the determination of one's destiny by the constellation at the time of one’s birth are irrational superstitions devoid of any scientific basis….
For if man's life is predestined by an external force that coercively casts him into a frozen mould or impels him to act in a certain way without his own choice, then of what value are the precepts and the teachings of the Torah? It would appear thus that their views are not only invalidated by scientific thought… but in their folly the astrologers tend to reject the Mosaic Law.
Maimonides ends his letter with a powerful call to rationalism and a rejection of all superstitions, including astrology.
I am aware that it is possible to find some individual opinions of our sages in the Talmud, the Mishnah and Midrashim supporting astrological assumptions about the potency of the stars… This should not be disturbing to you inasmuch as we must never abandon practical Halakhah for the sake of upholding dialectical arguments. Moreover, it is not feasible to surrender demonstrative rational knowledge and embrace the opinion of one individual sage who might have missed a crucial point at that time or he may have proffered an allegorical remark not to be taken literally or that his statement was meant as a temporary measure referring to a specific incident. For is it not apparent that many statements of the Torah cannot be taken literally but, as is clear from scientific evidence, require interpretation that will make them acceptable to rational thought.
The attraction and repulsion of astrology
In fact, there has always been a tension between a belief in a pre-determined destiny written in the heavens, and the utter disdain for such a practice. Here, for example is how Samuel (d. 254 CE), who was famous as both an astronomer and physician, thought about it:
דברים רבא 8:6
מַהוּ לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִוא. שְׁמוּאֵל אָמַר אֵין הַתּוֹרָה מְצוּיָה בְּאִיסְטְרוֹלוֹגִין שֶׁאֻמְנוּתָן בַּשָּׁמָיִם
What is the meaning of the words “it is not in the heavens” (Deut 30:12)? Samuel explained, the Torah is above the work of astrologers who study the heavens…
Although he taught that the Torah (and presumably those who observe it) were beyond the influence of the stars, Samuel never believed that astrology was a foolish undertaking. The passage continues:
אָמְרוּ לִשְׁמוּאֵל הֲרֵי אַתָּה אִיסְטְרוֹלוֹגִין וְגָדוֹל בַּתּוֹרָה, אָמַר לָהֶן לֹא הָיִיתִי מַבִּיט בְּאִיסְטְרוֹלוֹגִים אֶלָּא בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁהָיִיתִי פָּנוּי מִן הַתּוֹרָה, אֵימָתַי כְּשֶׁהָיִיתִי נִכְנָס לְבֵית הַמָּיִם
They said to Shmuel, but aren't you an astrologer and also great in Torah? He said to them, I only look at the astrological signs when I am free from the Torah. When is that? When I enter the bathhouse
Samuel never dismissed astrology, but he only turned to it when he was free from the study of Torah. Today, about a third of Americans believe in astrology. Once, one-hundred percent of all people did. So perhaps we are slowly heading in the right direction.
