Maimonides had his own opinions of the theological theories of the renegade interpreter of the Bible, and the stargazing fatalists. Maimonides had thorough knowledge of the ramified literature of the Arabs, and he detected the source of astrology in heathen worship of the stars. He rejected astrology both as an astronomer and as a philosopher. The science of astronomy, so he felt, refuted the two basic assumptions of astrological belief; i.e., that there are lucky and unlucky stars, and that the position of such a star at one point is "favorable" and at another "unfavorable". Both assertions were false, he said, because the spheres were the same everywhere.

He spoke of the absurd arguments "that the astrologers dig up when they allege that a specific time of birth will endow an individual with a virtue or a failing and irresistibly force him to act the way he does. A precept which is taught in concordance by both our religion and Greek philosophy and whose certitude is substantiated by the most conclusive evidence is that a man's actions are up to him, that he is not subject to any outer constraint or influence. There is only a temperemental disposition which makes something easy or difficult for a human being; but it is not true that he must do it or cannot do it. If a man were fated to perform his actions, then all of the commandments and prohibitions of the divine Law would be useless and purposeless, they would all be sheer trumpery, since, after all, a man would have no free will. /.../

Maimonides decided to warn the Yemenite Jews to blot astrology out of their thinking. "Purge your thoughts of astrology, the way one cleanses a sullied garment of filth! . . . Pay no heed when someone speaks of a superior or inferior conjunction!" he called to them. /.../ "For all astrological statements are senseless and untrue, anyone making them is a fool or a madman, or intentionally contradicting the Torah - as though the Deluge and the destruction of Sodom had been caused by the stars and not by the sins of men and the will of God!"

— Maimonides av Abraham Joshua Heschel (Sida 110 - 113)