07-04-2010, 11:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-04-2010, 11:51 PM by Rabbi Moshe Weiner.)
B"H
Your comments are based on Rambam's opinion on the issue of astrology. But the majority of the Rishonim Sages (Ramban, Rashba and others) disagree with Rambam's opinion on this point. They hold that astrology is not prohibited as idolatry for Jews (so therefore if practiced only as astrology, it is obviously not even a type of "sheetuf" - which is a belief in an *independent* intermediary power). The "Shulchan Aruch" (Code of Jewish Law), section Yoreh De'ah ch. 179, follows their opinion.
So therefore for a Gentile we cannot say there is any Torah-law prohibition to practice astrology. For more details and explanation of this subject, see "Sheva Mitzvot HaShem" (in Hebrew), section on "Avodah Zara" (idolatry), topic 11:10 and footnote 342. In English, see "The Divine Code," Volume 1, p. 246-247, topic 11:10 and footnote 342.
Your comments are based on Rambam's opinion on the issue of astrology. But the majority of the Rishonim Sages (Ramban, Rashba and others) disagree with Rambam's opinion on this point. They hold that astrology is not prohibited as idolatry for Jews (so therefore if practiced only as astrology, it is obviously not even a type of "sheetuf" - which is a belief in an *independent* intermediary power). The "Shulchan Aruch" (Code of Jewish Law), section Yoreh De'ah ch. 179, follows their opinion.
So therefore for a Gentile we cannot say there is any Torah-law prohibition to practice astrology. For more details and explanation of this subject, see "Sheva Mitzvot HaShem" (in Hebrew), section on "Avodah Zara" (idolatry), topic 11:10 and footnote 342. In English, see "The Divine Code," Volume 1, p. 246-247, topic 11:10 and footnote 342.