Scroll of the Revealer

Anything whose basic principle is from the Torah and provides good for Israel in this exile, or encourages them in their faith, or serves to increase their trust and hope in God is good for a person to investigate and to spend time searching out its secrets and revealing its treasuries. This is especially true if scripture itself stresses its importance and expands upon it, charging every person to analyze and study it.

Now, you find that the topic of the end of days, for which we yearn and to which our eyes are raised, includes all of these good qualities, since one who investigates it will be studying something whose basic principle is from the Torah and which provides great good for Israel, and one who believes in it enhances his faith and fear of God, and one who has hope in it and who trusts in it increases his merit and fulfills God’s command and is justifiably full of joy and bliss.

We likewise find that scripture permits all people to expand upon this topic and analyze it. For in the case of every other Torah matter that involves a prohibition or a permitted act, or which has monetary or bodily implications, one is not permitted to state his own reasons for it. [ . . . ]

This teaches you that you are not allowed to add to or subtract from anything mentioned in such verses, above and beyond the rulings of the sages. By contrast, the study of the end of days does not have to accord with that practice, as scripture permits any person, whether foolish or wise, to speak about it and examine it, as it is written: [Seal the book, even to the time of the end;] many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased (Daniel 12:4). It is clear from the mention of “many” that this is not referring merely to scholars, as the majority of people are not wise and they are the “many.” [ . . . ]

The result of all these verses is that one who is expert in the pathways of the stars can predict forthcoming events. However, he does not have the power to state unequivocally that they will happen or to decree their occurrence. Rather, he can say that this hour is suitable for such-and-such an event, God willing. This is the method of those men of faith who study this branch of wisdom, when they investigate the future. If they seek out the signs of events that have already occurred, they can say that this matter or that incident, which happened on that day, was due to the pathways of the stars, which were in such-and-such a position at that time. They do not need to state such matters conditionally, as God has already actualized that potential occurrence. But the first type of event stated above has not yet happened; it will occur in the future, and one does not yet know if God will want it to come to pass. For this reason, the first type of event must be stated provisionally, whereas the second does not need to be formulated in an ambiguous manner.

Now, if we wish to analyze the kingdom of Israel, and their exile and redemption, by this method and in accordance with the approach of the scholars of this branch of knowledge, we can indeed do so without fear of contradiction or prohibition by the holy scriptures or the words of our sages. Do not suppose that this is problematic on account of the statement of our sages that “there is no constellation for Israel” [e.g., b. Nedarim 32a], and argue that if there is no constellation for them, this clearly implies that constellations can have no effect upon them. For they did not mean by this that constellations do not affect Israel at all. How could they say such a thing when they themselves have described how constellations affect people, and they merely disputed whether the constellation of the day or the constellation of the hour is the determining factor [see b. Shabbat 156a]? And they further stated that “life, children, and sustenance do not depend on one’s merit, but rather they depend upon constellations” [b. Mo‘ed Katan 28a], as we mentioned at the start of this section. All these statements indicate that constellations do affect Israel as well.

As for their saying that “there is no constellation for Israel,” this is what that means: All the nations have one specific constellation of all the constellations that is in charge of them, such as Scorpio for the lands of Arabia and Ishmael [Islam], Sagittarius for Persia, Capricorn for the Philistines, and Virgo or Libra for Edom [Christendom]. Likewise, each and every star is appointed over one or more nations, as the scholars of this branch of wisdom have explained. By contrast, there is no constellation or star appointed over Israel. This is obvious, as we have already established that the constellations and stars, and indeed the whole world, were created only for the sake of Israel. How, then, if they were all created for Israel, could one of them be appointed over Israel? This is the meaning of the verse: [When you see the sun and the moon and the stars, the whole host of heaven . . . ] which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven (Deuteronomy 4:19): He allotted them and gave them rule over all the peoples, that is, all the nations but not Israel.