{"id":65578,"date":"2019-11-11T16:56:35","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T14:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=65578"},"modified":"2023-06-05T16:23:34","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T13:23:34","slug":"the-human-star-who-fell-from-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-human-star-who-fell-from-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"The Human Star Who Fell From Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[366,429,404,569],"acf":{"old_id":"65578","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"348","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The anti-mythological message of the Tanach","content":"

Here, the prophet attributed the destruction of Babylonia by the Medes to its arrogance in declaring \u201cI will mount the back of a cloud\u2014 I will match the Most High\u201d (14). He imputed these words to \u201cthe shining one, son of dawn\u201d (<\/span>haylel ben shachar<\/span><\/em>), who was \u201cfallen from heaven\u201d (12). While the object of the simile is clearly Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, the question is, who or what is its subject?<\/span><\/p>\n

The medievals identified it as <\/span>Nogah<\/span><\/em>, the rabbinic Hebrew designation for Venus, fitting for the \u201cson of dawn.\u201d Here, too, Malbim* offered a modern spin (see his comments on the \u201coracle\u201d in 9:7), explaining the references to \u201cclimbing to the sky\u201d and \u201csitting on the mountain\u201d in v. 13 as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

Ancient idolaters divided their deities into three groups: lower, middle, and upper: (a) the stars that rule above, whose dominion was deified; (b) minor deities (<\/span>b\u2019nei \u2018elim<\/span><\/em>), who dwell on earth on appointed mountains; and (c) the intermediate deities who dwell in the air. Since they also imputed divinity to their kings, they would associate that king with a star in heaven that had a broad dominion amongst the celestials just as he held sway below, while the king himself was placed among the minor deities who dwelt on their appointed mountains. They had the delusion that he had the ability to rise upon a cloud to be among the minor deities and then leave them to become a star in heaven. This is known in the mythology we possess today, which is a remnant of the delusions and misconceptions that abounded in the ancient world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Malbim\u2019s willingness to turn to mythology as a key to unlock allusions to ancient idolatry was anticipated in the modern era by Shlomo Ephraim Lunschitz (1550-1619, author of the <\/span>K\u2019li<\/span> Yakar<\/span><\/em>). Appreciating the function of mythology to reconcile opposing forces (light and darkness, rain and drought) by imputing them to conflicting deities, he wrote that one of the Torah\u2019s prime objectives was to \u201celevate God above all the contradictions in the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

*For the significance of Malbim\u2019s commentary to the Book of Isaiah,<\/span> see our introduction to chapter 1.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":65579,"id":65579,"title":"is14-venus","filename":"is14-venus.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-human-star-who-fell-from-heaven\/is14-venus\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is14-venus","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":65578,"date":"2019-11-11 14:56:09","modified":"2019-11-11 14:56:20","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1280,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-300x169.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-768x432.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-1024x576.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-1200x675.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-747x420.png","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Human Star Who Fell From Heaven","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"The anti-mythological message of the Tanach","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":65579,"id":65579,"title":"is14-venus","filename":"is14-venus.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-human-star-who-fell-from-heaven\/is14-venus\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is14-venus","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":65578,"date":"2019-11-11 14:56:09","modified":"2019-11-11 14:56:20","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1280,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-300x169.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-768x432.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-1024x576.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-1200x675.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is14-venus-747x420.png","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65578"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115813,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65578\/revisions\/115813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}