Objections to Astrology from Standpoints of Jewish Law & the Physical Sciences

The following is an objection to the use of astrology by a learned neighbor who read my explaination of this subject on an e-mail list.  His objections are given in their entirety here, and my response followed...
 

David wrote:

> As far as the halachah on this matter goes, HaZaL said that astrology
> works.  A tiny minority of later rabbanim (2 to be exact) were
> against it ("Ain mazal l'Yisrael") and RaMBaM was most vocal
>  in this regard.  It was because he felt it didn't work, not because
> it was contra-halachah.  In R. Yaakov Culli's Me'am Lo'ez, end of parshat
> Miketz, (in English it's "The Torah Anthology", translated
> by R. Aryeh Kaplan z'l, volume 3, page 434): states that Benjamin was
> asked to use astrology to determine the whereabouts of brother
> Joseph.  The text says that it was his father, Israel, who taught
> Benjamin the branch of astrology that treats of locating lost
> objects and missing persons.  Benjamin, without protest
> or hesitation, applied this form of astrology and correctly
> determined the physical location of Joseph. So the use of
> astrology in Judaism, naturally with certain limitations, has
> been acceptable.
>
> I have asked R. Nachman Kahane, one of our generation's
> scholarly luminaries, whether I may use astrology for psychological
> purposes and he said that it's ok just so long as one does not see
> the planets controlling our lives, as that's for HaShem and only
> HaShem, but it's ok to see and use them as indicators.

I think it's only responsible that you give a little more background on the Rambam's opinion.

This site did a good job of quoting the Mishneh Torah (sorry for not
translating it myself):

http://kelim.jct.ac.il/judaica/dvarTorah/dt5.html

In Rambam, Hilchot Avoda Zara (ch.11), one of the definitions of M'onen
(soothsaying - predicting the future) is to use astroloogy to determine times
that are good or bad to do certain things. Anyone who acts upon astrological
predictions, says the Rambam, is liable to Makot (flogging) for violation of
a Torah prohibition.

The Rambam further says, at the end of the chapter, that all of the above
(many forms of occult arts are described in the chapter, including
astrology) are completely false, and have misled people throughout the
generations. Anyone who considers them to be true, albeit forbidden by the
Torah for us to practice, is a fool.

Also, you can read the entire responsa of the Rambam on astrology here in
English:

http://people.bu.edu/dklepper/RN242/rambam2.html
 

---------------------------
Also I think Rabbi Barry Freundel's comments here are important:

http://shamash.org/listarchives/mail-jewish/volume13/v13n60
---------------------------

My argument against astrological use for ANY purpose by Torah umadahniks
is simply that all the astrological systems including those in the
gemarah and sefer Yetzirah are based on assumptions of the nature of
planets, planetary mechanics and functioning that are not in line with
current scientific thought or understanding. As there is no chiyuv to
believe in this and in fact Rambam assurs it I would opt for the science
if the madah part of the phrase is to have any meaning.

I don't think this list should be a forum for the pros and cons of
astrology, but if it is going to come up, both sides should at least be
heard once.

-David
 

I replied thus:
 

David wrote:

>> As far as the halachah on this matter goes, HaZaL said that astrology
>> works.  A tiny minority of later rabbanim (2 to be exact) were
>> against it ("Ain mazal l'Yisrael") and RaMBaM was most vocal
>>  in this regard.  It was because he felt it didn't work, not because
>> it was contra-halachah.  In R. Yaakov Culli's Me'am Lo'ez, end of parshat
>> Miketz, (in English it's "The Torah Anthology", translated
>> by R. Aryeh Kaplan z'l, volume 3, page 434): states that Benjamin was
>>asked to use astrology to determine the whereabouts of brother
>> Joseph.  The text says that it was his father, Israel, who taught
>> Benjamin the branch of astrology that treats of locating lost
>> objects and missing persons.  Benjamin, without protest
>> or hesitation, applied this form of astrology and correctly
>> determined the physical location of Joseph. So the use of
>> astrology in Judaism, naturally with certain limitations, has
>> been acceptable.
>>
>> I have asked R. Nachman Kahane, one of our generation's
>> scholarly luminaries, whether I may use astrology for psychological
>> purposes and he said that it's ok just so long as one does not see
>> the planets controlling our lives, as that's for HaShem and only
>> HaShem, but it's ok to see and use them as indicators.
>
>
> I think it's only responsible that you give a little more background on the
> Rambam's opinion.
>
> This site did a good job of quoting the Mishneh Torah (sorry for not
> translating it myself):
> -------------
> http://kelim.jct.ac.il/judaica/dvarTorah/dt5.html
>
> In Rambam, Hilchot Avoda Zara (ch.11), one of the definitions of M'onen
> (soothsaying - predicting the future) is to use astroloogy to determine times
> that are good or bad to do certain things. Anyone who acts upon astrological
> predictions, says the Rambam, is liable to Makot (flogging) for violation of
> a Torah prohibition.
>

The definition of divination, if I'm not mistaken, is using occult means such as
spirits or demons or other god-like entities, to predict the future or gain
information.  Accessing the internet for information would be divination if the
surfer had no conception that technology was responsible for what appeared on
the screen and instead believed that a god, demons or other arcane forces in the universe independent of HaShem were responsible for delivering the goods.  Just because some peoples in the past felt that astrology put one in contact with gods or spirits should not prevent us from us from using it without such a belief. Idolatry is not based on the object of worship but on the one's
attitude. Fact is, the sun, moon, stars & planets have been bowed down to by
many cultures.  Electricity in the form of lightning, rocks, trees
and even human excrement has been regarded as objects of supernatural power.  To forbid contact with any of the above just because at sometime it was regarded as a god would mean not going out by day (for fear of bowing down to the sun) nor at night (for fear of bowing down to the moon & stars), nor using electricity, or even entering a loo. What separates divination from practical use of an object is the intent behind the thing. Divination is not inherent in an object.  Divination is an attitude of mind.

It's hard to tell why astrology works simply because we are ignorant of the
mechanisms of the universe.  Our civilization has been using electricity -- for
how long?  More than 100 years?  Until a couple years ago we were completely
ignorant as to exactly how or why electricity worked.  Was it occult? It could
easily be viewed as such.  If we could go back in time 1000 years in Europe and
take with us a generator and a VCR & TV and demonstate it to a crowd they'd
probably bow down to it and regard it as occult, witchcraft or a  demon.  What
the ancients would have regarded as occult we know to be technology today.  I
think that astrology is not unlike this. Some day scientists may uncover the
mechanisms that are behind it.

Forecasting the future or paying attention to times and seasons is not
necessarily divination.  For if it was then  we would be forbidden to listen to
radio weather forecasts and farmers would be forbidden to consult a calendar to determine the right time for planting.

> The Rambam further says, at the end of the chapter, that all of the above
> (many forms of occult arts are described in the chapter, including
> astrology) are completely false, and have misled people throughout the
> generations. Anyone who considers them to be true, albeit forbidden by the
> Torah for us to practice, is a fool.

I dearly wish that the RaMBaM's opinions would be used as the final word on
halachah in many areas, but it's not. Where it concerns astrology his is a
minority opinion and, on this issue, he was both contradicted and outnumbered by many rabbanim of much greater stature.  RaMBaM gave his opinion that astrology is foolishness but it's not halachah.

I have read the RaMBaM's halachot regarding the way we should deal  with Akum & especially where it concerns hostile Yishma'elim in Eretz Yisrael.  The stuff that he wrote on this matter is sufficient to warm the cockles of every
Kachnik's heart, as it were, from Kalamazoo to Keokuk.  But when I asked
rabbinical authorities why we don't take his words as halachah I was told: "We
do not poskin by the RaMBaM"  and "RaMBaM holds a minority opinion in this matter."  Ok, fair enough.  But what about his position on astrology?  If we
don't poskin by the RaMBaM and since his opinion is a minority one on astrology why is it presented as if the most important and the last word on the subject?

With the greatest respect to the RaMBaM, and he is my hero as I have not the least inclination toward mysticism, I must disagree with him on the point that astrology is completely false.  Sadly, he formed his opinion without studying the subject nor did he test it out.   I did check out the matter and my methods and results can be read at...

http://www.geocities.com/dale_baranowski/astrology.html

> Also, you can read the entire responsa of the Rambam on astrology here in
> English:
>
> http://people.bu.edu/dklepper/RN242/rambam2.html
>
>
> Also I think Rabbi Barry Freundel's comments here are important:
>
>
> http://shamash.org/listarchives/mail-jewish/volume13/v13n60

R. Freundel's article is indeed important as it's a systematic overview of the
range of rabbinical opinion on this subject.  Anyone who reads this will note
that it confirms what R. Kahahe told me, that HaZaL generally approved of
astrology so long as one separates the "physics" from the "metaphysics" and that the 'science' behind it is OK -- on condition that one sees HaShem in control of life rather than a planet.

> My argument against astrological use for ANY purpose by Torah umadahniks
> is simply that all the astrological systems including those in the
> gemarah and sefer Yetzirah are based on assumptions of the nature of
> planets, planetary mechanics and functioning that are not in line with
> current scientific thought or understanding.
 

To reject ideas simply because present-day science doesn't recognize them as valid is to assume that science has been able to discern everything significant in our universe.  To assume that we know e nough of the functioning of the universe that we can confidently dismiss anything that doesn't fit the present scientific world view is even contrary to good science in both theory and practice. Truth is, we know darn little about the physical universe.  Every answer that scientists get as a result of research suggests five more questions.  As we learn about our physical world the questions about it increase geometrically.  Scientists would show a lot more humility and awe if they'd realize that their mission to explore the vast universe around us has barely begun.  Now this doesn't justify every cock-eyed notion that someone can dream up but it does say that science should be open rather than dogmaticly alligned with one mode of thought over another.

Present day science assumes, by it's very nature, that all things function within a cause-and-effect universe.  In fact, there is no possibility of pure science functioning in anything other than such a framework.  So if a system
should be presented that operates in a modality other than cause-and-effect science is left high & dry.  Some scientists are highly reluctant to even admit the possibility of the existence of other modalities. There are those who even take personally the mere suggestion that there are areas of life that are outside the realm of physical sicence,  A few get very snooty at the mere suggestion that there's there may be life other than within the realm of
cause-and-effect.  Though there are exceptions. The latest theoretical work in high-energy subatomic particle physics has posited the existence of objects that can travel from point A to point B, separated by staggering distances within our universe, but they travel with no time elapsing in transit and with that particle not physically existing enroute.  No cause and effect there.  These have got scientists comparing that area of research to mysticism.

Astrology is based on a symbolic connection between objects or actions rather than cause-and-effect. Psychological astrologer and author Robert Hand has a lecture that posits that a cause-and-effect and a symbolically connected
universe cannot exist together and that, logically, the symbolic universe must win out.  Now, I haven't heard his lecture so I can't comment on his logic, but even if these two were mutually exclusive science has become quite comfortable with a number of paradoxes.  One of them is that light has both the contradictory and mutually exclusive qualities of both acting like both particles and waves.  The two cannot logically exist simultaneously, according to science, but they do in practice.  Hence, it's a paradox that scientists have learned to live with.

> As there is no chiyuv to > believe in this and in fact Rambam assurs it I would opt for the science
> if the madah part of the phrase is to have any meaning.

 If they really wanted they could investigate astrology by standard statistical means. There was a scientist by the name of Michal Gauquelin who argued publicly against astrology until he decided to do his own research into the matter. He took over 10,000 natal horoscopes of athletes and scientists and attempted to confirm or deny the astrological theory that the planet Mars is prominent in the charts of athletes and Saturn is prominent in the charts of scientists.  After a lot of exhausting work he concluded that there is a statistical significance to these factors in natal charts. (BTW, only with bad statistical methods and assumptions can one "prove anything with statistics.")   Gauquelin has since become a "believer" in astrology and he published the details of his study and his findings, his books are available through Amazon.

Astronomer Tycho Brahe of the 16th Century was one of the researchers who strove to comprehend the physics of planetary motion and was one of those pillars of  astronomy who stood with Galileo, Kepler and Copernicus. Bahe's contribution was that he observed the planet's positions and published an ephemeris, a manual of planetary positions that had unparalleled accuracy at the time.  This accuracy was an essential tool for other astronomers to explain the mechanics of the motions of the planets.  Brahe was not originally a "believer" in astrology but he wrote in his diary that, as he gradually built up his catalog of planetary positions through observation, he noticed the correlations between those positions and human life so consistently through the years that he could not deny the validity of astrology, and so pursued astrology in paralell to his astronomical work.  Science textbooks today avoid like the plague the fact that he was also an astrologer who was convinced by his own scientific research.
 
> I don't think this list should be a forum for the pros and cons of  astrology, but if it is going to come up, both sides should at least be  heard once.
>
> -David

Fair enough.  I welcome any further comments or objections.

Dale

 
 
 
 
 
 

Dale Baranowski
P. O. Box #24, Moshav Elazar
Mobile Post: North Judea, 90942
Israel