[Avodah] Why one should not say parshas HaMan

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Tue, Feb 07, 2017 at 09:50:31PM +0000, Professor L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: See http://torasaba.blogspot.com/2017/02/why-not-to-say.html

Quoting:

   ...
   Why not to say [Parashas haMan]:

   The Perisha says there is a Yerushalmi (Brachos) that speaks
   about the Segula  of פרשת המן." The Aruch Hashulchan writes
   he couldn't find this Yerushalmi. (It hasn't been found since)

Well we are missing much of the Y-mi. The Perishah (R Yehushua Falk)
was niftar in 1614. That's 300 years in which we could have lost a
snippet he had, or his source had.

   ...
   According to the Rambam*, If the sole purpose of saying the Parsha,is
   to have the Segulah of Parnasah, it is considered Kefirah.
   *(Hl. Avoda Zarah (Perek 11)

The word "kefirah" or "kofer" do not appear in that pereq. The nearest
I can find it halakhah 12, which does say the following as reported,
WRT halochaish al hamakah vehaqorei pasuq min haTorah and the like:

   "They make the Divrei Torah a Refuas Haguf and it isn't but a  Refuas
   Hanefesh"

But the Rambam's issur is menacheish.

I complain about segulah shoppers as turning a system for us serving Hashem
into a system for getting Him to serve us.

And to quote my reply to your quote of the Mezhbuzher Rav in 2009
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol26/v26n261.shtml#11>:
> Aside from Avos 1:3 and Atignos ish Sokho's "al menas shelo leqabeil
> peras..."

> More condemning: I'm reminded of BB 10b on Mishlei 14:34. The pasuq says
> "vechesed le'umim chatas", and the gemara says that it's because they
> do chesed lehisyaheir. R' Elchanan Wasserman in Qoveitz Shiurim brings
> a long line of rishonim starting with Rabbeinu Bachya showing that this
> is the defining feature of paganism. To be a pagan is to do good only
> in order to get favors from the gods.

However, all that (and R' Lopiansky's amusing story) do not prove it's
wrong to engage in such things. These are arguments for not saying them
for the wrong reasons.

If one deals with segulos in terms of rituals that bring us in
line with Retzono which will cause HQBH to fulfill our retzonos as
though they were His, and thus says P. haMan in order to (1) remember
where all wealth comes from, (2) commit it back to serving Him, and
hoping -- but not counting on -- this being enough for Him to entrust
us with more of his wealth, why not?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Good decisions come from experience;
micha at aishdas.org        Experience comes from bad decisions.
http://www.aishdas.org                - Djoha, from a Sepharadi fable
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