Lately, when surfing certain English-language Israeli sites (um, the Jerusalem Post to be precise), I've been getting more and adverts for red strings, kiddush cups with the names of holy rivers engraved on their insides, amulets of various shapes, and the above one (details and link edited out, of course) guaranteeing blessings from above if only I will buy a letter in a sefer torah. I used to laugh at this sort of thing, but I'm now getting more and more concerned by it, as hocus-pocus Judaism seems to have hijacked the more common-sense (Protestant?) version to which I subscribe.
I'm not sure which possibility worries me more:
- That the people doing this are cynically exploiting the gullibility of others in order to earn a buck, or
- That they actually believe in these things themselves
but what concerns me most is that ordinary religious Jews - not to mention rabbinical authorities - seem to be taking this sustained assault on our intelligence lying down.
Remember Perek Shira which suddenly materialized out of nowhere a few years back and has already run into scores of editions? It's a mystery to me why the poetry of the book of Psalms, good enough for 2,000 years, should suddenly in our times be superceded by something so prosaic. I can't help wondering if it was all just a ploy to create new sales (after all, we already have a copy of the book of Psalms, don't we?, and writing something original - whether on the Psalms or on anything else - is much harder than simply reprinting an old text).
Then there's the classified ad offering the "service" of someone praying for you for 40 consecutive days at the Western Wall - as if the prayers of the sufferer for himself are no longer as important as what happens to his charity dollar.
A few months ago it was "suddenly discovered" that a certain 12 minutes on the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year were auspicious for prayer. (Actually the source book from which this was gleaned was refering to the ninth year in the Jubilee cycle - something we do not have nowadays anyway.) We were invited to send in our requests, and assured that a veritable cabal of rabbis would pray for us at the graves of the holy during those precious moments. "Forget praying for yourself" - seems to be the message - "your prayers are worthless. Just get the right rabbi on your side, praying for you in the right place at the right time". Isn't that a cop out?
And then there's Rabbi David Batzri and his dybuks.
The rabbi entered the realm of "exorcism as entertainment" in 1999 with the now famous woman from Dimona who spoke with a man's voice. You can see that performance, in ten episodes, here. The woman has since claimed that she faked it.
Now, ten years later, Rabbi Batzri has found another dybuk. He tried to exorcise it over Skype (!!!) - video-ed of course - and then brought the unfortunate young man from Brazil to Israel. The street outside Batzri's yeshiva was thronging with crowds of thousands as he attempted the impossible - and failed. Even the son of the famous Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, the Av Bet Din of the Eida Chareidis, gave it credence by his presence - allegedly to put a cherem on the dybuk, on behalf of the Batatz, to stop it harming anyone.
Although Vos Is Neias reports that:
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch... has publicly stated the case of the dybbuk supposedly possessing the body of a Brazilian avreich in Jerusalem is merely a psychiatric problem requiring medical attention.
and that when asked why his (middle-aged) son attended he said:
He just went to watch... to enjoy it. What can I do about it?
Still, it's a shame he waited until after the unsuccessful exorcism before making this announcement.
Whatever the explanations, I don't think all this helps the cause of Torah Judaism.
