[Avodah] Segulos (was Parashas Ha'mon - A Segulah for Paranassah!)

[Professor L. Levine]

At 03:10 PM 1/28/2018, Micha Berger wrote:
>On Sun, Jan 28, 2018 at 09:17:22PM +0200, Ben Waxman wrote:
>: The MO, the DL, the Chardal, the Litvak, the Sefardi, and the
>: Chassidic communities all have great rabbanim...

>Although the classic Litvish attitude to segulos would have been
>to invoke "tamim tihyeh im E-lokekha". However, the yeshiva velt
>has assimilated much of the chassidishe attitude toward these
>things.

You are correct.
See, they were correct when they warned against becoming assimilated 
if one left Europe for America. >:-}


[Email #2. -micha]

The following is an excerpt from an article
by Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg   Dean, Torah Academy, Minneapolis, Minnesota
that is at  https://goo.gl/1ZdeXD

    My biggest concerns with segulos as of late are:

    * They are the basis for developing a lack of emunah.

    * They can get in the way of the performance of mitzvos.

    * They have the potential of cheapening Yiddishkeit.

    * They have the potential of minimizing our cognizance of the
      prescribed method for getting what we need or want - tefillah! Our
      mesorah for getting what we want is tefillah, because through
      tefillah we develop a relationship with Hashem. Unfortunately,
      we lose that opportunity with segulos.

    As was said before, the greatest risk we have with segulos is the
    potential confusion our children can experience. I think that we can
    help our children by sharing, at their level, the point made by the
    Ran about how segulos work. He compares segulos to medicine. He speaks
    about one difference between the two and one similarity they have. The
    Ran says that medicine works on a physical level, while segulos works on
    a meta-physical level. That is how they differ. They are alike in that
    just as there are no guarantees that medicine will work for all patients,
    so too with segulos. There are no guarantees that segulos will work.

See the above URL for more.

YL