Branding Matters: What's In a Name?

 20 Tammuz, 5785/ Parshas Pinchos

Q: How do the following coalesce: (1) the recent Parshiyos HaShavuah - Bolok and Pinchos; (2) the fast of the 17th of Tammuz; and (3) this week's Daf Yomi - meseches Avoda Zorah, daf 26, 27 and 28? 

A: They all relate, in some manner, to incitement to - or devotees of incitement to - Avoda Zorah. It's noteworthy that Shiva Assar BeTammuz - when many Jews fell into the terrible sin of the Chait Ha'Aigel - ultimately leading to public defection to Avoda Zorah (idolatry) - is immediately followed - this year - by the Daf haYomi learning of three separate Gemaras on three consecutive blatt - all involving Minnim. [Minnim are devotees of Avoda Zorah, suspect of promoting their Avoda Zorah agenda, even where the average idolatrous gentile is not suspected of doing so.]

Furthermore, these all fall out on the week between Parshas Bolok and Pinchus, parshiyos which end and begin, respectively, with the idolatrous abomination of Ba'al Pe'or, and the timeless leadership exhibited by Pinchus - rescuing the Nation from epic Divine Retribution (Bam. 25:1-18).

We beg indulgence of the esteemed tzibbur to encapsulate a clarification BE"H of a very relevant but poorly grasped sugya - pertaining to Minnim and Minnus - found in two of those very selections of Daf Yomi of this week - Avoda Zorah 27b and 28a. (See our kuntrus Mishmeres HaKodesh and/or our online posts on Da'at Torah blogspot for more details.)

The Gemara on 27b addresses the very commonly applicable prohibition of Avoda-Zorah-by-Attribution, "Ain Misrapin min HaMinnim."  That is a Rabbinic edict prohibiting merely benefiting (even in absence of any worship) from mystical therapies/ techniques whose effectiveness (real or imagined) is attributed to idolatrous or heretical notions. [Numerous additional prohibitions may apply to such mystical therapies when performed isolated from any idolatrous or heretical attributions. However, that's beyond our scope here, and is addressed extensively elsewhere, including online (e.g. Da'at Torah blogspot. Furthermore, there are those Rishonim who extend this prohibition to non-mystical therapies. However that more stringent view is not quoted in Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Daiyah 155:1; therefore we won't address it here.]

The rationale behind this prohibition is as follows: In case the mystical techniques would work, then the absence of an evident natural mechanism - combined with the fact that the practitioner attributed it to Avoda Zorah - may lead someone to succumb to the heretical myth that Avoda Zorah has some inherent power. That error would constitute high heresy, inasmuch as it is a foundational Jewish conviction (often translated as "belief") that no entity other than G-d has the ability to harm or help us based on its own independent "will" (see Chazon Ish, Yoreh Daiyoh 62:19, for example).

Therefore, to safeguard Jews against the hazard of succumbing to such a heretical misconception, Our Sages require us to sacrifice our lives rather than benefit from such "healing" - precisely because of how it's identified/ labelled, or "branded."  They required one to sacrifice his or her life out of a concern for a possible (spiritual) threat to Emunah - in the face of a certain danger to their physical life (see Teshuvas Maharam Shik, O.C. 304). Thus, the "mere" idolatrous "branding" of a mystical therapy, such as a lachash, an incantation,  transforms that lachash to be prohibited to the extent of sacrificing one's life to avoid it, a status termed "Yaihoraig ve'al Ya'avor."

Unfortunately, that sugya in A.Z. 27b (continued on 28a) is widely misunderstood.  Additionally, one popular English language aide does not at all well serve the public in that regard. The unaware or misinformed reader could easily come away with the misimpression that the prohibition is applicable only in cases when the therapy is performed by an overt pagan missionary, a Min (in other words, that it's only an "issur gavrah"). However, if the practitioner doesn't fall under that Min/ devotee profile, this prohibition, they imagine, doesn't apply.

This misunderstanding is perhaps even more dangerous than it is wrong.

In fact, that issur (prohibition) is more fundamentally an issur "cheftzah" - prohibited by virtue of the actual attribution to idolatrous/ heretical notions - regardless of who attributes it to Avoda Zorah. That means that the issur would similarly apply to a frum Yid unaware of the nature of the terms he's using (e.g. Qi, Ch-i, K-i, Vital-Force, Y-in/ Y-ang, universal-energy, subtle-energy, etc.*) to describe the mechanism or nature of the technique.

[* See the end of the Psak published in the Sefer Rav Belsky on Alternative Medicine et.al., Judaica Press, page 130.  The concept of "universal energy"/ Ki, Q-i/Ch-i, et.al. is a heretical concept; its' worldview is a heretical worldview; and all associated notions must be totally avoided.]

Now, on top of that basic prohibition, there is an additional stringency introduced by the gavrah - in the case of a Minn practitioner - a devotee of A.Z./ heresy.

This Halachic nuance is clarified by the Ran on Avoda Zorah (s.v. "Ve'ikka," quoted by the Maharsha), and the Rosh (2:9), and cited leHalacha in Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Daiyoh 155:1, end.  Any attribution to idolatry/ heresy prohibits a mystical therapy/ practice/ technique -- even if the attributor is not a devotee, a Min. A devotee, however, does introduce an additional stringency - inasmuch as his involvement in performing such therapies prohibits them even in the absence of any overt attribution to idolatry/ heresy - because we assume that he is indeed attributing his mystical therapy to idolatrous/ heretical notions.

••• More information on a range of related concerns is found in the Sefer Rav Belsky on Alternative Medicine et.al., Judaica Press; in particular see the Psak on page 128-130. 

••• For shailos and questions, please email Tomim1679@gmail.com, or text/call 845-642-1679, or, from Eretz Yisroel, call 03-721-3337.

May we start off these Three Weeks by expediting the Final Redemption in the merit of helping save all who wish to be saved from falling into the types of iniquities that perpetuate this bitter Galus. Furthermore, may the efforts to blunt the influence of Minnim and eliminate brazen detractors of authentic Emunah provide much needed merits in reducing our communal susceptibility to Middas HaDin, as Chazal exhort us:

כשיש עבודה זרה בעולם - יש חרון אף בעולם...

Good Shabbos,

נתן שמואל לייטער

Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,

Executive Director,

Tomim Tih'yeh 

Monsey, NY

845.642.1679

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