[Avodah] Segulos and how they work

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Mar 09, 2026 at 09:03:32PM -0400, Michael Poppers via Avodah wrote:
> If I may add one point that I don't think RJIR and R'Micha raised in their
> respective, excellent V44n15 responses (if one or both did, please forgive
> me for not thus understanding...): if someone can positively change herself
> psychologically, she becomes a different person subject to a different
> (hopefully "rewarding") outcome -- compare with *t'shuvah*.

I was riffing on RSRH's approach to tefillah, actually.

He (as I'm sure you know) says that tefillah doesn't work because begging
Hashem for something will get Him to cave. After all, with or without
tefillah, kol man de'avad Rachmanah letav adav.

So RSRH says that tefillah changes the self, and the changed self has
a diferent "tav".

And simanei milsa are basically physical tefillos. From there, to segulos.

Although many things we call segulos aren't actually. Many are expations
of a mida-keneged-mida reward. The above is only purely true when speaking
of practices that aren't actual halakhah.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 With the "Echad" of the Shema, the Jew crowns
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   G-d as King of the entire cosmos and all four
Author: Widen Your Tent      corners of the world, but sometimes he forgets
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    to include himself.     - Rav Yisrael Salanter