{"id":280,"date":"2010-12-29T07:40:55","date_gmt":"2010-12-29T11:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=280"},"modified":"2010-12-29T07:40:55","modified_gmt":"2010-12-29T11:40:55","slug":"constellations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2010\/12\/29\/constellations-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Constellations (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re also taught that “there is not a blade of grass\u201d among all other natural things in the universe \u201cthat doesn\u2019t have its mazal<\/em> in the heavens to strike it and say to it \u2018Grow!\u2019” (Breishit<\/em> Rabbah<\/em> 9:6). And that every person \u201chas a mazal<\/em> that is his guardian from conception and birth\u201d (Shabbat<\/em> 53b) and oftentimes perceives things that he himself cannot (Meggilah<\/em> 3a) [1].<\/p>\n

The Zohar is quite emphatic about the rule of the constellations. It said that “the stars and constellations in the heavens were appointed to be rulers and governors over the entire world\u201d (2, p. 171). Some of our sages argue, though, that our people<\/em> aren\u2019t influenced by the constellations while others say otherwise (Shabbat <\/em>156a) [2]. And some maintain that we can rise above the constellation by dint of our righteousness while others disagree (Shabbat<\/em> 129b).<\/p>\n

So we see how important constellations are in God\u2019s governance of the world. Let\u2019s explore what Ramchal says about them.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Moreh<\/em> Nevuchim<\/em> 2:10 for a full discussion of the role that the constellations (and other celestial entities) play.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s stated in the Zohar, though, that prior to the granting of the Torah everyone was beholden to the constellations, whereas after the revelation God exempted those of us who study and observe the Torah from their rule, while the unlearned and heretics were not absolved from the constellations\u2019 influence (3, p. 216b).<\/p>\n

The Zohar discusses the constellations at length at a number of points including 1, pp. 188b-189a; 2, pp. 171a-172a, 188a, 232a; 3, pp. 251a-251b; and Zohar Chadash<\/em>, Breishit<\/em> p. 15a.<\/p>\n

(c) 2010 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman<\/p>\n

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org<\/a><\/p>\n

———————————————————-<\/p>\n

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here<\/a> at a discount.<\/p>\n

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here<\/a> at a discount as well.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).<\/p>\n

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re also taught that “there is not a blade of grass\u201d among all other natural things in the universe \u201cthat doesn\u2019t have its mazal in the heavens to strike it and say to it \u2018Grow!\u2019” (Breishit Rabbah 9:6). And that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}