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Moses MaimonidesLetter on Astrology ( 1 1 9 4 )TRANSLATED BY RALPH LERNER

[3 4 9 ]Who is she that looketh forth as the dawn, fair as the moon, clear asthe sun, terrible as an army with banners?[Song of Songs 6:10]The inquiry has arrived of our companions and familiar friends [see

Ps. 55:14], the skillful sages who know law and decree [see Esther 1:13],who dwell at Montpellier. May the Name shield them and increase theirwisdom a nd enlarge their learning and command the blessing upon them intheir storehouses and in all that they put their hands unto[see Deut. 28:8].Such is the wish of their brother and friend, who prays on their behalf andrejoices in their tranquillity, Moses, son of Rabbi M aimo n (may the mem -ory of the righteous be a bless ing), the Spaniard. This in quiry testifies to thepurity of their soul and the excellence of their understanding and showsthat they pursue science and search into the chambers of understanding andhasten to ascend the steps of knowledge in order to find out desired wordsand that which was written uprightly [see Eccles. 12:10], and to understandthe word and the interpretation [see Eccles. 8:1]. May the hand of the L ordbe their help and lay open for them everything that is hidden and m ake l eve lever y r ugg ed p lace [see Isa. 40:4]. Amen.I perceive in this inquiry that although its boughs are m any, they areall branches of a single tree that is their commo n root: name ly, all the state-ments of the astrologers, the stargazers [see Isa. 47:13]. It is evident that thecompilation we have made of the statutes of the Torah, which we titled"Mishneh Torah," has not reached you. If i t had, you would have know ndirectly my opinion regarding all those things of which you have inquired,for we have m ade this entire matter clear in [the section of that work called]"Laws Concerning Idolatry and the Ordinances o f the Gentiles ." I t seems

This translation is of the Hebrew text as established by A lexander M arx, ed., "TheCorrespondence between the Rabbis of Southern France and Maimo nides about Astrology,"in Hebrew Union College Annual 3 (1926) : 349-58 (boldfaced numera ls be tween squarebrackets refer to page breaks in this edition). Italics in this text have been reserved for M ai-mon ides' quotations from Scripture. The present translation is a reprinting, with slight stylis-tic changes, of Ralph Lerne r, trans., Maimonides' Letter on Astrology, in Medieval PoliticalPhilosophy: A Sourcebook, ed. Ralph Lerner and Muhsin Mandi, 227-36. Copyright 01963 by The Free Press. Reprinted with permission of The F ree Press, a Division of Simon &Schuster.

to me that it will come to you before this reply, since it is already wid espreadon the island of Sicily, as well as in the Wes t and in the East and in the South.In any case, I mys elf need to ma ke this clear to you. [350]Know , my ma sters, that it is not proper for a ma n to accept as trust-worthy anything other than o ne of these three things . The first is a thing forwhich there is a clear proof deriving from m an's reasoning such as arith-metic, geometry, and astronomy. The second is a thing that a man perceivesthrough one of the five sensessuch as when he kn ows w ith certainty thatthis is red and this is black and the like through the sight of his eye; or aswhen he tastes that this is bitter and this is sw eet; or as when he feels that thisis hot and this is cold; or as when he hears that this sound is clear andthis sound is indis t inct; or as when he sm ells that this is a p leas ing smelland this is a displeasing smell, and the like. The third is a thing that a m anreceives from the prophets or from the r ighteous . Every reasonable m anought to distinguish in his mind and thought all the things that he accepts astrustworthy, and say: "This I accept as trustworthy because of tradition,and this because of sense-perception, and this on grounds of reason." Any-one w ho accepts as trustworthy anything that is not of these three species,of him it is said: The simple believeth everything [Prov. 14:15].

Thus you ought to know that fools have composed thousands ofbooks of nothingness and em ptiness. Any number of men, great in years butnot in wisdom , wasted all their days in studying these books and im aginedthat these follies are science. They came to think of themselves as wise menbecause they knew that science. The thing about which most of the worlderrs, or all of itsave for a few ind ividuals, the remnant whom the Lordshall call [see Joe l 3:5]is that thing of which I am a pprising you. The greatsickness and the grievous evi l [see Eccles. 5:12, 15] consist in this: that all thethings that man finds w ritten in boo ks, he presumes to think of as true, andall the more so if the books are old. And since many individuals have busiedthemselves with those books and have engaged in discussions concerningthem, the rash fellow's mind at once lea ps to the conclusion that these arewords of wisdom, and he says to himself: "Has the pen of the scribeswr ought in vain [see Jer. 8:8], and have they vainly engaged in these things?"

This is why our kingdom was lost and our Temple was destroyed andwe w ere brought to this . For our fathers s inned a nd are no m ore becausethey found man y books dealing with these themes of the stargazers, thesethings being the root of idolatry, as we have m ade clear in "Laws Concern-ing Idolatry." They erred and w ere drawn after them, imagining them to beglorious science an d to be of great utility. They did not busy them selves withthe art of war o r with the conquest of lands, but ima gined that those studies

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would help them . Therefore the prophets called them fools an d dolts [seeJer. 4:22]. And truly fools they were, for they walked after confused thingsthat do not profit [see 1 Sam . 12:21 and Jer. 2:8]. [351]Know, m y masters, that I myse lf have investigated much into thesematters. The first thing I studied is that scien ce which is ca lled judicial as-trologythat is, [the science] by which man may know what will come topass in the wo rld or in this or that city or kingdom an d what will happen toa particular individual all the days of his life. I have also read in all mattersconcerning all of idolatry, so that it seems to me there does not rema in in theworld a com pilation ) on this subject, having been translated into Arabicfrom other languages, but that I have read it and have understood its sub-ject matter and have plumbed the depth of its thought. From those books itbecame clear to me what the reason is for al l those comm andments thateveryone com es to think of as having no reason at all other than the decreeof Scripture. I already have a great compilatio n on this subject in the Arabiclanguage [i.e., the "Guide of the Perplexed"] with lucid proofs for every sin-gle comm andm ent, but this is not required of us now . I return to the subjectof your inquiry.Know, m y masters, that every one of those things concerning judicialastrology that [its adherents] m aintainnamely, that som ething will hap-pen one way and not another, and that the constellation under which one isborn will draw him on so that he will be of such and such a kind and so thatsom ething will happen to him one way and not anotherall those asser-tions are far from being scientific; they are stupidity. There are lucid, fault-less proofs refuting all the roots of those assertions. Never did o ne of thosegenuinely wise m en of the nations busy him self with this matter or write onit. Nor did they write such compilations or commit the error of calling it ascience, other than the Chasdeans, Chaldeans, Canaanites, and Egyptians,for that was their religion in those days. But the wise men of Greeceandthey are the philosophers who wrote on scien ce and busied them selves withall kinds of knowledge [maddal m ock and scorn and ridicule these fournations that I have m entioned to you, an d they rally proofs to refute theirentire position root and branch [see M al. 3:19]. The wise men of Persia,too, recognized and understood that all that science which the Chasdeans,Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Canaanites produced is a falsehood and a lie.Do not imagine that those refuta tions are m ere assertions and that wetherefore should no t put our trust in them. R ather there are lucid and cor-rect, faultless proofs to refute that entire position, and the only one whowould cling to it would be a simple one who believes everything [see Prov.14:15], or one who wishes to deceive o thers.

And know , my masters, that the science of the stars that is genuine sci-ence is know ledge of the form of the spheres, their number, their measure,the course they follow, each one 's period of revolution, their inclination tothe north [352] or to the so uth, their revolving to the ea st or to the we st, andthe orbit of every star and what its course is. On all this and the like, the wisemen o f Greece, Persia, and India wrote compilations. This is an exceedin glyglorious science. By means of it the onset of the eclipses of luminaries maybe known a nd when they will be eclipsed at any given place; by means of itthere may be kn own the cause [`il lah] for the moon's [yareah] appearingjust like a bow, then waxin g great until it is full, and then gradually wan ing;by means of it there may be known when the moon [lebana h] will or will notbe seen; and the reason why one day will be long and an other day short; andthe reason why two stars will rise as one , but not set together; and the rea-son why a given day at a given place is thirteen hours long and in anotherplace fifteen or sixteen o r twenty hours long, yet being a single day. (In on eplace the day and the night will be of equal duration; in another place theday will be l ike a m onth or two months or threeso that a place may befound where the entire year is a single day, six months daytim e and sixmonths nighttime.) How m any ama zing conditions are made intelligible bythis science, all of which is undo ubtedly true. It is this calculation of astro-nomical cycles of which the [talmudic] sages said that it is wisdom and un-derstanding in the eyes of the gentiles [see B .T., Shabbath 75a]. But as forthese assertions of the stupid astrologers, they are nothing. I am now m ak-ing clear to you the chapter headings of these "things that are the mystery ofthe universe" [see B .T., Hagigah 13a].Know, that all the gentile scholarsand they are the great philoso-phers, men o f intellect and science [m addal w ere all in accord that theworld has a Governor. He makes the sphere revolve, the sphere not revolv-ing of itself. They have many books a dvancing a lucid proof for this; on thispoint there is no controversy am ong m en of science [m addal . There is,however, a great controversy among them regarding this entire world,namely, the [lunar] sphere and what is beneath it. (1) Most of them say thatit is not subject to generation and corruption, but that as it is now, it was andit will be for ever and ever. Just as the Holy One (blessed be He), who was al-ways the same as He is no w, is making it revolve, so was He always makingit revolve, and it was always being revolved; the two of them were alwaystogether, never was one w ithout the other. (2) Am ong them there are thosewho m aintain that this sphere has com e into being and that the deity hascreated it, but that there is som ething that exists together with the C reator,l ike the clay in the pot ter 's hand [see Jer. 18:6]. From that thing which exists

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together with Him, He ma kes whatever He pleases. Sometime s He will usesom e of that clay, as it were, to make heaven and som e of it to make ea rth;and som etimes , if He pleases , He takes some of that out of which He hasmade heaven and m akes something else out of i t . But to bring forth some-thing out of nothing is im possible. [353] (3) Among the philosophers thereare those who m aintain, just as the prophets maintaine d, that the Holy One( blessed be He ) created all created things out of nothing and that there is noother thing with the Creator aside from the creation that He has broughtforth. Now the great controversy is over this point, and this is the very pointthat Abraham our Father discerned. A thousand boo ks have already beenwritten on this, with proofs that each and every one o f them rallies to sup-port its position. It is the root of the Torah that the deity alone is primo rdialand that He has created the whole out of nothing. Whoever does not ac-knowledge this is guilty of radical unbelief and is guilty of heresy. I myselfhave alread y written a great compilation in Arabic [i.e., the "Guide of thePerplexed"] on these m atters. I have explained the lucid proofs of the exis-tence of the Creator and that He is one and that He is not a body or corpo-real in any respect. I have shattered all those proofs that the philosophersadvance a s proving that the world was not created. In addition I have re-solved all the great difficulties that they have raised against us on account ofour maintaining that the deity has created everything that exists out ofnothing.All these, then, are the three sects into w hich the gentile scholars fall,from the earliest antiquity down to now. (1) Those who maintain that thesphere is not a created thing, but that it eternally has been and will be just asit is. (2) Those who m aintain that the deity has created it out of that matterwhich always exists by Him . (3) Those who main tain, just as all the prophetsdid, that there is no o ther thing that is with the deity, just He Him self; andthat when He w ished, He brought forth this world out of nothing, in con -formity with His will. All of these three sects are in a ccord on the followingpoint. Everything that comes into being in this lower worldnam ely, everyliving soul [see Gen . 1:30] and every tree and every species of grass andevery one of the species of mineralsthe whole has the deity as its maker,through a power com ing from the spheres and the stars. And [they are in ac-cord] that the power of the Creator flows first upon the spheres and thestars; from the spheres and the stars it flows and spreads through this[lower] world, everything that is thereby coming into being. Just as wema intain that the Holy One (blessed be He) performs signs and wond ersthrough the angels, so do these philosophers ma intain that all these occur-rences in the nature of the world always com e through the spheres and the

stars. They maintain that the spheres and the stars possess souls and kno wl-edge. All these things are true. I myself have alread y mad e it clear, withproofs , that al l these things involve no damage to rel ig ion. And not onlythis, but what is more I have understood from the remarks of the sage s in allof the M idrashoth that they maintain as the philosophers maintained. Onthese matters there is no controversy whatever between the sages of Israeland the philosophers, as I have made clear in those chapters [in the "Guideof the Perplexed"]. [354]All three of these sects of the philosophers, which maintain that every-thing is made by means of the spheres and the stars, also maintain thatwhatever happens to each and every human being is d ue to chance. It is notdue to any cause [`illah] coming from above, and n either the constellationunder which one is bo rn nor nature can avail against it. There is no differ-ence for them betwee n this individual who was torn to pieces by a lion thathappened upon him, or this mo use that was torn to pieces by a cat, or thisfly that was torn to pieces by a s pider. Neither is there a difference betweena roof's falling upon and killing som eone, or a rock's breaking loose from amoun tain and falling upon a tree or upon another rock and breaking it. Allthis, they maintain, is simply fortuitous. It is said as well of those human be -ings who are w arring with one another over a great kingdom, that they arelike a pack of dogs w arring over a carcass. This is not due to any caus e [sib-bah] coming from the stars. Further, this one's being poor and that one rich,this one's having children and that one's being childless: all the philoso-phers maintain that this is due to chance. The sum mary of the m atter is thatthey maintain that what happens to each and every thing, be it man or beastor trees and m inerals, is all due to chance. But the being of all the species andthe things comprehended in the entire world in which there is not the activ-ity of a living soul: all of this stems from the power of the spheres whoseroot, in turn, comes from the Holy One (blessed be He).

The controversy lies in this, that the true religionistsa nd that is thereligion of Moses our Mastermaintain that what happens to individualsis not due to chance, but rather to judgment; as the Torah says: For al l Hisways are judgment [Deut. 32:4]. The prophet explained: Whos e eyes ar eo p en u p o n a l l t h e wa ys o f t h e so n s o f m a n , t o g i ve every o n e a c c o rd i n g t o h i sways and accor ding to the f r uit o f h i s doings [ Jer. 32:19]. It is regarding thisthat the Torah warned and bore witness a nd told Israel: "But if ye wil l no thearken unto Me [Lev. 26:14], I shall bring hardship upon you. If you main-tain that that hardship is not an affliction brought on by your sins, butrather due to chance and one of those things that happen by chance, whythen I M yself shall heap m ore of that chance upon youas i t is w ritten:

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184 ADDRESSES TOTHE PEOPLE

An d if y e walk With Me [in the way of] chance , . . . the n I wil l walk withy ou in the fury o f chance " [Lev. 26:21, 28]. This is a root of the religion ofM oses our M aster, that everything happening to hum an beings is a [ just]decree and judgment. Hence the sages maintained: "There is no d eath with-out sin, and no afflictions without transgression" [B.T., Shabbath 55a].And know, m y ma sters, that it is one of the roots of the religion ofMoses our Masterand one that all the philosophers also acknowledgethat every action of human beings is left to them and that there is nothing toconstrain or draw them. Rather, if he so pleases, a man w ill worship Godand become wise and a ttend the house of study. And if he so pleases, he willfollow the counsel o f the wicked and run with thieves and hide w ith adul-terers. There is no influence or constellation under which on e is born thatwill draw him in any mann er toward one of those ways. Hence it was com-manded and told to him: "Do this and do not do that." We have explainedman y of the things involved in these m atters in our compilation in [355]Arabic, the "Com men tary on the Mishnah," as well as in other compila-tions. Thus we ought to know that what happens to huma n beings is notl ike what happens to the beast, as the philosophers maintain.Three disagreements are to be found in these matters. How? Imaginethis situation: Here is Reuben, a tanner, poor, and his children have died inhis own lifetime. An d here is Sime on, a perfumer, rich, and his childrenstand befo re him. (1) The philosopher will main tain that this is due tochance. It is possible that Reuben could becom e a perfumer, grow rich, andhave children; and it is possible that Simeon could becom e impoverished,turn into a tanner, and witness his children's d eath. All this is simply fortu-itous. There is no na ture in the world and no power ema nating from a starthat caused this individual to be or not to be thus. This is the position of thephilosophers. (2) The second position is that of those who believe in judicialastrology and whose sayings you have heard and w hose follies are wide-spread am ong you. They m aintain that it is impossible that a given thingshould ever change. Never will Reuben be anything other than a tanne r andpoor and childless, for it was thus fixed by the pow er of the sphere at thetime of his birth. Similarly, it is impossible for Simeon to be anything otherthan a perfumer an d rich and with surviving children, just as it was fixed bythe power of the sphere at the time of his birth.These two ways or these two positions are regarded as falsehoods byus. The position of the astrologers is given the lie by reason, for correct rea-soning has already refuted, by means of lucid proofs, all those follies thatthey have maintained. It also is regarded as a falsehood by us because of thereligious tradition, for if the m atter stood thus, of w hat utility would the

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Torah and the comma ndme nt and the Talmud be to a particular individual?For in that event, every single individual would lack the power to do an y-thing he set his mind to, since something else draws him on against his willto be this and not to be that. Of what use, then, is the comm and or the Tal-mud? The roots of the religion of Moses our Master, we find, refute the po-sit ion of these stupid ones, in addition to reason's do ing so w ith all thoseproofs that the philosophers m aintain to refute the position of the Chas-deans and the Chaldeans and their associates. The position of the philoso-phers who maintain that these things are due to chance is also regarded as afalsehood by us because o f the religious tradition.(3) The true way upon which we rely and in which we walk is this: Wesay regarding this Reuben and Simeon that there is nothing that draws onthe one to become a perfume r and rich, and the other to becom e a tannerand poo r. It is possible that the situation will change and be reve rsed, as thephilosopher m aintains. But the philosopher [356] maintains that this is d ueto chance. We main tain that it is not due to chance, but rather that this situ-ation depends on the will of Him who spoke, and the world came into being[see Ps. 33:9]; all of this is a [just] decree and judgmen t. We do not know theend of the Holy One's wisdo m (blessed be He) so a s to know by what [ just]decree and judgment He required that this should be this way and that thatshould be the other way; for His ways are not like our ways, neither are Histhoughts l ike our thoughts [see Isa. 55:8]. Rather we are obliged to fix inour minds that if Simeon sins, he will be punished with stripes and impov-erished and his children will die and the like. And if Reuben repents andmends his ways a nd searches his deeds and walks in a straight path, he willgrow rich and will succeed in all his undertakings and see [his] seed and pro-long [his] days [see Isa. 53:10]. This is a root of the religion. If a man says,"But look, many have acted in this way and yet have not succeeded," whythis is no proof. Either some iniquity of theirs caused this, or they are af-flicted [now] in order to inherit something even better than this [hereafter].The summary of the matter is that our mind cannot grasp how the decreesof the Holy One (blessed be He) work upon human beings in this world andin the World to Come.What we have said about this from the beginning is that the entire po-sition of the stargazers is regarded as a falsehood by all men of science[maddal. I know that you may search and find sayings of some individualsages in the Talmud and Midrashoth whose words appear to maintain thatat the mom ent of a ma n's birth the stars will cause such and such to happento him. Do not regard this as a difficulty, for it is not fitting for a man toabandon the prevailing law and raise on ce again the counterarguments and

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replies [that preceded its enactm ent]. Similarly it is not proper to abandonmatters of reason that have already been verified by proofs, shake loose ofthem, and depen d upon the words of a single one of the sages from w hompossibly the m atter was hidden. Or there may be an allusion in those w ords;or they may have been said with a view to the times and the business beforehim. (You surely know how m any of the verses of the Holy Law are no t tobe taken literally. Since it is known through proofs of reason that it is im-possible for the thing to be literally so, [On qelos] the Translator rendered itin a form that reason can abide.) A m an should never cast his reason behindhim, for the eyes are se t in front, not in back. Now I have told you all myheart [see Jud g. 16:18] on this subject.

What has reached you in my name concerning the Mess iah does notcorrespond to the facts. It was not in the East, in Isfahan, but rather inYem en that an individual arose (it is now som e twenty-two years ago) andproclaimed that he was a messen ger come to prepare the way for the KingMess iah and told them that the M ess iah was in the land of Yem en. ManypeopleJews and Arabsgathered about him, and they would movearound in the hills. Our brethren in Yem en wrote m e a long letter informingme of his way an d judgment, of the innovations he had ma de for them in theprayers, [357] and of what he wa s saying. They said that they had alread yseen certain m arvels of his, and they questioned m e about this. I gatheredfrom all the circumstances that this poor fellow is ignorant and god-fearing,indeed he possesses no w isdom at all, and that everything that they say hedid or that came to sight through him is a falsehood and a lie. I trembled forthe Jews who w ere there, and compose d som e three or four tablets for themon the subject of the Mes siah and his signs and the signs of the time duringwhich he shall appear; and I warned them to beware of this individual lesthe be ruined and ruin the [ Jewish] comm unities. The summary of the mat-ter is that after a year he was seized, and all who had joined with him fled.The king of the Arabs who had seized him asked him: "What is this that youhave done?" He replied: "What I have done, I have indeed done, and ac-cording to God's word." Then he said: "What is your authenticating won-der?" He replied: "Chop off my head a nd I shall revive at once." He said tohim: "You [can ] have no greater sign than this. Certainly I and the who leworld shall trust and know that my forefathers have bequeathed a false-hood." At once they killed that poor fellow (m ay his death be an a tonemen tfor him and for al l Is rael) , and the Jews in m ost p laces were punished byfines. Even now there are som e dunces there who m aintain that presently he

will come to life and rise. Such were the circumstances. If you heard that myletter has come to Fez, it is only because those remarks of m ine that I sent toYemen were copied and arrived in Fez.

I have already told yo u that all the details of your inquiries on this sub-ject are all branches of a single tree. I myself command you, out of myknowledge: Hew down the tree and cut off its branches, and so on [Dan .4:11]. Plant in its stead the t r ee o f the knowledge o f go od and evi l [see Gen.2:9], and eat of its goodness and its fruit [see Je r. 2:7], and put forth yourhands and take also from the tree of life. The Holy One (blessed be He) willabsolve us and will absolve you for plucking off its fruit and for ea ting ourfill of its goodne ss until we live forever. Amen.W ritten in great haste on 11 Tishri 1507 (of the Seleucid era) [ = 1194c.E.] in the land of Egypt. May salvation be nigh.Do no t censure me, my m asters, for the brevity of these remarks, forthe writing makes it clear that I wrote it to fill a present nee d. For I was verybusy with many gentile affairs. The deity knows that if Rabbi Phinehas [benMeshullam] 2 had not sent a messenger who urged me till I was ashamed[see 2 K ings 2 :17] and did no t leave my presence unti l I had writ ten i t , Iwould not be replying now since [ 358] I have no leisure. On this account,judge in m y favor. Farewell, my brothers, friends, and masters; may you in-crease and be exalted forever. Am en.

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Note on Maimonides'Letter on Astrology

The addressees of this Letter had asked Maimonides for his view aboutastrology. After having praised their question, he says that if they hadknown his Mishneh Torah, they would have known his opinion on thesubject. He uses the first person plural when speaking of himself as theauthor of the Mishneh Torah, while when speaking of his opinion or of hisGuide he uses the first person singular. He begins by speaking of the sourcesof knowledge: knowledge stems from reason (deah), sense, and traditionfrom the prophets and the just. He tacitly excludes the endoxa either

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Maimonides' Letter on Astrology06 Te n 20 7ridicule those four nations and refuted their tenets thoroughly. The wisemen of Persia and even of India also realized the absurdity of astrology.Maimonides mentions here altogether seven nations. The reminder of theseven nations whose destruction is commanded in the Bible may not beaccidental: all those nations w ere idolators, regardless whether their w isemen were astrologers or not; this fact, I believe, was for Maimonides ofgreater importance than is commonly thought; the relation of astrology andidolatry is more complex than appears from the few words devoted to it inthe Letter on Astrology. The true science of the stars is astronomy whosescope is set forth by Maimon ides at considerable length.Maimonides nexts puts the whole question on the broadest basis byspeaking of the relation of the philosophers and the Torah. The greatphilosophers agree that the world has a governor, namely, the mover of thesphere. Most of them say that the world is eternal while some of them saythat only its matter is eternal and othe rs say what the prophets said that Godas the only uncreated being created all creatures out of nothing. Maimon -ides refers to his "great compilation in Arabic" (i.e. the Guide) in which hehad refuted the alleged proofs of the philosophers against creation and inparticular creation out of nothing. By speaking of philosophers who teachcreation out of nothing Maimonides reduces the difference, as stated in theGuide, between philosophy and the Torah. As appears from the context, hispurpose in doing this is to present as it we re a unitary front of philosophy andthe Torah against astrology. For, as he goes on, all three groups of thinkersagree that this nether world is governed by God by means of the sphere andthe stars. "Just as we say that God performs signs and miracles through theangels, so these philosophers say that all the things are always done by thenature of the world by means of the sphere and the stars, and they say thatthe sphere and the stars are animate and intelligent." Maimonides claims tohave proved (in the Guide) that there is n o disagreemen t whatever betweenthe Sages of Israel and the philosophers regarding the gen eral governmentof the world.All the greater is the disagreement between all philosophers and theTorah regarding particular providence. According to the philosophers whathappens to in dividual human bein gs or individual societies is altogether amatter of chance and has no cause in the stars. As against this the truereligion, the religion of M oses, believes that what happens to human indi-viduals happens to them in accordance with justice. W hereas according tothe Guide the dividing line between the Torah and philosophy is theirteaching regarding the etern ity or non-eternity of the world or at least ofmatter, according to the Letter on Astrology, they are divided by what theyteach regarding providence: even the philosophers, who teach creation outof nothing, den y particular providence. The Torah and all philosophers alsoagree as to men 's actions not being subject to compulsion. Y et from this fact

Maimonides draws the conclusion that what happens to human beings is notwhat happens to the beasts, as the philosophers have said.Just as there are three opinions regarding the world as a whole, there arethree opinions regarding the fate of men : the opinion of the philosophersthat it is a matter of mere chance, the opin ion of the astrologers that it is fullydetermined by the stars, and the opinion of the Torah. The opinion of thephilosophers is to be rejected on account of the acceptance of the Torah.There is no visible conn ection between the two tripartitions.In the Guide Maimon ides had considerably mitigated the oppositionbetween philosophy and Judaism in regard to particular providence espe-cially by his interpretation of the Book of Job. One may find a trace of thisintention in a rather casual remark that he makes in the Letter on Astrologylong before he comes to speak on particular providence. We lost ourkingdom since our fathers sinn ed by turning to astrology, i.e. to idolatry,and neglected the art of war and conquest. This would seem to be anillustration of the view according to which the philosophers trace events totheir proximate, not to their remote, cause. The remark referred to is at thesame time a beautiful commentary on the grand conclusion of the MishnehTorah: the restoration of Jewish freedom in the Messianic age is not to beunderstood as a m iracle.