[Avodah] Not Making Kiddush Between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 06, 2008 at 01:13:39PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
> : Because this is astrology, and it makes little sense to say that
> : a planet's influence is affected by when the sun happens to rise or
> : set in a particular location.  (Then again, this may indeed have been
> : how the Maharil understood the hourly system, and therefore how the
> : minhag he describes was in fact observed, regardless of how the
> : Amoraim understood the original system.)
> 
> If it's astrology, then it should depend on the earth's and mars's
> year. In addition to time of day. For that matter, astrology usually
> has to do with where these things are in relation to each other.
> The moon vs the constellations of the Zodiac, the planets in
> relation to eachother, the moon *and the sun*.
> If it's the same time every day, regardless of the year on earth or the
> orbit of mars, it's likely NOT astrological.

But it's not just Mars, it's all the classical planets.  It's
certainly astrology, and you'll find it in the more comprehensive
astrology texts, as an early system.  It had the advantage of being
easy to calculate - each planet takes one hour, in strict rotation,
so the whole cycle repeats exactly every seven hours.  No need for
almanacks and fiddly calculations, or observations.  Any seven-year-
old can do it.  Just like biorhythms.  Of course nowadays when
astrology is a hobby, there's no fun in such a simple system, when
you can pull out the almanac and draw up a complicated birth chart...


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas