כּוֹכָבִים אוֹוֹמְרִים - Stars say:
Nechemiya 9:6
אַתָּה הוּא יְהֹוָה לְבַדֶּךָ אַתָּה עָשִׂיתָ אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם שְׁמֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם וְכָל צְבָאָם הָאָרֶץ וְכָל אֲשֶׁר עָלֶיהָ הַיַּמִּים וְכָל אֲשֶׁר בָּהֶם וְאַתָּה מְחַיֶּה אֶת כֻּלָּם וּצְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם לְךָ מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים
atah-hu HASHEM levadecha atah asita et-hashamayim shemei hashamayim vechol-tzevaam haaretz vechol-asher aleiha hayamim vechol-asher bahem veata mechayeh et-kulam utzeva hashamayim lecha mishtachavim
You alone are HASHEM; You made the heavens, the heavens of the heavens and all their host,
the earth and all that is upon it, the seas and all that is in them,
and You give life to them all, and the heavenly host bow down before You.
"The heavenly host bow down before You" – the Gemara sees the rising of the celestial bodies in the east and their movement toward the west as daily worship of G-d. The celestial bodies, of course, lack free choice, and in this sense, a person who serves in the Temple is sort of a prayer leader on behalf of all of creation; as if every day he bears the sun, the moon, and the stars, and prostrates himself westward, toward the Shechinah in the Holy of Holies.
The idea that man in his daily service of G-d gives expression to all of creation's yearning for the Divine follows also from the Gemara in Berachot 9b, which proposes as an asmachta (support) for the custom of the prayer of vatikin (ideal time, which was the time that the meticulous men of old would recite the Shema, is just before sunrise so that their silent Amida prayer would commence with the rising sun) the verse, "May they fear You with the sun" (Tehillim 72:5).
Every star and sphere has a soul and is endowed with knowledge and intellect. (Rambam, Laws of Fundamental Principles 3:9)
So why does the sun race across the heavens?
The explanation expounded in those Chassidic discourses present the movement of the sun as a form of terribly self-nullifying genuflection and prostration. The sun has matter and form, body and soul. The body — the sun orb — circles the heavens in bowed reverence, because its spiritual soul is in a state of spiritual prostration.
Scripture describes this phenomenon in the following manner, on the one hand:
"The host of the heavens bow before You" (Nehemiah 9:6)
This is the physical state. On the other hand:
“When the morning stars sing together.” (Iyov 38:7)
This is the Spiritual bowing (singing).
"You give life to them all", G-d's energy in every created being not only gives it life and vivifies it, but continuously brings it into existence ex nihilo. The verse is thus interpreted, for the phrase "to give life" does not necessary imply "to create" -- as, for example, the soul which gives life to and vivifies the body, yet does not bring it into being. Whereas in Creation the energy not only vivifies but also creates and must continuously flow into the created being, for without it, it would revert to nothingness; by giving life, He actually creates it ex nihilo. Hence, He constantly renews the existence of the world and all the creatures, creating them anew from nothing at every moment, just as in the beginning of Creation. So, in reality, "to give life" and to "bring into being" are identical.
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