Astrology, Mysticism, and the Jewish Calendar

How did astrology guide our ancestors? And how can astrology help us reexamine our calendar today? At our December 15th Virtual Friday Night Shabbat, Rabbi Steven dove into the surprisingly mystical history behind our tradition's interpretation of the Jewish calendar.

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Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

Transcript

Transcript

Rabbi Steven Philp 
Shabbat Shalom, folks. Hello. For me, MISA has joined us. So I just thought like, you know, it's been a couple of weeks. It's been Hanukkah, there's been a lot on our plates. I'm like, What am I going to do what I'm going to talk about tonight? And Hanukkah ends with a transition between months we actually just left the month of peace, love and we enter the month of Tibet that's happens within the holiday of Hanukkah itself. One of the actually miraculous things that occurs because of this alignment of the calendar is that the darkest night of the year always falls during the seventh or eighth night of Hanukkah. What do we mean by the darkest night of the year? Because Jewish months begin with the new moon. The new moon closest to the Winter Solstice. This is the new moon is on the longest night of the year that falls within where a new moon happens. That makes sense. Yes. When a new moon falls close, the winter solstice is the longest darkest night right that we get in the calendar is that the longest night, but it's the darkest night because it's the new moon closest to the Winter Solstice. And this is actually a kindle the most light. So because we're on a lunar calendar, we actually have an interesting alignment also with the astrological calendar as well. And you might be thinking, Okay, wait, hold on astrology and Judaism. Is that actually a thing? Yes, it is a thing. If anybody's ever travelled around Europe or the Near East, you might have actually seen some ancient synagogues with these beautiful mosaics in the floor or on the walls that just pick different signs of the zodiac. And you're like, wait a second, what does this have to do with I mean, like, it's just like, borrowing from our neighbors. Is this just like, oh, well, I guess the Greeks are doing it, the Romans are doing it, we might as well do it too. It's actually a little bit more than that. While it exists within ancient Judaism, when we see a debate among the rabbis around the validity of astrology, Kabbalah later Jewish mysticism that emerges during the Jewish Middle Ages, deepens the association in particular between the Jewish months and archaeological cycle and the cycle of the zodiac. But let's go back first to the debate the rabbi's have so we're talking about the rabbi's of the classical period into the Talmudic period so early centuries BCE through right probably about 200 300 400 CE, talked about, okay, what's up with astrology? Can we actually derive what they call wisdom for the stars? Matt has a lot of great muzzleloader. That sounds like Mazel tov. It is actually right. The word for Constellation is similar to the word for luck, muzzleloader constellation. So can we actually derive hochma wisdom from the Mozilla takelma Mozilla and the rabbi's tend to fall into kind of three camps? There's the absolutely, like, this is actually deep wisdom. And then there's the Absolutely not, this is complete farce, right? That I wish had nothing to do with it. And there's an interesting middle camp, which is like, there is something to be said about the wisdom of the stars, but we should be really cautious about it and stay away from it. It's one of those things where people ask like Do Jews believe in ghosts? Do Jews believe in divination Jews believe in and you're like, well, the Torah forbids it, right? We're not supposed to if you look in the Torah, it says you're not supposed to consult ghosts, you're not supposed to consult witches, you're not supposed to, you know, consult magical objects, which means like, if there's a if there's like a warning against it, right, it actually means that there might have been some belief that this could have been a valid form of gaining wisdom about the world. And it's interesting to think that maybe some of the early rabbis, right, early thinkers or semi Torres pre rabbinic, right are actually like, No, this is too dangerous, right? There's, there's something there, right, but maybe we just shouldn't mess with this, that might be too much sacred or secret wisdom that may be unlocked by engaging in these kind of esoteric modes, of, of knowledge of knowledge and knowing and understanding the world. So fast forward to the post Talmudic period or some of the gale Nick periods. This is the kind of early Jewish Middle Ages or about 800 900,000 CE. And essentially, it boils down to this, which is there might be some wisdom within the stars, maybe a person's personality and disposition is influenced by the planets and stars when we're born. But because we also believe in free will, right? That we are not our lives not predetermined by the stars, so influenced, not predetermined. And this tends to be the thread that weaves its way through Judaism for most of our middle ages. And remember, the Jewish Middle Ages is actually quite a long period of time. We're really talking like 800 to 1600. It's a big chunk of time, but woven through right parts of Judaism, this idea that okay, well, maybe we can kind of look at the stars when when somebody's bored and think a little bit about how that might influence their personality, but we believe in our ability to overcome our worst inclinations and to sharpen our best inclinations. And so in a way astrology becomes a tool for maybe thinking about, okay, what are a person's potential strengths and what are person's potential growing edges. Of course, astrology falls out of favor within contemporary Judaism much in the same way that's fallen out of favor within secular society writ large because of a general feeling that actually where the planets are where the stars are, don't have an influence on who a person is or who they're destined to become, or even what our particular strengths or growing edges might be. But then Kabbalah comes in Jewish mysticism, and says, well, maybe there's something to be said about the association, have the Jewish bonds with astrological signs. And this is where it kind of gets to be a little bit fun. I've always felt that things like astrology Tarot. How, like different forms of divination do do actually their magical predicting the world predicting the future? No, but I think they can actually get us to ask important questions about who are we? What are our strengths and dispositions? What kind of questions might I ask or how am I a, an astrological reading or a tarot card for example, or a casting of lots if you will? How might that get me to ask questions about myself in a way that I wouldn't have asked them before? And so I find the Kabbalistic association between the signs and our months to be really fascinating for that very reason. So let's start with let's start with the well kind of begin the beginning of the Jewish year and it will roll through this moment as long as I think the association's are particularly powerful. So if we start in the month of LoL right the month that leads up to the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur war, right, L L is associated with the sign of virgo. Virgos apparently are known for being a very organized type of folks. They're the they're the list bakers. Beyonce, I believe is a Virgo, right? Very on top of her stuff. Very organized. Right? And what is lol about ellos actually about 100 fish, right taking account of ourselves and our lives. It's about making that list and checking it twice and deciding who is the person who I have been, who is the person who I want to be right, which then rolls into the month of Tishrei. This is the month of Rosh Hashanah and the month of Yom Kippur war and Tishrei, the Cabalists associated with the sign of Libra, right? The scales, right? The the image is obviously the scales, you know, keep your day of judgment balance, right? And remember, right that the the task of Yong ki poor is not to like exercise, the parts of ourselves that are fallible, the parts of ourselves that make mistakes, right, it's about actually finding the balance of acknowledging that we're human beings, and therefore we are capable of great things. And we also make mistakes sometimes, right? The balance of Libra, right? It's not about right, trying to be a saint. Because it's impossible. It's also an acknowledgment that like we're not like wicked people either, right? Like all of us have this kind of balancing act that we maintain. following on the heels of Tishrei is the month of hash fun, right hash fun is often called Mar hash fun, or the bitter month, because it doesn't actually have any holidays is the only month in our calendar with with no holidays in it. It's also the month associated with Scorpio. Now I'm not saying that Scorpios are particularly bitter people. But Scorpios are associated with introspection with kind of the inner psychic life and actually hash fun without its holidays. And its expression like the outward expression of Jewishness is really about taking a moment right? This is post Yong ki poor This is post High Holidays post, taking that accounting and balancing ourselves. And now we turn inward a little bit to think about, okay, who am I? Where do I fit into the world and the year ahead, right? It's that it's that like inner psychic life moment, right? That we're not really connecting so much with each other in community and outward facing or actually inward facing maybe taking a little bit of time for ourselves. So then we go into the month of Kislev which is my month. I where my where my Sagittarius necklace tonight. Right? This is the month of Sagittarius. And Sagittarius is interesting. It's the optimistic sign. Right? It is the the archer right? It is the sign that is about exploration about taking risks, making leaps. It is a sign that's associated often with luck as well. Right? And Kislev is the month of Hanukkah, right? Which is a holiday about building light. It's a holiday of optimism. But optimism is also one that comes with a sense of taking that leap right? Both the Maccabean story right of a small people overcomes a great empire but also the story of the miracle of oil right? is really one of taking risks because right they didn't know that the oil was gonna last eight nights and yet they still lit the menorah anyway, which some could say falls into the Sagittarian input wholesomeness, but others could say also falls into the Sagittarian idea of hopefulness and taking a leap. Because if you don't take the leap,

Rabbi Steven Philp  
nothing changes. But then we build up right to the end of Hanukkah, the full hanukkiah, that steady, consistent light, not the shifting light of the first seven nights, that the full light of the menorah, fully lit, right, the steady, consistent light that then carries us through the darker months. And this is Tevet, the month of Capricorn, the staple sign right at the sign that is about being in your fullness, it is a sign often associated with abundance, it is a sign often associated with right a sense a strong sense of self and being right is that fully lit, the fully lit hanukkiah that then carries us through, carries us through to the other side, into the month of Shabbat and Shabbat is a very mystical month that's when to be Shabbat happens the New Year of the trees, which is all about recognizing what's occurring under the surface it might blossom. And that's where we get our Aquarians. Right, which is supposed to be a sign associated with the esoteric and the kind of mysterious and the unknown, right? It's the seed under the surface of the soil waiting to grow, which for those of us particularly in wintery places like Chicago to be shot, the New York trees are like you're not watching a trees bloom, but you are thinking about the potential that lies there. So I'll pause there, because I could go on forever. And I find that this is really fascinating because it's a way of rethinking and re engaging with our calendar. Again, I do I think astrology is going to predict the future. Do I think Australia is going to tell us exactly who we are and who we're meant to be? No, but it could get us to think about where are we in our calendar? What is the theme of these times of the month that we're in? And how am I more fully engaged with those themes, right to move from a sense of organization to balance to introspection to hopefulness, optimism and risk to steadiness and contentment to mystery and some of that, ah, that comes with thinking of what might lie behind the surface of the world around us. So even in these months, you can kind of see how the Ark of the signs the Ark of the month, the holidays that are in them has a lot of kind of richness there. To get us thinking a bit about where we are

Speaker 1  
Shabbat replay is a production of Mishcon Chicago, our theme music was composed and performed by Calvin Strauss, you can always see where and when our next service will be on our calendar. There's a link in the show notes. And if you appreciated the program, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts. I know you've heard it before, but it really does help. On behalf of Team Mishcon. Thank you for listening