Mazalot: the Hebrew zodiac

Mazal is Hebrew for a constellation or a sign of the zodiac. Jewish tradition knows twelve mazalot, one for each month of the calendar, with the same figures as the Greek zodiac: from the lamb in Nisan to the fish in Adar. Wishing someone "mazel tov" literally wishes them a good constellation; today it simply means good luck.

The twelve mazalot

The mazal of your birth month

The month, not the day

In the tradition the mazal belongs to the Hebrew month, not to the position of the Sun. Because the months follow the Moon, they shift against the solar year, so month and sun sign usually overlap only in part. Nisan, the month of the lamb, begins with the new moon in March or April; the sign of Aries begins at the equinox around 20 March. The Book of Creation, Sefer Yetzirah, also gives each month and sign one of the twelve simple letters of the alphabet.

Does Israel have a mazal?

The Talmud argues about it (Shabbat 156a–b). Rabbi Chanina says: mazal makes wise, mazal makes rich, and Israel too has a mazal. Rabbi Yochanan disagrees: ein mazal le-Yisrael, Israel does not stand under the stars. Abraham is the proof: he had read in his stars that he would have no son, and God took him outside and told him to leave his astrology. Then comes the story of Rabbi Akiva's daughter, whose death on her wedding day the astrologers had foretold. That evening she pushed her hairpin into the wall and, without knowing it, struck a snake. At the feast she had given food to a poor man when everyone else was busy, and her father read the verse: charity saves from death.

Ibn Ezra and Maimonides

In the Middle Ages opinions differ widely. Abraham ibn Ezra (1089–1167), poet and Bible commentator, wrote a whole series of astrological books. Moses Maimonides (1138–1204), by contrast, called astrology no science but folly in his letter to the scholars of southern France, and his code of law forbids fixing lucky and unlucky times by the stars. Many Jews still side with him; others see mazal as a disposition that a person outgrows through what they do.

The zodiac in the synagogue floor

Several synagogues of late antiquity have the zodiac in their floor, with the signs named in Hebrew: Hammat Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee from the 4th century, with the chariot of the Sun in the centre, Sepphoris from the 5th and Beit Alpha from the 6th century, framed by the four seasons. At Ein Gedi an inscription in the floor lists the twelve signs and the twelve months. What the communities meant by them is debated: most likely the course of the year and the order of creation.

The seven wandering stars

In Hebrew the planets are Shabbetai (Saturn), Tzedek (Jupiter), Ma'adim (Mars), Chamah (Sun), Nogah (Venus), Kochav (Mercury) and Levanah (Moon). In this order, remembered as Shatzam Chanakal, they take turns ruling the hours of the day according to the Talmud. Saturn carries the name of Shabbat.

Stars in the Bible

The Bible names a few constellations: Kimah and Kesil (Job 9:9 and 38:31; Amos 5:8), usually taken as the Pleiades and Orion, and Ash or Ayish, perhaps the Great Bear. Which stars are meant exactly is not known for certain.

Blessing the sky

Instead of reading the stars, the tradition blesses the sky. Every month Kiddush Levana is said over the waxing Moon under the open sky (the dates are in the Hebrew calendar). Every 28 years, when by tradition the Sun returns to its place at creation, comes the blessing over the Sun, Birkat HaChamah: last in 2009, next on Wednesday 8 April 2037.

This page tells tradition and history; it does not cast a horoscope.

More: the Hebrew calendar · Shabbat times for your city