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The Talmud (RH 24b; brought also in Sh.Ar. YD 141, 7) says it is forbidden to make a shape of sun, moon or stars.

לא תעשון כדמות שמשיי המשמשין לפני כגון חמה לבנה כוכבים ומזלות

So, is it permitted to type an asterisk?

Loewian
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yO_
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    I don't know -- a star isn't black or have five points. Would there have to be an attempt to look like a star? – rosends May 01 '17 at 10:40
  • @rosends But why it is called an 'asterisk'? Not because it was like a little blinking star? – yO_ May 01 '17 at 10:44
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    true but a Sunny Doodle has that name (Sun) -- can I not be a baker for Drakes? I'm not being facetious, just importing an idea from copyright law -- there has to be an attempt to confuse the market place. Where there is no confusion, there is no infringement. Is that a possible demand for d'mut? – rosends May 01 '17 at 10:50
  • @rosends Nice remark :) ! However, the Gemara finally says that even "it is impossible to (fully) make like them" [=sun etc, oppositely to a menora exactly like of the Beis Hamiqdash], it is forbidden. But maybe you are right that there has to be, at least an "attempt", to reproduce a star. This seems a nice halachic criterion. Have you a source please? – yO_ May 01 '17 at 11:01
  • Found a site dealing with these questions :) :) :) http://m.kipa.co.il/jew/9/17117.html – yO_ May 01 '17 at 12:00
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    Is a period forbidden as it's the shape of a full moon? – Double AA May 01 '17 at 12:46
  • @DoubleAA I hear :) ... But this is a "period"... Maybe an a'ster'isk is not the same thing? (Okay if it was called.. uh, a "firebox") – yO_ May 01 '17 at 12:56
  • As memory serves, this prohibition is not about the star symbol (like an asterisk) used today. It was pertaining to the representations of the angelic beings used in idol worship. Think like the statues made by the Greeks and Romans of their gods. Each star and constellation also had a deity assigned to it. – Yaacov Deane May 01 '17 at 12:59
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Yaacov Deane May 01 '17 at 13:59
  • The sun is a star. I'm not sure, then, why the prohibition specifies not drawing a "sun" as a separate item. Regardless, both of these items are plasmas that have no defined shape. The sun appears as a disc to us due to refraction, mainly. Stars appear like dots in the sky (to the unaided eyes, that is.) Regardless, it seems that no matter what you did, you couldn't properly draw a shape of a star. – DanF May 01 '17 at 16:28
  • @DanF If you define a 'star' = plasma burning, OK the sun also; but in the everyday language (and halacha), there is clearly a difference. What do you think on a "zeis hakochavim" at sunrise? ;) – yO_ May 01 '17 at 16:46
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    @DanF Indeed, the Gemara define them as "impossible to reproduce" exactly, and al korcheinu the issue is about making something 'representative' of these celestial bodies (now a question is, what is the limit to be called a prohibited representation?) – yO_ May 01 '17 at 16:51
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    @YaacovDeane See the Ta"z siman 141, he proves from this Gemara on Raban Gamliel's attic, that (even) the physical body is forbidden, not (only) angels symbol. – yO_ May 01 '17 at 18:52
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    RELATED: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/41176/depicting-a-constellation – RibbisRabbiAndMore Jun 07 '18 at 21:59

1 Answers1

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It is only forbidden to make the form of a celestial body if it was intended as such. So an asterisk or a plain circle or a zero or the letter O or a picture of a starfish is permitted.

RibbisRabbiAndMore
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    Source? [15 char] – DonielF Jun 08 '18 at 03:26
  • A plain circle sure it's OK, a zero etc. A so-called starfish, or a snow flake also. But an a"ster"isk isn't considered "to draw a star"?... – yO_ Jun 08 '18 at 07:52
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    @yO_ Not if the writer wasn't intending to draw a picture of a heavenly star at all just a symbal which happens to have the same or similar shape as a star. If someone wanted to draw a picture of a star filled sky and as stars he drew (or printed) asterisks, that may be more problematic. – RibbisRabbiAndMore Jun 10 '18 at 08:45