![]() As knowledge of secular sciences became more commonplace in the Jewish world, it could be that the validity of the Zodiac as a reflection of any natural order was undermined and its influence on world events less empirically evident, and so Jewish scholars relegated the star signs and their associated images to the category of superstition. One likely argument from Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis (HUC- JIR Cincinnati ’96), is that with the advent of the Haskalah, the Jewish enlightenment movement, the reverence for star signs fell out of style. So, what caused the Mazzalot to disappear from Jewish symbolism in the European world beginning the mid 19th century? Jewish scribes did not shy away from its inclusion in religious works, and it was not seen as idolatrous or overly superstitious, but rather as a representation of the Divine order of the heavens and of time. In previous eras, the Zodiac and the associated knowledge of astrology was understood as a part of the cycle of the natural world and was deeply intertwined with any reckoning the celestial motions and the calendar. Rafael – the Sun, Venus – Leo, Libra, Taurus The associations read as such (starting from the top right): At the top, the pages reads, “These are the six angels appointed over the 7 celestial bodies and the Mazzalot.”
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