[Avodah] moon and sun

[Lampel]

>> >  We can ask a question on the Rambam what is the origin of his theory [that the sun and moon have intelligence--ZL].
> Why would it occur to us to question it?  If he says it then he must
> surely have had it bekabalah; where else would he get it?
The idea that the celestial bodies are intelligent beings was widely 
accepted among the Greek philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, etc.). There 
were, on the other hand, some people the Rambam leaves unnamed who 
thought the celestial bodies not only lack intelligence but also possess 
no life, and the Rambam in the Moreh lambasts them for thinking so. On 
the other hand, the Rambam himself  emphasizes that everything about the 
nature of the celestial bodies, their material, their movements and 
causes thereof, etc., is a matter of human speculation and not a matter 
of kaballah:

    MN 2:24
    What I said before (2:22) I will repeat now, namely, that the theory
    of Aristotle, in explaining the phenomena in the sublunary world, is
    in accordance with logical inference. Here we know the causal
    relationship between one phenomenon and another; we see how far
    science can investigate them, and the management of nature is clear
    and intelligible.

    **But of the things in the heavens man knows nothing except a few
    mathematical calculations*,* and you see how far these go. I say in
    the words of the poet," The heavens are the Lord's, but the earth He
    hath given to the sons of man" (Tehillim. 115:16). That is to say,
    God alone has a perfect and true knowledge of the heavens, **their
    nature, their essence, their form,* *_their motions_, and _their
    causes_*;* but He gave man power to know the things which are under
    the heavens: here is man's world, here is his home, into which he
    has been placed, and of which he is himself a portion. This is in
    reality the truth. For **the facts which we require in proving
    [anything about] the existence of heavenly entities are withheld
    from us*:* the heavens are too far from us, and too exalted in place
    and rank. Man's faculties are too deficient to comprehend even the
    general proof the heavens contain for the existence of Him who sets
    them in motion.

    MN 3:14
    Now, do not ask it of me to conform everything our Sages say
    respecting astronomical matters to the situation as it is. For
    mathematics were lacking in those days, and _*their statements on
    those matters were not based on a /mesorah/ from the Prophets_,* but
    on the knowledge which they either themselves possessed or derived
    from contemporary men of science. But we should not on that account
    say, about those things that do conform to the truth, that they are
    incorrect, or only conform coincidentally. Rather, it is preferable
    and proper for every educated and honest man to explain a person's
    words in such a manner that they agree with fully established facts.

    The /Radak/ (/Breishis 1:1/) too, tells us that the Torah teaches us
    details only about the creation of things that were to be located
    below the moon---nothing about the universe beyond that point. The
    Light and the celestial bodies, he says, are mentioned only insofar
    as the role they play in what they provide for the Earth:

    /"Only that which is below the moon's sphere is mentioned in the
    Torah's account of Creation. The Light and the celestial bodies are
    only mentioned for their role in providing light on the earth.
    ...The chacham Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra also wrote that Moshe Rabbeynu
    spoke only about the temporal world; and [when the Torah says Hashem
    created the Heavens and the Earth,] the 'Heavens' refer to the rakia
    (sky) created the second day [not to the spiritual Heavens, nor the
    heavens containing the stars, sun and moon]."

    Zvi Lampel
    /

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