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Rabbi Shimon bar Pazzi said in the name of R. Joshua ben Levi on the authority of Bar Kappara: One who knows how to calculate cycles and planetary courses but does not do so, of him Scripture says, ‘But they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of his hands’ (Isaiah 5:12). R. Shmuel bar Nahmani said in the name of R. Joshua, How do we know that it is a commandment to calculate cycles and planetary courses? Because it is written: ‘This is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations.’ What is wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations? It is the science of cycles and planetary courses.18 The passage brings together
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Jonathan Sacks (Future Tense: Jews, Judaism, and Israel in the Twenty-first Century)