Apparently the Mayans and many astronomers since then have long thought that the Secrets of the Physical Universe can be learned through a perceptive eye while observing Venus. This goes for Astronomy, Physics, Time, Nature of the Universe, etc. It is the science of sciences, and thus Venus stood as a model of worship for many societies.
The Jews had no reason to fall to this Avodah Zara, because with our unique calendar, coupled with Chazal, the Torah tradition had its own two legs to stand upon.
Interestingly enough, today rationalists would love to crucify the Talmud and say that modern day science in fact has all the answers to the Universe. To that note, they are better off to worship Venus?!
Why not just try to understand the Talmud, which is enough to bring one to knowledge of Reality. The Vilna Gaon along with Tanna D' Bei Eliyahu and others state: the Wise Men knew of "Tekufot" (pathways of the Rakiyah). This knowledge, which was a gift to the Tribe of Yissachar, is the means to acquire the Binah necessary.
With Binah, one can understand the nature of Reality, and how this World (which may be of Sheker) is really none other than a spiritual world that has its parallel in the Higher Divine World of Atzilus.
Our job is to see just how real this World is (by penetrating its Spiritual Integrity over the perceived Physical). When Hashem said Bereishit Bara Elokim, he meant that there is a Physical Universe. To see the allusion as opposed to an illusion, one must seek the Wisdom of Tekufot within the Torah, and cease to delve rationally or in denial of God's Creation. The "Frum" point of view today unfortunately is to say that God's World and Torah are not True. Thank God we do not need Avodah Zara or Kfirah to find the Truth: God gave us his Torah and Tradition to allow us to see; to see Hashem's World truly has meaning and is utterly Divine, paralleling Atzilus, which is God's desire of Creation. A Creation that exists with [super-]reason and truth, is something that is definately worth seeing every inch and second of it.
NewScientist.com:
With the last transit of Venus of the 21st century weeks away, authors trace how this rare event sparked international scientific collaboration in 1761
AT THE Large Hadron Collider, where subatomic-particle collisions at unimaginable energies lay bare the fundamental structure of matter, more than 3000 physicists from about 40 countries work shoulder to shoulder. Large-scale international collaborations are such a part of modern "big science" that few people ever wonder when and how they began. The answer is 1761 when, for a moment, the warring European powers put aside their differences to work together on the LHC project of their day: the observation of the transit of Venus.
Every century or so, the tiny black disc of the planet Venus passes, or transits, across the face of the sun. In fact, it does it twice, eight years apart. Nothing to write home about, you might think. But in 1716, Edmond Halley realised that the event was of truly cosmic significance. It had the potential, he wrote, to reveal the scale of the solar system - the 18th-century universe.
Astronomers already knew the relative distances of the planets from the sun because Johannes Kepler's third law of planetary motion - explained by Newtonian gravity - related distances to orbital periods, which were straightforward to measure. But, to turn relative distances into true distances, what was needed was one absolute measurement - for instance, of the distance of the Earth from the sun. This was the incredible promise of the transit of Venus.
Looking at an object first with one eye, then the other, reveals its distance: your finger held close moves a lot; whereas your finger at arm's length hardly at all. The problem with the sun, unlike your finger, is it is a big and ill-defined object. Crucially, however, the black disc of Venus at the very moment it touches the edge of the sun is not. To use this "parallax method" to estimate the distance of the sun all that is necessary is to observe and time the transit from widely separated locations on the Earth.
Easier said than done. In these two truly excellent books, Mark Anderson and Andrea Wulf tell the rip-roaring tales of the numerous expeditions that set off around the globe to observe the Venusian transit of 1761. Anderson writes as if the reader is on the very shoulders of the adventurers as they sledge across the icy wastes of Siberia or sail across uncharted oceans. If Wulf's approach is a slightly more sober one, both authors communicate the verve and energy - not to mention the perilous nature - of the expeditions. Mimsy scientists did not apply. Wrestling alligators for a living had nothing on being an 18th-century astronomer, risking life and limb on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, the observations of 1761 were disappointing, which set things up for a rerun in 1769. Among the scores of adventurers was Captain James Cook, heading to the Pacific island of Tahiti, newly discovered by the Europeans. Not only would Cook find a fresh-vegetable-and-sauerkraut cure for scurvy, he also discovered the lush east coast of New Holland (now Australia). All of the expeditions combined led to a single number: 93,000,000 miles, the average distance between the Earth and the sun.
In 1772, the French astronomer royal, César-Francois Cassini de Thury, wrote: "It won't be until 2012 that the transit of Venus will be nearly as advantageous as it was in 1769." Well, it is 2012 now. Go to a hardware store and buy yourself a sliver of shade 14 welding glass. Then, on 5 or 6 June, without having to take any of the risks faced by 18th-century astronomers, witness from your doorstep one of the great wonders of the scientific world: the last transit of Venus of the 21st century.
2012 Is at least part of the Truth - But will it be a part of the entire TRUTH IS THE QUESTION.
3 comments :
Surely that's a typographic error. You do mean the "FRI point of view" rather than the "FRUM point of view" is unfortunately to say say that G-d's world & Torah are not true! Right?
Otherwise, a rather insightful peek at cosmology and mysticism working in tandem.
Yosef Duvid
i mean frum, in the derogatory sense, for example: when i was in yeshiva, i learned this paradigm:
"why do i need to daven, if Hashem knows what i want anyways" - this being crusadingly "frum" whereas the Hashem has a diff. cheshbon in davening. in the yeshiva's (largely baal teshuva) people tend to become super tzaddik ordained with their 6-month smicha, etc. while trying to be more frum than true judaism. as the rambam puts it,one must take the middle path, of which he calls, "a chasid."
i used frum in quotes in the post, because the yeshiva world has an active infiltration with non torah ideals and beliefs, which i credit this with a lack of learning proper penimius of torah. the klippah of a lack of nistar, is a perverted frumkeit. to be truthfully frum is to be an orthodox jew with ideals that allow him to be a kiddush Hashem in the world, and to be an active member of the world bringing light to the world. a klippah of frum does not have this quality in my opinion.
this how the next 60 days will feel like
http://rashbi2012.blogspot.com/2012/05/moshiach-ben-ephraim-economic-collapse.html
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