Hebrew astronomy
Encyclopedia
Hebrew astronomy refers to any astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

 written in Hebrew or by Hebrew speakers, or translated into Hebrew. It also includes an unusual type of literature from the Middle Ages: works written in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 but transcribed in the Hebrew alphabet
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet , known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script, block script, or more historically, the Assyrian script, is used in the writing of the Hebrew language, as well as other Jewish languages, most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. There have been two...

. It includes a range of genres from the earliest astronomy and mythical cosmology
Biblical cosmology
The various authors of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament provide glimpses of their views regarding cosmology.According to the Genesis creation narrative, the cosmos created by Elohim has three levels, with the habitable world in the centre, an underworld below and the heavens above...

 contained in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

, mainly the Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...

 (Hebrew Bible or "Old Testament"), to Jewish religious works like the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

 and very technical works.

The Hebrew Bible

Not much is said in the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...

 concerning the position of the earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 in the universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...

 or the designation of the star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

s and planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...

s. Some constellations are mentioned in the Bible, such as Orion in the Book of Job
Book of Job
The Book of Job , commonly referred to simply as Job, is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, his challenge to God, and finally a response from God. The book is a...

 under the ancient Hebrew name Qsill.

The firmament

Like most ancient peoples, the Hebrews believed the sky was a solid dome or firmament
Firmament
The firmament is the vault or expanse of the sky. According to Genesis, God created the firmament to separate the oceans from other waters above.-Etymology:...

. They believed the Sun, Moon, and stars to be embedded in it.

Stars and constellations

Only a few stars and constellations are named individually in the Old Testament, and their identification is not certain. The clearest references include:
  • Kesîl, usually understood to be Orion
    Orion (constellation)
    Orion, often referred to as The Hunter, is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous, and most recognizable constellations in the night sky...

    , a giant angel.
  • Kimah, which may be the Pleiades
    Pleiades (star cluster)
    In astronomy, the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters , is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky...

    , Aldebaran
    Aldebaran
    Aldebaran is a red giant star located about 65 light years away in the zodiac constellation of Taurus. With an average apparent magnitude of 0.87 it is the brightest star in the constellation and is one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky...

    , Arcturus, or Sirius
    Sirius
    Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek: Seirios . The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris...

    .
  • 'Ash or Ayish, possibly the Hyades
    Hyades (star cluster)
    The Hyades is the nearest open cluster to the Solar System and one of the best-studied of all star clusters. The Hipparcos satellite, the Hubble Space Telescope, and infrared color-magnitude diagram fitting have been used to establish a distance to the cluster's center of ~153 ly...

     or Ursa Major
    Ursa Major
    Ursa Major , also known as the Great Bear, is a constellation visible throughout the year in most of the northern hemisphere. It can best be seen in April...

    , or even the Evening Star (Venus
    Venus
    Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...

     when seen after sunset).
  • Mezarim, which may be Ursa Major and Ursa Minor
    Ursa Minor
    Ursa Minor , also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation in the northern sky. Like the Great Bear, the tail of the Little Bear may also be seen as the handle of a ladle, whence the name Little Dipper...

    , or a synonym for mazzalot
    Mazzaroth
    Mazzaroth is a hapax legomenon of the Hebrew Bible, found in .The similar word mazalot in may be related....

    , in which case it would refer to the planets or the constellations of the zodiac
    Zodiac
    In astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...

    .

Planets

Only two planets are named in the Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...

:
  • Saturn, called Chiun in Amos 5:26, closely related to the Assyrian "Kévan" or "kaiwanu."
  • Venus, called Meleket ha-Shamayim, "the queen of heaven," in Jeremiah 7:18 and elsewhere. That the latter means Venus is shown by the cakes which are said to have been baked for her. Among the Assyrians and Babylonians the cake offerings were called "the bread of Ishtar
    Ishtar
    Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. She is the counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate north-west Semitic goddess Astarte.-Characteristics:...

    ."
  • Helel, the "son of the morning," in Isaiah 14:12, is also thought by some to be the morning star (Venus when visible before dawn). This identification is better known to many English speakers as Lucifer
    Lucifer
    Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...

    , the "light-bearer."

The Talmud

The information preserved in the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

 do not emanate from one homogeneous system, as they are the accumulations of at least four centuries, and are traceable to various authors in the Jerusalem
Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud, talmud meaning "instruction", "learning", , is a collection of Rabbinic notes on the 2nd-century Mishnah which was compiled in the Land of Israel during the 4th-5th century. The voluminous text is also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud de-Eretz Yisrael...

 and Babylonian Talmuds
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

, among whom some were inclined to mysticism.

Astronomy as a religious study

The high value of astronomical knowledge is already demonstrated by the astronomical section of the Book of Enoch
Book of Enoch
The Book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious work, traditionally ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. It is not part of the biblical canon as used by Jews, apart from Beta Israel...

 (about 72-80 BCE), as well as by such sayings as those of Eleazar Ḥisma (about 100), a profound mathematician, who could "count the drops in the ocean" (Hor. 10a), and who declared that "ability to compute the solstice and the calendar is the 'dessert [auxiliaries] of wisdom '" (Ab. iii. 18). Among the sciences that Johanan ben Zakkai mastered was a knowledge of the solstices and the calendar; i.e., the ability to compute the course of the sun and the moon (Suk. 28a). Later writers declare that "to him who can compute the course of the sun and the revolution of the planets and neglects to do so, may be applied the words of the prophet (Isa. v. 12), 'They regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands.'" To pay attention to the course of the sun and to the revolution of the planets is a religious injunction; for such is the import of the words (Deut. iv. 6), "This is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations" (Shab. 75a).

Despite the general importance and religious significance attached to astronomy in the Holy Land, no notable developments in astronomy happened there. The starry heavens of Palestine interested the Jews as creations of God and as means to determine the holidays, but for a better knowledge of them the Jews were undoubtedly indebted to the Babylonians and their Hellenic pupils, as evidenced by the foreign term gematria
Gematria
Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like...

 used to designate the computation of the calendar
Calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...

. Possibly this word represents a transposition of the Greek γραμματεία meaning "arithmetic, mathematics." Most of the observations of a scientific nature were transmitted by Samuel (250), who attended the schools of the Babylonians, and who claimed to possess as exact a knowledge of the heavenly regions as of the streets of his own city Nehardea. Certain rules must nevertheless have existed, because Rabban Gamaliel
Gamaliel
Gamaliel the Elder , or Rabban Gamaliel I , was a leading authority in the Sanhedrin in the mid 1st century CE. He was the grandson of the great Jewish teacher Hillel the Elder, and died twenty years before the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem...

 (about 100), who applied the lunar tablets and telescope, relied for authority upon such as had been transmitted by his paternal ancestors (Yer. R. H. ii. 58b; Bab. R. H. 25a).

Conceptions of Heaven and Earth

In the Talmud, as in the Bible, heaven and earth designate the two borders of the universe. The former is a hollow sphere covering the earth. Another theory states that the sphere consists of a strong and firm plate two or three fingers in thickness, always lustrous and never tarnishing. Another tannaitic
Tannaim
The Tannaim were the Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 70-200 CE. The period of the Tannaim, also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 130 years...

 authority estimates the diameter of this plate as one-sixth of the sun's diurnal journey, while another, a Babylonian, estimates it at 1,000 parasang
Parasang
The parasang is a historical Iranian unit of itinerant distance comparable to the European league.In antiquity, the term was used throughout much of the Middle East, and the Old Iranian language from which it derives can no longer be determined...

s. Yet another theory states that the diameter of the firmament
Firmament
The firmament is the vault or expanse of the sky. According to Genesis, God created the firmament to separate the oceans from other waters above.-Etymology:...

 is equal to the distance covered in 50 or 500 years and this is true also of the earth and the large sea ("Tehom
Tehom
Tehom , literally the Deep or Abyss , refers to the Great Deep of the primordial waters of creation in the Bible. Tehom is a cognate of the Akkadian word tamtu and Ugaritic t-h-m which have similar meaning...

") upon which it rests.

The distance of the firmament from the earth is a journey of 500 years, a distance equivalent to the diameter of the firmament, through which the sun must saw its way in order to become visible. The firmament, according to some, consists of fire and water, and, according to others, of water only, while the stars consist of fire. East and West are at least as far removed from each other as is the firmament from the earth. Heaven and earth "kiss each other" at the horizon and between the water above and that below there are but two or three fingerbreadths. The earth rests upon water and is encompassed by it.

According to other conceptions the earth is supported by one, seven, or twelve pillars. These rest upon water, the water upon mountains, the mountains upon the wind, and the wind upon the storm. The nations of antiquity generally believed that the earth was a disk floating on water. There is also mentioned the terrestrial globe, kaddur, though it may also be translated as "disk". When Alexander the Great attempted to ascend to heaven he rose even higher and higher, until the earth appeared as a globe and the sea as a tray'. The earth is divided into three parts, habitable land, desert, and sea.

Chronology and the zodiac

Chronology was a chief consideration in the study of astronomy among the Jews; sacred time was based upon the cycles of the Sun and the Moon. The Talmud identified the twelve constellations of the zodiac
Zodiac
In astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...

 with the twelve months of the Hebrew calendar
Hebrew calendar
The Hebrew calendar , or Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today predominantly for Jewish religious observances. It determines the dates for Jewish holidays and the appropriate public reading of Torah portions, yahrzeits , and daily Psalm reading, among many ceremonial uses...

. The correspondence of the constellations with their names in Hebrew and the months is as follows:
  1. Aries
    Aries (constellation)
    Aries is one of the constellations of the zodiac, located between Pisces to the west and Taurus to the east. Its name is Latin for ram, and its symbol is , representing a ram's horns...

     - Ṭaleh - Nisan
    Nisan
    Nisan is the first month of the ecclesiastical year and the seventh month of the civil year, on the Hebrew calendar. The name of the month is Babylonian; in the Torah it is called the month of the Aviv, referring to the month in which barley was ripe. It is a spring month of 30 days...

  2. Taurus
    Taurus (constellation)
    Taurus is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is a Latin word meaning 'bull', and its astrological symbol is a stylized bull's head:...

     - Shor - Iyar
    Iyar
    Iyar is the eighth month of the civil year and the second month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. The name is Babylonian in origin. It is a spring month of 29 days. Iyar usually falls in April–June on the Gregorian calendar.In the Hebrew Bible, before the Babylonian Exile, the...

  3. Gemini
    Gemini (constellation)
    Gemini is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It was one of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. Its name is Latin for "twins", and it is associated with the twins Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology...

     - Teomim - Sivan
    Sivan
    Sivan is the ninth month of the civil year and the third month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a spring month of 30 days...

  4. Cancer
    Cancer (constellation)
    Cancer is one of the twelve constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for crab and it is commonly represented as such. Its symbol is . Cancer is small and its stars are faint...

     - Sarṭon - Tammuz
  5. Leo
    Leo (constellation)
    Leo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for lion. Its symbol is . Leo lies between dim Cancer to the west and Virgo to the east.-Stars:...

     - Ari - Av
  6. Virgo
    Virgo (constellation)
    Virgo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for virgin, and its symbol is . Lying between Leo to the west and Libra to the east, it is the second largest constellation in the sky...

     - Betulah - Elul
    Elul
    Elul is the twelfth month of the Jewish civil year and the sixth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a summer month of 29 days...

  7. Libra
    Libra (constellation)
    Libra is a constellation of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for weighing scales, and its symbol is . It is fairly faint, with no first magnitude stars, and lies between Virgo to the west and Scorpius to the east.-Notable features:]...

     - Moznayim - Tishrei
    Tishrei
    Tishrei or Tishri , Tiberian: ; from Akkadian "Beginning", from "To begin") is the first month of the civil year and the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year in the Hebrew calendar. The name of the month is Babylonian. It is an autumn month of 30 days...

  8. Scorpio
    Scorpius
    Scorpius, sometimes known as Scorpio, is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for scorpion, and its symbol is . It lies between Libra to the west and Sagittarius to the east...

     - 'Aḳrab - Cheshvan
    Cheshvan
    Marcheshvan , sometimes shortened to Cheshvan , is the second month of the civil year and the eighth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew...

  9. Sagittarius
    Sagittarius (constellation)
    Sagittarius is a constellation of the zodiac, the one containing the galactic center. Its name is Latin for the archer, and its symbol is , a stylized arrow. Sagittarius is commonly represented as a centaur drawing a bow...

     - Ḳasshat - Kislev
    Kislev
    Kislev Kislev Tiberian ; also Chislev is the third month of the civil year and the ninth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar....

  10. Capricorn
    Capricornus
    Capricornus is one of the constellations of the zodiac; it is often called Capricorn, especially when referring to the corresponding astrological sign. Its name is Latin for "horned male goat" or "goat horn", and it is commonly represented in the form of a sea-goat: a mythical creature that is half...

     - Gedi - Tevet
    Tevet
    Tebet is the fourth month of the civil year and the tenth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It follows Kislev and precedes Shevat. It is a winter month of 29 days...

  11. Aquarius
    Aquarius (constellation)
    Aquarius is a constellation of the zodiac, situated between Capricornus and Pisces. Its name is Latin for "water-bearer" or "cup-bearer", and its symbol is , a representation of water....

     - D'li - Shevat
    Shevat
    Shevat is the fifth month of the civil year and the eleventh month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a winter month of 30 days...

  12. Pisces
    Pisces (constellation)
    Pisces is a constellation of the zodiac. Its name is the Latin plural for fish, and its symbol is . It lies between Aquarius to the west and Aries to the east...

     - Dagim - Adar
    Adar
    Adar is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a winter month of 29 days...



The first three are in the east, the second three in the south, the third three in the west, and the last three in the north; and all are attendant on the sun. According to one account, in the first three months (spring) the Sun travels in the south, in order to melt the snow; in the fourth through sixth months (summer) it travels directly above the earth, in order to ripen the fruit; in the seventh through ninth months (autumn) it travels above the sea, in order to absorb the waters; and in the last three months (winter) it travels over the desert, in order that the grain may not dry up and wither.

According to one conception, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius face northward; Taurus, Virgo, and Capricornus westward; Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius southward; and Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces eastward. Some scholars identified the twelve signs of the zodiac with the twelve tribes of Israel
Israelite
According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...

.

The four solstices (the Teḳufot of Nisan, Tammuz, Tishrei, and Tevet) are often mentioned as determining the seasons of the year and there are occasional references to the rising-place of the sun ('Er. 56a). Sometimes six seasons of the year are mentioned (Gen. R. xxxiv. 11), and reference is often made to the receptacle of the sun (ναρθήκιον), by means of which the heat of the orb is mitigated (Gen. R. vi. 6, and elsewhere). The Moon was also a part of the calendar: "The moon begins to shine on the 1st of the month; its light increases until the 15th, when the disk [(δίσκοσ)] is full; from the 15th to the 30th it wanes; and on the 30th it is invisible" (Ex. R. xv. 26).

The heavenly bodies and their motions

Two different cosmologies can be found in the Talmud. One is a flat Earth
Flat Earth
The Flat Earth model is a belief that the Earth's shape is a plane or disk. Most ancient cultures have had conceptions of a flat Earth, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period ...

 cosmology resembling descriptions of the world in the mythology of the Ancient Near East
Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia...

. The other, resembling ancient Greek astronomy
Greek astronomy
Greek astronomy is astronomy written in the Greek language in classical antiquity. Greek astronomy is understood to include the ancient Greek, Hellenistic, Greco-Roman, and Late Antiquity eras. It is not limited geographically to Greece or to ethnic Greeks, as the Greek language had become the...

, is the geocentric model
Geocentric model
In astronomy, the geocentric model , is the superseded theory that the Earth is the center of the universe, and that all other objects orbit around it. This geocentric model served as the predominant cosmological system in many ancient civilizations such as ancient Greece...

, according to which the stars move about the earth. According to Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

, Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

, and other philosophers among the Greeks, the stars have no motion of their own, being firmly attached to spheres whose center is the earth. A passage in the Talmud, the Baraita
Baraita
Baraita designates a tradition in the Jewish oral law not incorporated in the Mishnah. "Baraita" thus refers to teachings "outside" of the six orders of the Mishnah...

 Pesahim 94b contrasts the pagan view with that of Jewish sages:

The learned of Israel say, "The sphere stands firm, and the planets revolve"; the learned of the nations say, "The sphere moves, and the planets stand firm." The learned of Israel say, "The sun moves by day beneath the firmament, and by night above the firmament"; the learned of the nations say, "The sun moves by day beneath the firmament, and by night beneath the earth."


The sun has 365 windows through which it emerges; 182 in the east, 182 in the west, and 1 in the middle, the place of its first entrance. The course described by it in a year is traversed by the moon in 30 days. The solar year is longer by 11 days than the lunar year (Yer. R. H. ii. 58a). The sun completes its course in 12 months; Jupiter, in 12 years; Saturn, in 30 years; Venus and Mars, in 480 years (Gen. R. x. 4); however, an objection is raised here (in a gloss) against the last-mentioned number. King Antoninus asked the patriarch why the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. At the time of the Deluge it traveled in the opposite direction (Sanh. 91b, 108b). Every 28 years it returns to its original point of departure, and on Tuesday evening of the spring solstice it is in opposition with Saturn, although Plato maintained that the sun and planets never return to the place whence they started. This is the cycle of 28 years (Ber. 59b); the moon-cycle of 19 years may have been meant in the Targ. Yer. Gen. i. 14.

The names of the seven planets are:
  • Shabbetai, Saturn
  • Ẓedeḳ, Jupiter
  • Maadim, Mars
  • Ḥammah, the Sun
  • Kokebet, Nogah or Kokab-Nogah, Venus
  • Kokab, Mercury
  • Lebanah, the Moon


From the names of the seven planets were derived the names of the days of the week and each day was consecrated to the particular planet that ruled during the early hours of the morning. The Talmudists were familiar with the planets and their characteristics in astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...

; but only the week-days were counted, while the Sabbath had a name of its own.

Fixed stars and comets

The Milky Way
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...

 is called "Fire-Stream," a name borrowed from Daniel vii. 10 (Nehar di-nur), where it may possibly have had the same signification. The statement is also made that the sting of Scorpio may be seen lying in the Milky Way. Samuel said: "We have it as a tradition that no comet ever passed across the face of Orion "Kesil"; for if this should happen the earth would be destroyed." When his hearers objected to this statement, saying, "Yet we see that this occurs," Samuel replied: "It only appears so; for the comet passes either above or below the star. Possibly also its radiance passes, but not its body." Again, Samuel says: "But for the warmth of Orion, the earth could not exist, because of the frigidity of Scorpio; furthermore, Orion lies near Taurus, with which the warm season begins. The comet, because of its tail, is called kokba de-shabbiṭ. (rodstar). Joshua ben Hananiah
Joshua ben Hananiah
Joshua ben Hananiah was a leading tanna of the first half-century following the destruction of the Temple. He was of Levitical descent , and served in the sanctuary as a member of the class of singers . His mother intended him for a life of study, and, as an older contemporary, Dosa b. Harkinas,...

 (about 100), declared that a star appears once every seventy years and leads mariners astray, hence they should at such time lay in a larger store of provisions. Rapoport endeavors to prove that the path of Halley's comet had been computed by a wise rabbi. Samuel said: "I know all the paths of heaven, but nothing of the nature of the comet."

The following Biblical names of constellations are mentioned and explained: Pleiades
Pleiades (star cluster)
In astronomy, the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters , is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky...

 (Biblically known as the Seven Stars) [a cluster of] about a hundred stars, and for the much disputed, its equally obscure Aramaic equivalent (MS. M. ), Syriac, is given.

Post-Talmudic times

With the revival of Hellenistic astronomy
Greek astronomy
Greek astronomy is astronomy written in the Greek language in classical antiquity. Greek astronomy is understood to include the ancient Greek, Hellenistic, Greco-Roman, and Late Antiquity eras. It is not limited geographically to Greece or to ethnic Greeks, as the Greek language had become the...

 which took place during the Islamic Golden Age
Islamic Golden Age
During the Islamic Golden Age philosophers, scientists and engineers of the Islamic world contributed enormously to technology and culture, both by preserving earlier traditions and by adding their own inventions and innovations...

, Jews were intimately connected, and the Almagest
Almagest
The Almagest is a 2nd-century mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths. Written in Greek by Claudius Ptolemy, a Roman era scholar of Egypt,...

 is said to have been translated by Sahal ibn Tabari
Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari also given as 810-855 and 783-858 was a Persian Muslim hakim, Islamic scholar, physician and psychologist of Zoroastrian descent, who produced one of the first encyclopedia of medicine. He was a pioneer of pediatrics and the field of child development...

 as early as 800, while one of the earliest independent students of astronomy among the Arabs was Mashallah ibn Athari (754-873?). Jews seem to have been particularly concerned with the formation of astronomical tables of practical utility to astronomers. Sind ben Ali (about 830) was one of the principal contributors to the tables drawn up under the patronage of the al-Mamun. No less than twelve Jews were concerned in the Tables of Toledo
Tables of Toledo
The Toledan Tables, or Tables of Toledo, were astronomical tables which were used to predict the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets relative to the fixed stars...

, drawn up about 1080 under the influence of Ahmad ibn Zaid, and the celebrated Alfonsine Tables
Alfonsine tables
The Alfonsine tables provided data for computing the position of the Sun, Moon and planets relative to the fixed stars....

 were executed under the superintendence of Isaac ibn Sid
Isaac ibn Sid
Isaac ibn Sid was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer; he flourished at the Toledo School of Translators in the second half of the thirteenth century.From the surname "haḤazzan", given him by Isaac Israeli ben Joseph , it may be inferred that he was precentor at the synagogue.Isaac ibn Sid took a leading...

, while Jews were equally concerned in the less-known tables of Peter IV of Aragon
Peter IV of Aragon
Peter IV, , called el Cerimoniós or el del punyalet , was the King of Aragon, King of Sardinia and Corsica , King of Valencia , and Count of Barcelona Peter IV, (Balaguer, September 5, 1319 – Barcelona, January 6, 1387), called el Cerimoniós ("the Ceremonious") or el del punyalet ("the one...

.

Isaac al-Ḥadib compiled astronomical tables from those of Al-Rakkam, Al-Battam, and Ibn al-Kammad
Ibn al-Kammad
Abu Jafar Ahmad ibn Yusuf ibn al‐Kammad was a Muslim astronomer born in Seville, Al-Andalus. He is known to have been educated in Cordoba by the students of Al-Zarqali...

. Joseph ibn Wakkar (1357) drew up tables of the period 720 (Heg.); while Mordecai Comtino
Mordecai Comtino
Mordecai ben Eliezer Comtino was a Turkish Jewish Talmudist and scientist.The earliest date attached to any of his writings is 1425...

 and Mattathia Delacrut commented upon the Persian and Paris tables respectively; the latter were commented upon also by Farissol Botarel. Abraham ibn Ezra
Abraham ibn Ezra
Rabbi Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra was born at Tudela, Navarre in 1089, and died c. 1167, apparently in Calahorra....

 translated Al-Mattani's Canons of the Khwarizmi Tables, and in his introduction tells a remarkable story of a Jew in India who helped Jacob ben Tarik to translate the Indian astronomical tables according to the Indian cycle of 432,000 years. Other tables were compiled by Jacob ben Makir, Emanuel ben Jacob, Jacob ben David ben Yom-Ṭob Poel (1361), Solomon ben Elijah (from the Persian tables), and Abraham Zacuto
Abraham Zacuto
Abraham Zacuto was a Sephardi Jewish astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and historian who served as Royal Astronomer in the 15th century to King John II of Portugal. The crater Zagut on the Moon is named after him....

 of Salamanca
Salamanca
Salamanca is a city in western Spain, in the community of Castile and León. Because it is known for its beautiful buildings and urban environment, the Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. It is the most important university city in Spain and is known for its contributions to...

 (about 1515).

The earliest to treatise of astronomy in Hebrew on a systematic plan was Abraham bar Ḥiyya, who wrote at Marseilles, about 1134. Discussions on astronomical points, especially with regard to the spheres, and disputed points in calculating the calendar occur frequently in the works of Judah ha-Levi, Abraham ibn Ezra, and Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...

, while a new system of astronomy is contained in the "Wars of the Lord" ("Milḥamot Adonai") of Levi ben Gershon.

Jews were especially involved as translators. Moses ibn Tibbon
Moses ibn Tibbon
Moses ibn Tibbon was a Jewish physician, author and translator. The number of works written by Moses ibn Tibbon makes it probable that he reached a great age....

 translated from the Arabic Jabir ben Aflah's acute criticisms of the Ptolemaic system, an anticipation of Copernicus, and thus brought them to the notice of Maimonides. Ibn al-Haitham's Arabic compendium of astronomy was a particular favorite of Jewish astronomers; besides being translated into Spanish by Don Abraham Faquin, it was turned into Hebrew by Jacob ben Makir and Solomon ibn Pater Cohen and into Latin by Abraham de Balmes
Abraham de Balmes
Abraham de Balmes ben Meir Abraham de Balmes ben Meir Abraham de Balmes ben Meir (born at Lecce, in the kingdom of Naples; died at Venice, 1523 was Italian Jewish physician and translator of the early 16th century....

. Other translations from the Arabic were by Jacob Anatoli
Jacob Anatoli
Jacob ben Abba Mari ben Simson Anatoli was a translator of Arabic texts to Hebrew. He was invited to Naples by Frederick II. Under this royal patronage, and in association with Michael Scot, Anatoli made Arabic learning accessible to Western readers...

, Moses Galeno, and Kalonymus ben Kalonymus
Kalonymus ben Kalonymus
Kalonymus ben Kalonymus ben Meir was a Provençal Jewish philosopher and translator. He studied philosophy and rabbinical literature at Salonica, under the direction of Senior Astruc de Noves and Moses ben Solomon of Beaucaire...

, bringing the Greco-Arabic astronomers to the notice of western Europe. Jacob Anatoli, for example, translated into Hebrew both the Almagest and Averroes
Averroes
' , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was a Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy,...

' compendium of it, and this Hebrew version was itself translated into Latin by Jacob Christmann. Other translators from the Hebrew into Latin were Abraham de Balmes and Kalonymus ben David of Naples, while David Kalonymus ben Jacob
David Kalonymus ben Jacob
David Kalonymus ben Jacob was an Italian Jewish astrologer of the fifteenth century, and a member of the Kalonymus family....

, Ephraim Mizraḥi, and Solomon Abigdor
Solomon Abigdor
Solomon ben Abraham Abigdor was a Hebrew translator.Assisted by his father, Abraham Bonet ben Meshullam, he, at the early age of fifteen years, translated Arnauld de Villeneuve's work, "De Judiciis Astronomiæ," from Latin into Hebrew under the title "Panim ba-Mishpaṭ" . This translation still...

 translated from the Latin into Hebrew. The well-known family of translators, the Ibn Tibbons, may be especially mentioned. In practical astronomy Jewish work was even more effective. Jacob ben Makir (who is known also as Profiat Tibbon) appears to have been professor of Astronomy at Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....

, about 1300, and to have invented a quadrant to serve as a substitute for the astrolabe. Levi ben Gershon was also the inventor of an astronomical instrument, and is often quoted with respect under the name of Leon de Bañolas. Bonet de Lattes
Bonet de Lattes
Bonet de Lattes was a Jewish physician and astrologer. He is known chiefly as the inventor of an astronomical ring-dial by means of which solar and stellar altitudes can be measured and the time determined with great precision by night as well as by day...

 also invented an astronomical ring. Abraham Zacuto ben Samuel was professor of Astronomy at Salamanca, and afterward astronomer-royal to Emmanuel of Portugal
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...

, who had previously been advised by a Jewish astronomer, Rabbi Joseph Vecinho
Joseph Vecinho
Joseph Vecinho was a Portuguese Jew, born in the town of Covilhã, court physician and scientist at the end of the fifteenth century....

, a pupil of Abraham Zacuto, as to the project put before him by Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...

, who, in carrying it out, made use of Zacuto's "Almanac" and "Tables."

With the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

, Jewish work in astronomy lost in importance, as Europe could refer to the Greek astronomers without it. The chief name connected with the revival of astronomical studies on the Baltic is that of David Gans
David Gans
----David ben Solomon ben Seligman Gans was a Jewish mathematician, historian, astronomer, astrologer, and is best known for the works Tzemach David and Nechmad ve'naim.- Early life :...

 of Prague (d. 1613), who corresponded with Kepler, Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe , born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, was a Danish nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations...

, and Regiomontanus
Regiomontanus
Johannes Müller von Königsberg , today best known by his Latin toponym Regiomontanus, was a German mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, translator and instrument maker....

 . He was acquainted with the Copernican system, but preferred that of Ptolemy, while as late as 1714 David Nieto
David Nieto
David Nieto was the Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community in London, later succeeded in this capacity by his son, Isaac Nieto....

 of London still stood out against the Copernican system.

The modern epoch of the science begins with a great Jewish name, that of Sir William Herschel
William Herschel
Sir Frederick William Herschel, KH, FRS, German: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel was a German-born British astronomer, technical expert, and composer. Born in Hanover, Wilhelm first followed his father into the Military Band of Hanover, but emigrated to Britain at age 19...

 (1738–1822), whose Jewish origin is acknowledged by his biographer. His systematic survey of the heavens, continued and completed by his son John, his catalogues of nebulæ and clusters, and his discovery of the planet Uranus, may be classed among the greatest exploits in the history of Astronomy. He also started the investigation into the constitution of the universe, determined the path of the sun toward the constellation Vega, and in innumerable ways started this science along the lines on which it developed up to the time of the discovery of spectrum analysis. He was assisted throughout his work by his sister Caroline Herschel (1750–1848). Fourteen of the asteroids were located by H. Goldschmidt (1802–66). Wilhelm Beer (1797–1850), the brother of Meyerbeer, was the first to draw an accurate map of the moon. Moritz Loewy (b. 1833) was director of the Paris Observatory, and the inventor of the coudé or elbow telescope, by which the stars may be observed without bending the neck back and without leaving the comfortable observatory.

See also

  • Abraham bar Hiyya Ha-Nasi
    Abraham bar Hiyya Ha-Nasi
    ' was a Jewish mathematician, astronomer and philosopher, also known as Savasorda or Abraham Judaeus...

     (1130)
  • Abraham ibn Ezra
    Abraham ibn Ezra
    Rabbi Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra was born at Tudela, Navarre in 1089, and died c. 1167, apparently in Calahorra....

     (1093–1168)
  • Abraham Zacuto ben Samuel
    Abraham Zacuto
    Abraham Zacuto was a Sephardi Jewish astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and historian who served as Royal Astronomer in the 15th century to King John II of Portugal. The crater Zagut on the Moon is named after him....

     (16th cent.)
  • Babylonian astronomy
  • David Gans
    David Gans
    ----David ben Solomon ben Seligman Gans was a Jewish mathematician, historian, astronomer, astrologer, and is best known for the works Tzemach David and Nechmad ve'naim.- Early life :...

     (died 1613)
  • Elijah Mizrachi
    Elijah Mizrachi
    Elijah Mizrachi was a Talmudist and posek, an authority on Halakha. He is best known for his Sefer ha-Mizrachi, a supercommentary on Rashi's commentary on the Torah...

     (died 1526)
  • Genesis creation narrative
  • Gersonides
    Gersonides
    Levi ben Gershon, better known by his Latinised name as Gersonides or the abbreviation of first letters as RaLBaG , philosopher, Talmudist, mathematician, astronomer/astrologer. He was born at Bagnols in Languedoc, France...

     (Levi ben Gershon), (1327–44)
  • Isaac Israeli ben Joseph
    Isaac Israeli ben Joseph
    Isaac Israeli ben Joseph or Yitzhak ben Yosef was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer/astrologer who flourished at Toledo in the first half of the fourteenth century...

     (1310–30)
  • Islamic astronomy
    Islamic astronomy
    Islamic astronomy or Arabic astronomy comprises the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age , and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in the Middle East, Central Asia, Al-Andalus, and North Africa, and...

  • Jacob Anatoli
    Jacob Anatoli
    Jacob ben Abba Mari ben Simson Anatoli was a translator of Arabic texts to Hebrew. He was invited to Naples by Frederick II. Under this royal patronage, and in association with Michael Scot, Anatoli made Arabic learning accessible to Western readers...

     (1232)
  • Jewish views of astrology
    Jewish views of astrology
    In Hebrew, astrology was called hokmat ha-nissayon, "the wisdom of prognostication", in distinction to hokmat ha-hizzayon...

  • Judah ha-Levi (1140)
  • Kabbalistic astrology
    Kabbalistic astrology
    Kabbalistic astrology Kabbalistic astrology Kabbalistic astrology (called Mazal or Mazalot ["zodiac," "destiny"] is a system of astrology based upon the Hebrew Kabbalah. It is used to interpret and delineate a person's birth chart, seeking to understand it through a Kabbalistic lens...

    • Sefer Raziel HaMalakh
      Sefer Raziel HaMalakh
      Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, , is a medieval Kabbalistic grimoire, primarily written in Hebrew and Aramaic, but surviving also in Latin translation, as Liber Razielis Archangeli, in a 13th century manuscript produced under Alfonso X.-Textual history:The book cannot be shown to predate the 13th century,...

    • Sefer Yetzirah
      Sefer Yetzirah
      Sefer Yetzirah is the title of the earliest extant book on Jewish esotericism, although some early commentators treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed to Kabbalah...

  • Mashallah ibn Athari (754-813)
  • Moses ibn Tibbon
    Moses ibn Tibbon
    Moses ibn Tibbon was a Jewish physician, author and translator. The number of works written by Moses ibn Tibbon makes it probable that he reached a great age....

     (fl.
    Floruit
    Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...

     1244-74)
  • Moses Isserles
    Moses Isserles
    Moses Isserles, also spelled Moshe Isserlis, , was an eminent Ashkenazic rabbi, talmudist, and posek, renowned for his fundamental work of Halakha , entitled ha-Mapah , an inline commentary on the Shulkhan Aruch...

    (d. 1573)
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK