{"id":45630,"date":"2018-12-12T09:57:54","date_gmt":"2018-12-12T07:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=45630"},"modified":"2022-07-06T13:01:35","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T10:01:35","slug":"does-magic-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/does-magic-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Magic Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[444,768],"acf":{"old_id":"45630","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"110","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"From Egypt to Ein Dor - it seems to have...","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After railing against child sacrifice (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">molekh<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>,<\/em> vs. 2-5), the Torah cautions against two magical practices it calls <em>\u2018<\/em><\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ob<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (ghost) and <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yid`oni<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (familiar), threatening its practitioners with premature death (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">kareit)<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The evidence of the books of Samuel, Kings, and Isaiah indicates that these practices were actually followed by some Israelites; they were tolerated by ignoble rulers and were prosecuted by righteous ones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One such righteous ruler was King Saul of whom it was said that he \u201cremoved the \u2018Ob and Yid`oni from the country\u201d (1 Samuel 28:3). However, when his final battle against the Philistines began to turn against him and he experienced a premonition of his own death, Saul approached a sorceress (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ba`alat \u2018Ob<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) of Ein-Dor and asked her to raise up for him the spirit of Samuel the prophet (1 Samuel 28:7 ff.).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The woman complied and raised up \u201can elderly man wrapped in a cloak\u201d (v. 14) whom Saul recognized as Samuel. The prophet rebuked the king for disturbing his peace and notified him that on the morrow he and his sons \u201cwould be with me\u201d\u2014i.e., dead, as it came, indeed, to pass.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our Sages and exegetes split over the question whether the witch actually raised Saul from the dead; whether it was an illusion (so the Gaon Shmuel bar Hofni), or God allowed it to transpire miraculously (much to the surprise of the witch) in order to impress its lesson on Saul (so Sa`adyah Gaon and Hai Gaon).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bearing in mind, additionally, that the Egyptian sorcerers were able to replicate several of the wonders performed by Aaron and Moses, we seem, inescapably, obliged to answer our opening question in the affirmative: Magic seemed to work, but the mechanism by which it did so remains obscure. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>image: Nikolai Ge, <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Witch_of_Endor_(Nikolay_Ge).jpg\"><em>Witch of Endor \/<\/em><\/a><em> wikimedia<\/em><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":45634,"id":45634,"title":"Witch_of_Endor_(Nikolay_Ge)","filename":"Witch_of_Endor_Nikolay_Ge.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Witch_of_Endor_Nikolay_Ge.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/does-magic-work\/witch_of_endor_nikolay_ge\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"witch_of_endor_nikolay_ge","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":45630,"date":"2018-12-12 07:57:38","modified":"2023-01-31 08:49:24","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":674,"height":567,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Witch_of_Endor_Nikolay_Ge-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Witch_of_Endor_Nikolay_Ge-300x252.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":252,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Witch_of_Endor_Nikolay_Ge.jpg","medium_large-width":674,"medium_large-height":567,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Witch_of_Endor_Nikolay_Ge.jpg","large-width":674,"large-height":567,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Witch_of_Endor_Nikolay_Ge.jpg","1536x1536-width":674,"1536x1536-height":567,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Witch_of_Endor_Nikolay_Ge.jpg","2048x2048-width":674,"2048x2048-height":567,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Witch_of_Endor_Nikolay_Ge.jpg","post_full_size-width":674,"post_full_size-height":567,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Witch_of_Endor_Nikolay_Ge-499x420.jpg","home_baner-width":499,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Does Magic Work?","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"From Egypt to Ein Dor - 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