[Avodah] Segulot thoughts?

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Wed May 18 12:41:13 PDT 2022


Of course the big problem I have with segulos is that

- If they apply to non-mitzvos, they give yet another mechanism for
  someone getting something for reasons other than Hashem providing
  what is most appropriate for them. With no payoff, as they are not
  predictable enough to aid my own decision making process. (Unlike,
  say, physical causality.)

- Whereas if we are discussing a mitzvah, the whole discussion turns
  the mitzvah into "al menas leqabel peras." (Which is exactly what BB
  10b says the aku"m of the nations is all about.)


On Wed, May 18, 2022 at 02:29:42AM -0400, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23780231221084775
> 
> Abstract
> The authors analyze the 2020-2021 Chapman University Survey of American
> Fears (n = 1,035)...

General comment about the topic... Whenever discussion of Jewish
superstition comes up, I think about the following:

The Bavli has numerous discussions of sheidim and maziqin, and even in
some places gets quite detailed. The Yerushalmi has at most once, the
endpoint of the decay of a qamqema is a "sheir", but there is speculation
that "sheir" may have originally been "sheid" (Shabbos 1:3, 8a).

This corresponds to culural differences of their host countries. The
Romans weren't nearly as into demonology as the Sassanids. In Bavel,
keeping away demons was a major concern.

Which fits Pesachim 110b, "kol deqafeid, qafdei bahadei". Zugos, which are
a sheid-related phenomenon, are only maqpidim are people who are mapqid
about them. So, living in a mileua where demons are taken seriously made
the Jews of Bavel more vulnerable.

If one takes the Rambam's route out of believing in them altogether,
it still doesn't imply assimilation. No more than contemporary Jews
believing the science that is current in our mileau.

Because what one culture calls superstition, another analyzes,
systemetizes, and just considers part of how the universe works. To them,
it's science. (The way the Ibn Ezra believed in astrology *because*
of Aristotilian rationalism.) Which would allow the Rambam to dismiss
Chazal's talk of sheidim as an obsolecent and disproven scientific theory.

To us, chi is superstition, but it too is treated in the East as a
science, no differently than the way a western scientist relates to
electromagnetic or gravitational fields. (To pick something science
posits from effects, but has no substance in and of itself.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Today is the 32nd day, which is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   4 weeks and 4 days in/toward the omer.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Netzach sheb'Hod: What type of submission
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF               really results in dominating others?



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