Mishna Torah (Yesodei hatorah 3:3) All of the stars and
spheres are beings, endowed with a soul, intelligence and understanding; they
continue a purposeful life and are conscious of the existence of Him Who spoke
and the universe sprang forth. Each and every one, according to his greatness
and degree, extol and glorify the Creator as do the angels; and to the extent
that they recognize the Holy One, blessed is He! they also know their own
selves and the angels above them. But the intelligence of the stars and spheres
is lesser than the intelligence of the angels, but greater than the
intelligence of man.
Moreh Nevuchim (2:5:1) SCRIPTURE supports the theory
that the spheres are animate and intellectual, i.e., capable of comprehending
things: that they are not, as ignorant persons believe, inanimate masses like
fire and earth, but are, as the philosophers assert, endowed with life, and
serve their Lord, whom they mightily praise and glorify; comp. "The
heavens declare the glory of God," etc. (Ps. 19:2). It is a great error to
think that this is a mere figure of speech: for the verbs "to
declare" and "to relate," when joined together, are, in Hebrew,
only used of intellectual beings. That the Psalmist really means to describe the
heavens' own doing, in other words, what the spheres actually do, and not what
man thinks of them, may be best inferred from the words, "There is no
speech, nor language, their voice is not heard" (ver. 4). Here he clearly
shows that he describes the heavens themselves as in reality praising God, and
declaring His wonders without words of lip and tongue. When man praises God in
words actually uttered, he only relates the ideas which he has conceived, but
these ideas form the real praise. The reason why he gives expression to these
ideas is to be found in his desire to communicate them to others, or to make
himself sure that he has truly conceived them. Therefore it is said,
"Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still" (Ps. 4:5).
Only ignorant or obstinate persons would refuse to admit this proof taken from
Scripture.
Moreh Nevuchim (2:5:2) As to the opinion of our Sages,
I do not see any necessity for expounding or demonstrating it. Consider only
the form they gave to the blessing recited on seeing the new moon, the ideas
repeatedly occurring in the prayers and the remarks in the Midrash on the
following and similar passages:--"And the host of heaven worshippeth
thee" (Neh. 9:6); "When the morning stars sang together, and all the
sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). In Bereshit Rabba, on the
passage--"And the earth was empty and formless" (Gen. 1:2), our Sages
remark as follows: "The words tohu and bohu mean mourning and crying; the
earth mourned and cried on account of her evil lot, saying, 'I and the heavens
were created together, and yet the beings above live for ever, and we are
mortal.'" Our Sages, by this remark, indicate their belief that the
spheres are animated beings, and not inanimate matter like the elements.
Moreh Nevuchim (2:5:3) The opinion of Aristotle, that the spheres
are capable of comprehension and conception, is in accordance with the words of
our prophets and our theologians or Sages. The philosophers further agree that
this world below is governed by influences emanating from the spheres, and that
the latter comprehend and have knowledge of the things which they influence.
This theory is also met with in Scripture: comp. [the stars and all the host of
heaven] "which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations" (Deut.
4:19), that is to say, the stars, which God appointed to be the means of
governing His creatures, and not the objects of man's worship. It has therefore
been stated clearly: "And to rule over the day and over the night"
(Gen. 1:18). The term "ruling" here refers to the power which the
spheres possess of governing the earth, in addition to the property of giving
light and darkness. The latter property is the direct cause of genesis and
destruction; it is described in the words, "And to divide the light from
the darkness (ibid.). It is impossible to assume that those who rule a thing
are ignorant of that very thing which they rule, if we take "to rule"
in its proper sense. We will add another chapter on this subject.
