Support Torah.org

Subscribe to a Torah.org Weekly Series

Posted on March 29, 2022 By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman | Series: | Level:

1. On the influence of the stars upon events 1.

G-d instilled yet another factor upon the stars, which is that all of the events experienced by physical things and their outcomes would originate up above 2, but would then be drawn downward by the stars 3 in the form they’d need to assume 4.

So for example, things touching on one’s life, income, wisdom, offspring, and the like 5, are initiated up above in the celestial roots but then they’re transported downward by the stars to the branches in an appropriate form 6.

That happens through certain sub-divisions and combinations within the star system, particular groupings of them, and the well-known orbits assigned to them 7.

2. Everything that occurs to physical things is assigned to a particular star. Thus, all physical things were placed under their control.

Thanks to their arrangements, all things come about as a result of the emanation from the star system through its connection to every individual 8.

Footnotes:

1 Ramchal wrote about the influence of the stars elsewhere: see Da’at Tevunot pp. 198-199, Ginzei Ramchal p. 123, Derech Eitz Chaim p. 144, Adir Bamarom p. 235, and elsewhere.

2 In the higher heavens.

3 In the middle heavens.

4 That’s to say that the raw, inchoate and deepest elements are found above, lying in potential in those higher heavens; their somehow physical-yet-spiritual elements are brought closer to earth by the stars; and their solid, rank material bodies then assume concrete forms.

5 See Shabbat 156a.

6 See 1-5-2, 10 above which speaks of the role the angels play in this as well. The Zohar cites both stars and angels at various points.

7 See Moed Kattan 28a. This is referring to constellations and zodiac signs.

8 But the stars and planets don’t only transmute this information from Heaven as a matter of course. Each one lends a particular hue and tone to whatever it affects. Thus, each element of our life is affected by a particular star or planet with its own makeup, character, and idiosyncrasies as well as by the combination of stars and planets in the cosmos.