[Avodah] Sun and Moon--Rav Soloveitchik

[Lampel]

Rav JB Soloveitchik on celestial bodies and their intellects (in his 
personal conversations with David Holzer, p.90-92 of Holzer’s “The Rav 
Thinking Aloud”):

DH: "The Rambam says that the...stars and planets, or spheres) are... 
[intellects]”. What does this mean?"

The Rav: "[Frisch?] also thought this way, as did Spinoza and many of 
the Renaissance philosophers based on Aristotelian philosophy. It is 
interesting that the Rambam limited it only to those bodies above the 
moon ... and did not include the Earth as well. I myself am inclined to 
the concept that planets and stars are thinking beings. It is ridiculous 
to think that thought is limited to moving beings. Even if a person is 
immobile and has no brainwaves (EEG), we don’t really know that there is 
no thought process going on."

Zvi Lampel