Query: Jewish References to the Star of Bethlehem?

[mabfan]

Last week, in the midst of all the other things keeping Nomi and me busy, we managed to have lunch with Brother Guy Consolmagno (LJ: brotherguy) when he was briefly in town. He asked us if we knew of any Jewish sources that mention the star of Bethlehem, or anything about Judaism and astrology of that time, and I'm drawing a blank. I've done some searching, but I can't find any Jewish sources that discuss or mention the star of Bethlehem. Brother Guy is looking for this information for something he's working on; can anyone help us out?

ETA: Brother Guy clarifies what he's looking for in this reply to this post.

Comments

[sethg]

It is unclear which historical astronomical event the “Star of Bethlehem” corresponds to; certainly if the event is recorded in Jewish sources, it won’t be recorded by that name.

If Brother Guy is looking for Jewish interpretations of Numbers 24:17, I can look up my commentaries, but I suspect that he has access to English translations of any Hebrew sources I own.