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241 Astarte Astrology

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

241

not more than 5 per cent; that the Jews bought large quantities of special kosher fish called " Jewish fish," which could not be sold to any one else;

and that without the Jews the business of Astrakhan would be ruined. The governor extended the time limit for the Jewish merchants to a month, but many of them had already left the city. The price of fish fell 50 per cent, and many of the Astrakhan fish merchants were ruined ("Ha-Zefirah," 1883, No. 23). In the city of Astrakhan the births among Jews were 49 males and 62 females in 1897; deaths, 28 males, 13 females the excess of births over deaths being 70, while that in the general population was but 6 per cent. The general death-rate was 45 per thousand, while that of the Jews was but 27 per

thousand. The marriages among Jews numbered 13. In 1899 the Jewish population of Astrakhan was 1,575 in a total population of 117,772. The Jewish population in the whole government, including the city, was 1,667. In addition, there were 15 Karaites in the city, and 10 in the government (" Pamyatnaya Knizhka Astrakhanskoi Gubernii," 1900). There are two synagogues one for the Ashkenazim, the other for the Sephardim. The rabbi of both synagogues is Boris Moisejevieh Schucher.

Bibliography



Pamyatnaya Knizhka

It was indeed considered of celestial oriand as having been revealed to mankind by the rebellious angels. Barakel (Rakiel: Greek text) taught star-gazing Kokabel (the Star of God), As-

century. gin,



trology

Shehakeel, the science of the clouds Arkiel (the Earth of God), the signs of the earth Samsiel (the Sun of God), the signs of the sun and Scuriel, Sahriel (the Moon of God), the signs of the moon







(Enoch

viii. 3).

The admiration for Astrology was due not

See

Astronomy,

Blblical.

In the Apocrypha and in the Talmud: Neither D'DC, 13n (Isa. xlvii. 13), which the Greek translation renders "astrologers," nor pifj (Dan. ii. 27 et seq.), the technical designation for the Chaldean casters of horoscopes, nor jota i-)2in (Dan. iii. 27), explained "astrologers" Terminology. (Cant. R. to vii. 9), is found in ancient Jewish traditions. Even the Hebraic name D'MSl ntn, " star-gazer " (Isa. xlvii. 13), occurs only in the commentaries on the Talmud. The cus-

tomary names are D1J1P1~lt3DX ("astrologer") in Paland ijoio ("Chaldeans") in Babylonian sources expressions originating in the Greco-Roman world, where XaAdaloi and " Chaldasi " are found

estinian

—

as early as the beginning of the common era, excluWhether any etymosively applied to astrologers.

between DIJl^llDDK and the appellation pjEXK, orptDDX, a word used in connection with the Egyptian rulers (njTlS TJJBVK, Sotah 12J) and identical in meaning, can not be definitely The art itself goes by the name of ascertained. logical relation exists

KMltriBDN (Astrologia). These foreign terms suffice to show that the " Chaldean science " was not introduced into Judea directly, but through the medium of syncretic Hellenism, wherein, in the course of tribution. centuries, it met with an ever-widening acceptance. The Sibylline Books praise the Jewish nation because it " does not meditate on the prophecies of the fortune-tellers, magicians, and conjurers, nor practise Astrology, nor seek the oracles of the Chaldeans in the stars " (iii. 227); and Josephus censures the people for ignoring the visible signs and indications foreshadowing the destruction of the Temple ("B. J." vi. 5, § 3). There II.— 16

so

much

importance for reckoning times and seasons although as such held in high esteem as to its supposed power of forecasting the future. Enoch ordained the jubilees, year-weeks (" Jahrwochen "), months, Sabbaths (weeks), and days, and " all that was, that is, and that will be he saw as in a vision, even the destiny of the children of man from generto its

—

Judgment Day everything he foresaw and apprehended, inscribing his testimony upon the earth for the benefit of mankind

ation to generation to the

and

Chro-

H. R.

Dis-



Astralshanslcoi Gu-

bernii, 1899, 1900.

ASTROLOGY.— Biblical.

were actually no Jewish astrologers either in the Holy Land or in Babylonia and the art, together with those who practised it, was condemned, although its reality was as little questioned then as it was by the rest of the world up to the seventeenth



all their posterity " (Jubilees iv.

According to the same book (viii. such prediction is inscribed upon the rocks. The same view, with a Jewish monotheistic coloring, is expressed in the rabbinical legend, according to which God 19).

nology and Astrology

3),

.

showed

Adam

to

ding their

all

the future generations, incluand leaders ('Ab. Zarah

scribes, scholars,

Abraham, the Chaldean, bore upon his breast a large astrological tablet on which the fate of every man might be read for which reason according to the haggadist all the kings of the East and of the West congregated every morning before his door in order to seek advice. It is to this tablet that the words (Gen. xxiv. 1), "the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things," are said to allude (Tosef., Kid. Abraham himself saw in it that v. 17; B. B. 16J). he would have no second son, but God said unto him, "Away with your astrology; for Israel there Elsewhere it is declared is no planet " (Shab. 156a). that Abraham was not an astrologer at all, but a prophet, inasmuch as only those beneath the stars could be subject to their influence but that Abraham was above them (Gen. R. xliv. 12). It is also stated that Joab refused to join the conspiracy of Absalom, because he had seen David's favorable 5a).

—



—

!



nativity (Sanh. 49a and elsewhere). Like the Assyrio-Babylonian monarchs, who received from their astrologers a monthly forecast of coming events (Isa. xlvii. 13 and cunei-

Astrology form in

inscriptions;

e.g.,

Rawlinson,

"Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," iii. 51), the Roman emperors

the Roman believed Empire,

in the all-powerful influence

upon the destinies of man Tiberius was a master in the art of casting a horoscope, and regulated all his actions in accordance with his astrological deductions (Josephus, "Ant." xviii. 6, § 9). The Roman empire boasted a complete system of Chaldeo-Greek literature, which was zealously cultivated by the members of the of the stars

and nature.