Thoughts on Judaism

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

The Return of the Death Curse

Hat tip: Shmarya

Just when you thought it was safe to enter the 21st century, out come the witch doctors with the holy craft of cursing an evil man to death. And who is their target? Not Palestinian and Al Qaeda militants. No, we have missiles for that. Not the chilonim. No, we have rocks for that. Not even the French! No, they wouldn't even fight back.

Fresh from their victory over Rabin (assassinated a couple of months later by a right wing assassin), and possibly Stalin (according to an old Chabad legend), they are after the Rosh HaMemshala, Arik Sharon. Sharon did not wipe out the Jewish communities of Europe, Bavel, or Russia. He did not bring plague, pestilence or the Jerry Springer show to Israel. Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown showed up, but there is no evidence that Sharon was behind it. He committed the grievous sin of trying to protect the borders of Israel and the people of Israel in a way with which these particular mekubalim disagree. I personally think that the disengagement is a bad idea in many respects. Trading something for nothing, even if that is the relative nothing of Gaza, has just never increased the peace. But politics is for another venue. Sharon is for it, along with alot of Israelis, and they think it help in the big picture.

No doubt, if the PM gets ill or if they successfully have him conventionally murdered (they have obviously examined the possibility as they know the details of Sharon's security arrangements and express dismay that they cannot get passed it), they will claim the credit. I am not sure how many Pulsa D'Nura's have failed to kill the intended victim. But we can be sure that if the PD fails to kill its victim, there will be an adequate answer for why. He was too far away. His advocates were davening against it. The sun was in our eyes. Or perhaps a kabalistic answer, like the potatoes of atzilus were not sufficiently fried in the olive oil of Atik Yomin. And this is to say nothing of the fact that it seems fashionable among certain elements to clamor for death. It seems that everytime a bell rings for dealing with the peace process, an "angel of destruction" gets his wings. The people who speak calmly, gleefully, hopefully, about killing the political or religious opponent du jour remind me of something very deep seeded in world culture. It is the culture of the Taliban, Al Qaeda, the Nazis, the Klan, and now the Jews of the deep right. It is met with a blood curdling passivity in some mainstream circles.

Of what value is this power of death curse, if it can be so easily thwarted? I do not know.

The question that begs to be asked is, if we have this awesome power, why did we have to put up with so much throughout history? Surely, the Maharal could have put the whammy on Thaddeus. The mekubalim and Rebbes of Europe could have stopped Hitler. The misnagdim could have eliminated the Chasidim. (Note: if you are a Chasid, please reverse the terms misnagdim and Chasidim in the previous sentence.) Instead of working out the issues in Beis Din, we could have solved issues by curses at 20 paces.

(Editors note: Rebel, that last comment sounded too much like that Harry Potter kefira stuff! Please consider revising!)

In fact, why do we not mix the prescience and omniscience of the mekubalim with the ability to perform a death curse and really start the party! One mekubal can divine the relative value of children in a particular class while another applies the voodoo to the ones who will grow up to be a car thieves, koferim b'farhesia, or lawyers. Mixing the Nitro of kabala wih the Glycerine of the ability to visit death on thine enemies may be a wonderful stress relieving fantasy, but when Professor McGonagal finds out, many points will be taken from Gryfindor House.

9 Comments:

  • You are taking this more seriously than those nuts themselves.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:33 AM  

  • Your writing is brilliant, though. Can I create a dish called Potatoes of Atzilus? Please?

    By Blogger BBJ, at 11:34 PM  

  • B"H
    The people who speak calmly, gleefully, hopefully, about killing the political or religious opponent du jour remind me of something very deep seeded in world culture. It is the culture of the Taliban, Al Qaeda, the Nazis, the Klan, the Makkabees, and now the Jews of the deep right. It is met with a blood curdling passivity in some mainstream circles.

    By Blogger Rabbi Ariel Sokolovsky, at 5:27 AM  

  • For anyone following along, Ariel has copied my sentences wehre I compare the actions of today's assassination radicals to Taliban, Nazis etc., and Ariel subtly adds "Makkabees" to the list.

    Ariel

    Perhaps, having spent your formative years in Russia, you are unaware of how democracy and pluralistic society work. Perhaps you feel that something has been accomplished by the murder of Rabin (it sure stopped Oslo in its tracks, didn't it), or that of Kennedy, McKinley, Garfield, Lincoln etc.. Perhaps, you have a heter in mind for the 6th commandment. Don't blame that on the Makkabees. Revolting against a despotic dictator is a far cry from killing an elected leader, especially in a place where the law provides so many ways to remove the leader politically.

    I would only add, Ariel, self described agent of the Messiah, did the "Messiah" ever advocate the murder of a democratically elected leader? Mihu HaYehudi, immigration, post 1967 calamity of allowing the enemy to return. Did he, the man who you claim to follow (though you seem to lead him more than follow him), ever advocate real assassination, Pulsa D'Nura or kol k'yotze b'zeh against an elected leader?

    By Blogger Rebeljew, at 8:49 AM  

  • disclaimer the following was written in response to a comment you wrote about this topic on failedmessiah.com
    yoru comment here does not focus on chabad per se but on all religious jews who are just as unlikely to support there voodoo rites
    I write here because the logger on faledmessiah inst interested in nay commetns that idsagree with him, so I didnt want to waste my time there
    but i found your comment to be out of context too so I write here about both


    I was wondering why you and hsamray attack chabad for the pulsa dnura attempts when no chabadnik at all supported it or even believes that this hocus pocus has anyting to do with judaism (even real practical kabbal which would do positive is not allowed acording to the lubavitcher rebe but this has no real source as a curse, ony as a cherem)
    but i see you manage to bring out our nutters to support any idea you claim is supported by chabad and then you have another thing to besmirch chabad with. brilliant propaganda...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:21 PM  

  • My bringing in Chabad here was only a response to Ariel. I asked a relevant question that if he is truly a Chasid of the Chabad Rebbe, and he supports the sentiment of killing the PM, then does he think that the Rebbe would support it. That is obviously rhetorical since the CR would never and did never support such a thing. That is the point.

    I have no interest in "besmirching" Chabad or its venerable late Rebbe, one of our generation's visionaries. And no, of course the CR never advocated or even acknowledged such a thing as the Pulsa D'Nura.

    Some have responded that the CR did indeed curse Stalin to death in 1953, not necessarily with the PD curse. That was the legend that the post refers to. No intended disrespect to the Chabad Rebbe ztl.

    By Blogger Rebeljew, at 10:07 PM  

  • the potatoes of atzilus were not sufficiently fried in the olive oil of Atik Yomin

    ROTFL, as they say ;-) .

    If you do come up with such a dish, Balabusta, please don't hesitate to post the recipe up on your blog and/or email it around! :-)

    By Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg), at 11:25 PM  

  • B"H
    Shalom uBrocha!
    I simply wanted to point out that in principle such attitudes are not nessesarily goish. I didn't comment as to the effectivenes, or halachik apraisal of such course of action in our time. Beyond that the Rebbe said 30 years ago that it's a miracle that there is no civil war in Israel yet, in view of the fact that the goverment structure is in fact less democratic than even the one in the Communist Soviet Union (he then explains how the way elections are conducted and the so called "party dicipline" create a mockery of democracy by concentrating too much power in the hands of "king makers" like Peres. The Rebbe also points out that the left wing represents the Arabs and not the Jews therefore even though (at least as far as I'm aware ) the Rebbe never directly advocated killing Israeli politicians based on "din rodef" or "din moser" in view of his comments quoted above and for example his comments about the lack of responsibility of the youth who participated in the demonstrations to free the Soviet Jews for the bad effects of these demonstrations had on Soviet Jews since their intentions were pure I feel confident that I didn't deviate from the the Rebbe's hashkofa by my comment you take issue with.
    With respect and blessing.
    Ariel Sokolovsky
    Diamonds of Redemption
    Chabad Moshiach Videos page
    Chabad Lubavitch Travel Service blog
    Geula Investment Trust .com blog
    Moshiach TV blog
    Long Live our master our Teacher and our Rebbe King Moshiach Forever and Ever!

    By Blogger Rabbi Ariel Sokolovsky, at 11:43 PM  

  • Good stuff here...

    There's only a few places I go to for this kinda info, and this is one of them.

    I've worked hard on my mortgage pitfall reverse resource site. If you have any ideas for me, that's great...I'm a newbie...as if you couldn't tell. :)

    Thanks much,

    James

    By Blogger Ray, at 2:38 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home