In this episode of Hebrew Voices #244 - Daring To Be Different: Part 1, Nehemia brings on Tanakh-only teacher Israel Horowitz to discuss how ancient superstitions became the basis for Rabbinic laws, why arguments based on majority rule contradict the Torah, and how we should be overcoming the rulings of our earthly fathers rather than our Heavenly Father.

I look forward to reading your comments!

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Hebrew Voices #244 – Daring To Be Different: Part 1

You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Israel: If I had to respect Moses or Rabbi Eliezer, I’m going with Moses, right? And the point is that they seem to not understand the hierarchy here, which is that you’re going to have to throw someone under the bus. Either it’s going to be Rashi or it’s going to be Noah. I’d rather throw Rashi under the bus than throw Noah under the bus. Apparently, you’d rather throw Noah under the bus than Rashi. So, I think it comes down to that… It’s impossible to maintain allegiance to the written Torah and the oral Torah when they contradict each other.

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Nehemia: Shalom, and welcome to Hebrew Voices. I’m here today, once again, with Israel Horowitz. He was raised ultra-Orthodox and found out, in his words, that the written Torah is the way to go and has been teaching and practicing written Torah ever since. Shalom, Israel. How are you?

Israel: Shalom. It’s good to see you again.

Nehemia: Yeah, it’s good to have you back on the program. We had a really interesting conversation last time, got some really good feedback. So, I think one of the big developments since we last spoke is you got married. Am I right?

Israel: That would definitely be it, yes.

Nehemia: So, what I should say as a Jew is mazal tov, but that’s a very problematic statement that we can discuss if you’d like.

Israel: Good luck.

Nehemia: Well, mazal tov is good constellation. Mazal is a constellation in ancient Hebrew. And what the alternative is, is siman tov, which is good omen. Right? You say mazal tov ve’siman tov, ve’siman tov umazal tov. Right? So, it’s good constellation, good omen. And omen meaning, like a comet, or something like that, right? So, it just goes to show how deeply rooted, let’s say, superstition is in Jewish culture.

Israel: Oh yeah. Zodiacs, everything. They got it all. The zodiac signs. Yeah. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between Judaism and eastern religions.

Nehemia: I gave an academic lecture a couple years back, and I’m writing a paper about it when I get around to it. And I cite, there, this rabbi… I want to say from the 12th century or so, maybe it’s 13th; I don’t remember, it’s been a while. And he’s discussing the question about whether the constellations actually affect us. And he says, “Well, look, if the constellations affected how you live your life, then there’d be more Jews in certain professions. Because there are Jews born every month of the year. And the fact that there’s no Jews in these particular professions,” that’s my interest there, because he’s talking about parchment making, right? So, he’s like, “How come you don’t have any Jewish parchment makers if there are Jews born every month of the year?” But he’s got to justify it, like, because to his Jewish audience he’s speaking to, it’s like these are just givens, that the constellations affect us.

And we have this passage in Jeremiah, maybe we can discuss that. It’s a very famous passage, Jeremiah 10. It’s Jeremiah 10… well, he starts in 10:1. I’ll read the JPS. Let me actually share my screen here, show people what I have here. So, he has, “Hear the word which the LORD has spoken to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the LORD: Do not learn to go the way of the nations and not to be dismayed by portents in the sky. Let the nations be dismayed by them, for the laws of the nations are delusions.” And then he starts talking about idols, you know, statues and stuff.

But, you know, Deuteronomy 18 talks about not learning the ways of the nations, the divination and such, and so, Jeremiah is directly referring to Deuteronomy 18, about learning the ways of the nations. And so, they look in the skies, and they see an omen, and they see, you know, constellations, and they think, “Oh, okay, that’s going to be bad because the bad constellation.”

Israel: Right.

Nehemia: And he said those are nonsense; they’re hevel, they’re vapor.

Israel: Yeah, exactly. I mean, you see so much of that superstition. Yeah, it’s kind of concerning. A hundred percent. Obviously, the Torah itself cautions against all forms of witchcraft, superstition, worship of the constellations and things like that. And ultimately, these ideas are not even found within the Torah, or the Tanakh, for that matter. Yet you have that as a mainstream belief in Judaism, and you wonder, “How did that development even take place?”

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