[Avodah] [Areivim] Zayin adar

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:

> Even though we talk as though it has something to do with the chodesh
> and the galgal mazalos, the Rambam uses a definition that involves
> neither.

Actually it does.  The Galgal Hamazalos is the 9th sphere, not the 8th.
The mazalos are signs, not constellations.  A sign is a 30-degree arc
of sky, regardless of what stars are in it.  The Rambam explicitly
acknowledges the precession of the equinoxes, and characterises it not
as a process that causes the sun to move slowly through the constellations
but as one that the constellations to move slowly through the mazalos.

He says the mazalos were named for the constellations that began entering
them at the time of the mabul, almost two "ages" ago, and since around
the time of the 2nd churban the constellation Pisces has been in the
sign of Aires, while the constellation Aires has been in the sign of
Taurus.  In 200 years or so the constellation Aquarius will move into
the sign of Aires, but it will remain the same sign it was before.

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