ANGELS, PLANETS AND MOONS
Dear Family,
Hope everyone is well.
Mazal Tov Mommy on your Hebrew birthday which has already been thoroughly celebrated.
Mazal Tov Penina on your upcoming birthday next week. Wishing you a wonderful Year.
Mazal Tov Shlomo Dahan on his Chassana this week, and all the Family who are there celebrating. You should build a binyan adei ad.
And news from the week - I found the news about the MOON very interesting.
This week the moons orbit was very close to earth and there was therefore a huge moon to see.
The last time it appeared like this was 1948.
Does this date ring a bell?
Yes, 1948 was when the State of Israel was re-established.
And so I also found it interesting when looking through all the news this week, how much amazing new potential is developing for Israel, with all the changes taking place in US.
And in Jewish Teaching, the moon very much represents Klal Yisrael, (while the sun represents the Nations of the world). Any connection?
In this weeks Sedra Vayerah, it speaks much about ANGELS, and together with Rashi’s commentaries, we get quite a good idea about their nature and how they operate.
And so I thought that I would attach the view of the Rambam on these creations (ie ANGELS, PLANETS etc)
As you know the Rambam , besides having a vast Knowledge of the whole of Torah, was also an Astronomer, Physician to the Court of the Sultan of Turkey, and a Philosopher. And as one reads through the Mishneh Torah one is only amazed at his complete mastery and confidence in discussing all these subjects, and more.
In relation to today’s subject one sees his amazing mathematical calculations of Astronomy to calculate the New Moon every month in the section of Kiddush Hachodesh. This is far too complicated to talk about now.
Below is an extract from my Summary of the Mishneh Torah on the subject of the creation of Angels and Planets etc: (Book 1- The Book of Knowledge, Laws of the Foundations of Torah, Chaps 2 and 3)
‘Everything Hashem created can be divided into 3 categories
- Combination of matter (golem) and form (tzura) which are born and perish e.g. man, animals, plants etc.
- Combination of matter and form which does not change. E.g. the stars and spheres. – Their matter and form differ from first category.
- Creations which have form but no matter at all. E.g. angels (There are 10 levels of angels)
Hashem does not know with a knowledge external to Himself as with humans. Rather His Knowledge and His Life are one. Man cannot comprehend this fully.
The different levels of angels all have a correspondingly greater knowledge of Hashem, which is greater than humans. However even the highest angels cannot know Hashem fully.
Perek ג') Maaseh Bereishit (The Study of ‘Natural Forces’)
Structure of the Spheres.
There are basically nine spheres
Each of the 8 spheres which contain the planets and stars are themselves divided into many spheres.
The spheres are solid, transparent, can rotate in different directions from each other and have other characteristics different from the world e.g. no taste or smell.
The earth is suspended in the centre of these nine spheres.
Astronomy attempts to calculate the numbers of spheres, their movements, position of planets etc.
The ninth sphere has been divided into 12 sections and these sections have been named according to the shape of the stars below them i.e. the mazalot (i.e. Aries, Taurus etc)
The Spheres have intelligence (i.e knowledge of Hashem) higher than man but less than Angels, and they recognise this.
The moon is about 1/40 the size of the earth and the earth is about 1/170 the size of the sun (in diameter).
Below the Sphere of Moon, Hashem created four layers – Fire, Air, Water, Earth. (in this order from above down) – the 4 elements
They have no souls and are considered as dead. ‘
Perek ד') Maaseh Bereshit continued
The four elements and the Nefesh.
All bodies below the sky are made up from a combination of these 4 elements.
These bodies will eventually decompose back to their original elements.
The form of the body i.e. its eternal spiritual aspect, is called Nefesh.
The Neshama is different to the nefesh. The neshama requires the body, but the nefesh is eternal.
And then in Chap 7, where the Rambam speaks about Prophecy, he again mentions further about Angels ( ie the lowest level of Angels called Ishim):
‘When the spirit of prophecy falls upon him, his nefesh becomes mingled with the angels called Ishim, and he is transformed into a different person.
There are different levels of prophecy.’
Wishing everyone a Gut Shabbos (accompanied by the Melachim on Friday night)