Pervasive Paganism?

 Pervasive Paganism?

Contemporary Applications of the Prohibitions Against Idolatrous Ideology and Practice

Parshas Yisro, 15th of Shvat 5785/ Feb. 13, '25

Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter, Executive Director, Tomim Tihyeh

 

לא יהיה לך אלוהים אחרים על פני (שמות כ: ג)

This year, Shabbos Parshas Yisro - in which we  read about the Aseres HaDibros (literally,"The Ten Divine Utterances"), including prohibitions against Avoda Zorah - falls out on the very same day lomdei Daf Yomi learn the Mishna in Sanhedrin 60b that commences the sugya categorizing the prohibited acts of Avoda Zorah (loosely translated as "idolatry," but perhaps more precisely described as "alien devotion").

Perhaps this year, after one of the most tumultuous periods we've seen in recent history, we'd benefit by devoting a bit more careful attention to some of the less understood contemporary applications of Avoda Zorah. Chazal exhort us that as long as Avoda Zorah persists, Divine Wrath does as well (Rashi D'varim 13:18).  Granted, one could - and should - certainly attribute the recently escalated levels of Divine Wrath to several other communal iniquities (including, for prominent example, LGBTQ legislation and promotion, abortion-at-whim, educational indoctrination of heresy and promiscuity, the Israeli female draft and the intolerable persecution of girls seeking exemptions, and fraudulent conversion "Rabbis," among others). Nevertheless, ignoring this foundational class of idolatrous and heretical transgressions - against which the Torah exhorts us dozens of times -  won't enhance our situation.

Perhaps we ought to consider a communal accounting of how responsible we may be for the tens of thousands of Jews stumbling in severe Avoda Zorah prohibitions simply due to lack of awareness. Furthermore, most of us lack the slightest conception of how much sheer misery, pain, illness, disfunction, familial disorder, Chinuch failure, alienation, and acrimony Yidden could be saved from if only the tzibbur would be effectively guided to liberate themselves from the costly and artificial dependency on scores of far-Eastern-oriented solve-all/cure-all businesses. These  financial interests comprise a lucrative network, which could perhaps be labelled generally as an "Idolatry-Industrial-Complex," ("Big Buddha," for short). They tend to parasite off of some of our most despairing neighbors, by exploiting communal naivety - and the generosity of ba'alei tzedakah - who have no idea that their assistance is being exploited to fund ostensible "solutions" that are often even worse (and perhaps more self-perpetuating) than the emotional/health problems they purportedly alleviate.

A few facts could go far in saving ourselves and others.  How many of us are aware of the following basic principles pertaining to Avoda Zorah, and their practical applications?

1) It is foundational to Judaism that Avoda Zorah itself has no power whatsoever, to help or harm on any independent "will." However, sometimes Avoda-Zorah-related acts or remedies may result in "miracle cures," due to other factors, ranging from placebo to a Divine test (e.g., cf. Rambam, M"T, Hil. Yesodei HaTorah 8:3).

2) To prevent Jews from falling into the heretical error that Avoda-Zorah has its own independent power, Chazal decreed that a mystical therapy or remedy that's simply attributed to a Shaim-Avoda-Zorah - [an Avoda-Zorah/ kefirah term/notion] is itself prohibited - even in cases of danger to life (Tos. Pesachim 25a, D'var Shmuel).

3) Examples of contemporary Shaimos-Avoda-Zorah include: Ch-i, universal-energy, subtle-energy, bio-energy, Vital-Force, Universal Intelligence, and many more. We explain this in our Kuntrus Mishmeres HaKodesh (5768), and summarize it below. (See also the Rabbinic statement published in the important sefer "Rav Belsky on Alternative Medicine" et.al., pg.128-30, Judaica Press.)

4) A Shaim-Avoda-Zorah (an idolatrous name/ identifier) remains prohibited even if it refers to an genuine entity. In fact (as evident from the Seforno in several places in D'varim) historically, most Shaimos-Avoda-Zorah indeed referred to real beings (angels, stars, etc.), albeit erroneously - attributing to them the independent ability to help or harm based on their own imagined "will." 

5) Therefore, even if Q-i/Ch-i, subtle-energy, bioenergy, et.al. refer to some genuine, created force -- nevertheless, the terms Q-i/Ch-i et.al. themselves remain encumbered with the stigma of a Shaim-Avoda-Zorah - with all the Halachic import that entails. This one point undermines the entire edifice on which basis an entire "Q-i/Ch-i-energy"-based subculture has deceived the Orthodox public.  Their unrelenting ululation over the ostensible existence of "the force" - to which they stubbornly refer as "Q-i/ Ch-i, subtle energy" etc. - serves to obscure the simple fact that their renegade insistence on mainstreaming the heretical/idolatrous New-Age names and descriptions of said "force" are as inexcusable as they are antithetical to Judaism.

6) Even a lachash, an incantation, which would normally be permitted as a segulah - in order to save a life - becomes prohibited - even at the risk of losing one's life - by virtue of mere association with an Avoda Zorah term, or when performed by a Min, a devotee to such heretical ideologies (Yoreh Daiyoh 155:1; cf. Teshuvas Minchas Yitzchak, 6:80 p. 112, col. 2).

7) If even a lachash can be transformed to be prohibited -- how much more so would the many New-Age techniques identified or described as working via Q-i/Ch-i, universal-energy et.al. - e.g. energy-healing/ energy-work, Applied-/Health-Kinesiology,™ or E.F.T. - be similarly prohibited. They are demonstrably NOT scientific, natural techniques (nor are they even known segulos). Thus, they constitute mystical techniques attributed to a Shaim-Avoda-Zorah, and are therefore prohibited.

8) Those who misrepresent Q-i, universal-energy et.al. as a natural force - a "bio-electric" energy - either don't know what electrical energy is - and is NOT - or don't care.  Clearly, if energy-practitioners would be using an electrical energy - that could be detected by advanced modern technology. It has not been. And if the levels of electricity involved are so extremely low as to be undetectable, then these ostensibly electric currents clearly couldn't accomplish the spectrum of feats unrelenting touted by energy-healers/-workers.

9) Various writers, influencers, and practitioners targeting the Orthodox community attribute the effectiveness (real, exaggerated, or imagined) of a spectrum of bizarre, new-age methods to "Q-i," et.al. Why would those writers go out of their way to attribute mystical techniques to an Avoda Zorah/ kefira concept - when that attribution super-imposes a severe Avoda Zorah prohibition on the very practice itself (a  prohibition, which, on it's face, is Yaihoraig Ve'al Ya'avor, as per Yoreh Daiyoh 155:1, as explained above)? It's apparent that some of them aim to promote the New-Age ideology, not just the practices. This agenda comports with the classic profile of a maisis - someone seeking to draw Jews away from Judaism - towards its antithesis, namely, idolatry/heresy.*

* An 2017CE ban leveled against one such New-Age syncretistic influencer, Rephoel Szmerla (of Lakewood NJ), author of "Alternative Medicine In Halacha" (sic), is available here: https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2025/02/ban-by-over-dozen-rabbonim-against-new.html .

10) According to the Chassam Sofer (Responsa YD 76, quoted in Pis'chei Teshuva Yoreh Daiyoh 155 (1)), even a refuah bedukah, ("confirmed remedy") - when employed with the intent to draw the client away from Judaism - has the status of Atzai-Asheirah (being healed via a remedy falsely-attributed to the mythical "power" (sic) of Avoda Zorah, see Tos. Pesachim 25a) - and is therefore forbidden even if requires sacrificing one's life ("Yaihoraig ve'al Ya'avor ").

11) As previously indicated (see last week's letter in MonseyMevaser.com, Parshas Beshalach, referring to the infamously anti-Torah New-Age leader Alice A. Bailey, y"s), numerous New-Age proponents do not well conceal their intention to draw Jewish clients away from Torah via their therapy/ treatment/ propaganda blends. (Years ago, one upstate NY Reik-i and Aromatherapy practitioner [a Ms. M. Thompson] even admitted it to me.)

For further reading:

On the occasion of the  Yahrtzeit of the Steipler Gaon ZT"L we posted "Theological Detoxification:" http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/08/bsd-insights-from-parshas-shoftim-on-of.html

  (Aug 20, 2020)

Regarding the Shitah of Chi being a foundational "god" concept of Eastern religion (cf. Book of Ch-i, Paul Wildish, p.91;191,2) see:

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/07/is-energy-healing-form-of-avodah-zarah.html

 http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-shitah-of-chi-is-foundational-god.html (Jul. 22, 2020)

~~~

¶¶¶ IDEOLOGY of Q-i/ universal-energy, subtle-energy et.al.:

The very concept of "Q-i/ Chi-, K-i, universal-energy, subtle-energy, bioenergy" et.al. is foundational to far-Eastern Metaphysics and "New-Age" religion.

Moreover, K-i, et.al., as popularized in the West by the "New Age" movement, is actually a kefira (heretical) concept:

"K-i" refers to a force that, on one hand, is imagined to animate all that exists, and, on the other hand, is subject to physical qualities, e.g. Ki is thought to flow and stagnate, and is even considered manipulatable by Man.

We, of course, know that it is HaShem Alone Who animates the entire Creation. To attribute any physical qualities/ physicality to him is heretical; e.g. see Mishneh Torah, Yesodei HaTorah 1:11.

Thus, even those universal-energy/Ki-proponents who ostensibly believe in HaShem (many explicitly deny the Supreme Divinity of HaShem, e.g. New Age leader Alice Bailey y"s, in her book "Esoteric Healing," p.393) clearly deny the foundational Emunah principle that HaShem is not subject to any physical qualities.

Thus, "Q-i, K-i, universal-energy" et.al. is, by definition, kefirah - heretical.

Additionally, this New-Age notion of Qi/Ki, universal-energy, et.al. is also specifically idolatrous. We present here three reasons for this claim:

A) K-i et.al. is heretical, in part, because the New-Age concept of K-i/Ch-i deifies (i.e., attributes divinity to) whatever force or forces they purport to tap into and manipulate via their multitude of energy-work techniques - by describing that "force" as the force that animates the entire universe. Again, animating the entire universe is the exclusive role of HaShem - shared with no other. In other words, they are describing a (purportedly) created being (forces or forces) as fulfilling a premier role of G-d - thereby portraying it as G-d. (See the first mitzvah in the Sefer HaMitzvos of the Rambam, also topical to Parshas Yisro.)

B) In addition, many energy-healing proponents explicitly describe this "energy," that they purportedly utilize, as "god" (Otto & Knight, Dimensions in Wholistic Healing, p.48).

C) Furthermore, some (e.g. many practitioners of the New-Age system called Health Kinesiology™) attribute to the purported Ch-i energy the ability to independently, *willingly* help diagnose clients (documentation references were published years ago in "Rav Belsky on Alternative Medicine" et.al.).

This very attribution - to any such force (real or imagined) - of the ability to help or harm on independent will is an Avoda Zorah belief; e.g. see Rambam, Principle 5 (Sanhedrin, Peirush haMishna, preface to Perek Chelek), and Chazon Ish Yoreh Daiyoh, 62:19.

Thus, the very notion of Ch-i, Ki, et.al. is antithetical to Judaism. This was accentuated at the end of the Rabbinic statement prohibiting all forms of energy-work - and universal-energy-ideology - published on page 130 of "Rav Belsky on Alternative Medicine" et.al. (Judaica Press). There, the undersigned Rabbis state that the ideology (Shitah) of universal energy is heretical. The aforementioned information simply elucidates that statement.

¶¶¶  In addition, not only is it prohibited to believe in such erroneous notions, it's prohibited to expose oneself or others to them, or to any ideas that could lead to rejection of any of the Ikkarei Emunah, ("Fundamental Principles of Jewish Conviction;" e.g. see Rambam, M.T., Hilchos A.Z., 2:2-3, quoted in part 3 of the previously cited Psak published in Rav Belsky on Alternative Medicine, et.al., p.130).

May we be saved from the tribulations of the Messianic Era in the merit of saving others from the types of transgressions that impede the Final Redemption. May HaShem open up the eyes of all those who truly wish to see, with the Geulah Shelaimah bekarov.

¶¶¶

To help support our ongoing work, please contact us today. Thank you, and have an uplifting 15th of Shvat, and a good Shabbos,

Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,

Executive Director,

Help Rescue Our Children

845.642.1679

Direct: 771.215.8892

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torahjewsfordecency@gmail.com

Tomim Tih'yeh [countering "New-Age" infiltration]: 

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Presentations on New-Age dangers: 605-313-6831 ext. 2

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