“Go Out from Your Sign” : Rashi to Genesis 15:5 as a Reference to Astrological Primary Direction –Its Background in Rabbinic Literature and Parallels in Abraham bar Ḥiyya
This article suggests that Rashi’s exegetical commentary to Gen 15:5, in which Abram counts the stars, is meant to invoke an association to the astrological technique known as Primary Directions (based on equating one degree of Right Ascension in the rotation of the earth around its axis with one year of life), which was one of the main methods of prognostication in pre-modern astrology – beginnin
