Regarding Zodiac Signs
Question
According to the books I have read, every Jew born in the month of Shevat is an Aquarius, or in Nissan is an Aries, etc. How is it possible that the Gregorian date is taken into account? What connection does it have to astrology at all, and what happens if someone is born in January, which is Capricorn, but their Hebrew date is Shevat? Are they an Aquarius or a Capricorn? And what is the proof for this? Thank you very much.
Answer
Peace
The matter is as follows: The zodiac wheel is a circular belt in the sky that orbits around the Earth, and the sun, moving from west to east, undergoes an annual cycle in which it completes one full orbit every three hundred sixty-five days. [I will not enter now into the question of whether the sun revolves around the Earth or vice versa; it does not matter materially to what we are discussing now]. Therefore, since the sun completes its orbit around the world across the zodiac wheel,
it progresses each month one twelfth of the zodiac wheel, hence it rises every month - in the morning - against the backdrop of a different zodiac sign, which is the monthly sign. Now, since the Hebrew year is only three hundred fifty-four days long, [to make up for the accumulated deficit between the Hebrew year and the sun's orbit, which is three hundred sixty-five days, every two or three years an entire month is added to the Hebrew year],
it is therefore impossible to determine the zodiac signs according to the Hebrew calendar, but rather according to the Gregorian calendar, which lasts roughly the length of the sun’s orbit of three hundred sixty-five days. It is clear that in January, the sun rises in the morning over Capricorn, even though in the Hebrew calendar the month of Shevat has already begun, but the zodiac sign is still that of Capricorn.
Indeed, in this regard, the sages in the Talmud used two parallel definitions: the zodiac of months and the zodiac of seasons, which is the definition for the month of February. As stated in the tractate Rosh Hashanah (15a): "Rabbi Yochanan asked Rabbi Yanai - When is the New Year for the etrog? - He said to him: Shevat. - The Shevat of months or the Shevat of seasons? - He said to him: Of months.".
Nevertheless, one must know that for a Jew, the zodiac in which he is born has much less influence than the actions he performs, as the sages of the Talmud elaborated on this (Shabbat 100a), and any zodiac sign can change through a single act of kindness, or charity given, and the like.
Good luck – Menashe Israel
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