Jewish press
Having followed the articles about energy healing over the last couple of weeks, I feel it is important to inform your readers of some facts that have not yet been discussed.
On Amazon.com, the description of Mr. Blum’s book, Ki Power: Healing Power at Your Fingertips, reads as follows:
“Imagine healing someone in minutes with the stroke of your hand or the touch of your toes. Imagine the warmth of your fingers eliminating bruises overnight. Imagine harnessing a power so great that it can be used to stop that pain and suffering of others. Now imagine that you could acquire such knowledge by training just a few minutes a day. Author Robert Blum, one of the world’s foremost experts on KI Power development, shows you how to cultivate internal power and then use it to instantly heal yourself and others.”
I don’t have to be a sceptic to realize that if I have to “imagine” something medical that my doctor has not heard of, and makes no sense scientifically, then it is probably imaginary. Blum tells us to “[i]magine harnessing a power so great…” What is this power? If it exists, surely it must have been discussed by scientists.
How's "black magic" different than other kinds of magic?
ReplyDeleteBlack is refererd to as the use to injure or hurt (bad use of כישוף), while 'white magic' is supposedly the 'good' use of magic. In reality, they're all prohibited and therefore they're all black and bad - even when used for 'healing'.
ReplyDeleteImagine someone falling for a dust jacket blurb like that.
ReplyDeletethere is someone called Uri Geller who can bend spoons without even touching them - either it is very good trickery, or he has a real talent. whether it is kishuf or not, i do not know.
ReplyDeleteDoes kishuf still exist today?
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's harnessing the placebo effect or a mild form of hypnosis. What's wrong with that?
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you think that it does not? When do you think it may have stopped?
ReplyDeleteBased on al old joke:
ReplyDelete"My son's a magician."
"What d'ya mean?!"
"I can be sitting in the living room. He's in the dining room. And he can say or do something that turns my stomach."
I haven't heard of anyone in the last 100 years flying on a carpet or turning a prince into a frog.
ReplyDeleteApparently, the practitioners attribute the cure to a force independent of G-d.
ReplyDeleteBut still doesn't it beg the question why separate lavin for all these in the Torah need be there on top of avoda zara. We don't find lots of fences around murder, for example, having their own Taryag entries. (There is a halakha, but no separate mitzva, not to be angry.) Only somewhat analogous activities not necessarily obvious to us as such (lashon hara, e.g.). This would suggest that kishuf and such are more than mere fences min haTorah around idolatry.
ReplyDeleteThe heading of the article was "either black magic or fraud." I am suggesting a third alternative.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Uri_Geller
ReplyDeleteI was unaware that the definition of כישוף is flying on carpets and turning princes into frogs. Did that ever happen? Do you have reliable sources of that happening?
ReplyDeleteI'm asking a) what is the definition of כישוף and b) does it exist today.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Rambam claim that these powers are deception?
ReplyDeleteyes but ramban disagreed
ReplyDeleteI've seen Uri Geller , and I was very skeptical, but they handed some spoons to 3-4 kids, and Mr Geller dis some sort of "kishuf" to make them melt without touching them.
ReplyDeletedoes anyone remember the Mishnah where someone moves cucumbers in a cucumber field? Which mesechet is it?
ReplyDeleteR' Leiter's analysis above and R' Szmerla's recent book are clearly at odds with one another in their conclusions. Regardless, both seem to be pretty incoherent positions with fairly indefensible assumptions.
ReplyDeleteI won't take the time to elaborate the respective biases & obvious pitfalls of each. Suffice it to say, in this case of R' Leiter, that the scientific method is NOT codified halakha; modern science was over half a millennium away while the Rishonim went about delineating normative Jewish practice; and if we were to apply the scientific standards of their day, then "empirical" sciences such as folk medicines, herbalism, the medicine informed by Galen's approach applied throughout the Middle Ages, and yes even acupuncture, etc., would for sure be admissible, despite the fact that today they remain fairly remote from rigorous "experimental" confirmation. (I doubt either of these two self-styled mavens, Leiter & Szmerla, are even familiar with the distinction of empirical/experimental science or much informed regarding the larger evolution of scientific practice historically, which began all the way back to Aristotle, Euclid, & Archimedes, and progressively evolved over a few tequfos into what in the present day resembles something almost diametrically opposite of theirs. At no tequfa were any of these approaches something "irrational".)
Worth corss-referencing this blog's recent post covering some halakhic commentary re kishuf:
ReplyDeletehttp://daattorah.blogspot.com/2018/04/ran-concerning-witchcraft_29.html
Also, an interesting albeit peripherally related take on these matters is to be found here:
https://harpers.org/archive/2018/06/the-sound-of-madness/
מכשפה לא תחיה" (שמות, כ"ב, י"ז)
ReplyDeleteIs this Posuk speaking about a true thing? How do you define this Posuk?
Why do you think that it doesn't exist today?
I'm asking questions not giving answers or making statements.
ReplyDelete