[Avodah] Removing Ayin Horah Remotely from Yerusholayim

[Zev Sero]

On 31/7/19 3:32 pm, Marty Bluke via Avodah wrote:
> https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/promotions/1767439/removing-ayin-horah-remotely-from-yerusholayim-3.html
> 
> What have we come to? Is this what we believe in, magic and 
> superstition? Is this really al pi torah?

That ayin hara is a real thing is definitely al pi torah.  One must 
twist oneself into pretzels in order to *avoid* believing that the Torah 
endorses a literal belief in ayin hara kipshuto.

Whether this person helps is surely an empirical question.  If he has a 
record, then something he is doing works.

How it works is another question.  It could be that it's simply a matter 
of suggestion and making the subject believe that he is no longer under 
the ayin hara, whereupon that confidence actually effects the help.

Or it could be (and this seems to me far more likely) that the help 
comes entirely from the hiddur mitzvah that he insists they adopt, and 
the rest is hocus-pocus whose purpose is to get them to adopt that hiddur.

Third, it could be that this person has been given a power mil'maalah as 
a means of providing him with parnassah, no different in principle from 
the power that was temporarily given to Ovadia's widow to pour an 
unlimited amount of oil from a jug.

Finally, our folk tradition has always included a belief not only in 
ayin horas but also in the ability to "whisper them away", and I see no 
reason why such an ability, if it exists, could not work remotely just 
as easily as it could in person.


-- 
Zev Sero            A prosperous and healthy 5779 to all
zev at sero.name       Seek Jerusalem's peace; may all who love you prosper