[Avodah] Tefillos and Segulos

[Zev Sero]

On 15/4/21 2:48 pm, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
> 
> But, some kind of difference between physical and metaphysical engineering
> must exist, or else why would lechishah be assur?

The simple answer is we don't know, and our speculation about the reason 
can only be *based on* our opinion on "metaphysical engineering".  We 
also don't know what kishuf is; we don't even know *what* is forbidden, 
let alone why.  Again, our speculation about the reason can only be 
based on our opinion about its nature.  Therefore any attempt to prove 
the latter from the former is begging the question.

It seems to me that Chazal did not perceive any difference between what 
we would classify as "segulos", "medicine", and "technology".  The 
rishonim did see a difference, but most if not all of them didn't think 
it was all that significant.  Modern people think the difference is 
obvious, but we have Clarke's Third Law to remind us otherwise.


-- 
Zev Sero            Wishing everyone a healthy summer
zev at sero.name