Thought for the Day: The Planets and Other Celestial Objects Are Alive and Aware

When looking into the night sky, besides the moon (and the occasional man-made satellites), you are seeing two realms: the fixed stars and the planets. (Yes, I know there are also comets and meteors. Let's focus on the horses before jumping to zebras.) The fixed stars, so called because their position in the sky never changes; if you know your position on the earth and the time of day, you can find any fixed star. The realm of the fixed stars is called the celestial sphere (there is some history behind that designation; not for now). The planets -- which is Greek for "wanderers" -- wander around the sky. (Feel free to Google any of those or sign up for Overview of Physical Sciences that I plan to teach some time in the future at HTC, בעזרת השם.)

The word מַזָל actually means "constellation." (By the way, Google translate is so sure you want the common usage --"luck" or "fortune" -- that I had to play some tricks to finally get the literal translation.) In my world of physics and astronomy, constellations are visual groupings of stars in the celestial sphere. As it turns out, planets are also in the מַזָל category. After clarifying that with R' Klausner this morning, one of the yungaleit in the kollel asked me if I had graduated to kabala now. Nope, I said, it's a Rambam.

Check it out yourself! Rambam, הלכות יסודי התורה, Chapter 3, Section 9:

All of the celestial objects (הכוכבים והגלגלים) are intelligent beings that are alive and well (חיים ועומדים). They are aware of their Creator, and each -- according to its level and understanding -- praises its creator, just as the angels do. Just as they are aware of their Creator, they are also self-aware and aware of the angels above them. Their level of intellect and understanding is below the angels, but above that of human beings.

Yep... not kabala at all; plain, bread and butter Rambam. Not "Guide for the Perplexed", but Mishna Torah. About as non-kabala as you can get. The great rationalist whose words and ideas have too often been co-opted by the non-Torah world. I guess they ignore the parts that make them feel uncomfortable. Shocking.

But, but... you may stammer... we know that planets and stars are just inanimate objects -- big rocks of varying temperature -- traversing the universe according to the laws of physics. Right? I mean, we do know that, right?

I hate to break your bubble (that's a lie, of course, I seek bubbles to break and take great glee in their destruction): First of all, before you worry whether the planets have free will, you should ask yourself if you have free will. Free will is a straight on contradiction to the modern scientific world. It is a known problem. It is also a mostly ignored problem. Some scientists nowadays want to address the problem by saying that even though there is no free will, we don't feel that, so we feel like we have free will and that is just as good. I am not joking here. Real, respected scientists say that. Feel free to type "is free will a contradiction to the laws of physics" into your favorite AI tool. You will get a lengthy answer that boils down to "yes, but it's ok because...."

But, but, what about inertia? You don't need planets to be living, willful creatures, all you need is the law of inertia (aka Newton's First Law of Motion): an object in motion will tend to stay in motion unless acted on by an external force. Right?

So... why do objects continually move? Because of inertia. Uh-huh... and what is inertia? Who is policing all those rocks and enforcing this law? Just let that idea sit in your mind for a while and you will realize that we (post-Newton) say: celestial objects just move because they do; that's the law. The Rishonim (pre-Newton) say: the celestial objects move because they are aware of their Creator and that's how they praise Him.

Inertia doesn't sound so much as an explanation as an abdication, does it? Right.