The practice of sorcery is forbidden by the Torah (Exodus 22:17) and the punishment is stoning. On daf TB Sanhedrin 67 “Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Why is sorcery called keshafim? Because it is an acronym for: Contradicts the heavenly entourage [shemakhḥishin pamalia shel mala]. Sorcery appears to contradict the laws of nature established by God.” (Sefaria.org translation) I think the Torah forbids sorcery because it “challenges” God’s power and were not allowed to entertain such thoughts. An illusionist isn’t considered a sorcerer.
After
reading story after story of sorcery on this daf, one has to come to the conclusion that our sages actually believed
that sorcery is real. For example, “A man named Yannai arrived at a certain
inn. He said to the innkeepers: Give me water to drink. They brought
him flour mixed with water. He saw that the lips of the innkeeper woman were
moving, and he cast a bit of the drink to the ground, and it turned
into scorpions, and he understood that the innkeepers performed sorcery on
the drink. Yannai said to them: I drank from yours; you too drink from mine,
and he also performed sorcery on the drink. He gave it to her to
drink and she turned into a donkey. He rode upon her and went to
the marketplace. Her friend came and released her from the sorcery, and
people saw him riding on a woman in the marketplace.” (Sefaria.org
translation)
The daf ends with the plague of frogs.
Remember the Egyptian sorcerers could reproduce Moses his first three plagues
one of which was frogs. “It is stated with regard to the plagues of Egypt: “And
the frog came up and covered the land of Egypt” (Exodus 8:2). Noting that
the term “the frog” is written in the singular, Rabbi Elazar says: At
first it was one frog; it spawned and filled the entire land of Egypt
with frogs.
“The Gemara
comments: This matter is subject to a dispute between tanna’im:
Rabbi Akiva says: It was one frog, and it spawned and filled the entire
land of Egypt with frogs. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya said to him: Akiva,
what are you doing occupying yourself with the study of aggada?
This is not your field of expertise. Take your statements to the
tractates of Nega’im and Oholot. In other words, it is
preferable that you teach the halakhot of the impurity of leprosy and
the impurity imparted in a tent, which are among the most difficult areas of halakha
and are within your field of expertise. (In other words, you’re not so good at aggadah. Stick to halakha-gg) Rather, the verse is to be understood as follows: It
was one frog; it whistled to the other frogs, and they all came
after it.”(Sefaria.org translation)
As a rabbi
my thoughts are slowly turning to Passover. It’s only seven weeks away! I
thought it would share with you a commentary on this plague to give you a head
start preparing for the Seder.
“Rashi pointed
out that this verse (see Exodus 8:1-2-gg) switches from the plural hatzefarde’im, frogs, to the singular, hatzefare’a, frog. He quotes Hazal, who explains this discrepancy:
There is one big frog, and every time the Egyptians hit it,
is split and multiplied.
Rabbi Ya’akov
Yierael Kanievsky, also known as The Steipler (Birkat Peretz, p. 28) asks a question, why did they continue to do
so? If the frog multiplied each time the Egyptians beat it, why did they
continue to do so? It completely defies logic! They saw the consequences of
their actions, so why didn’t they just stop?
The Steipler
explains that we see from here the power of anger. A person can become so angry
he begins to act irrationally. Then, despite the reality that stares them in
the face, he cannot control his reaction. The Egyptians saw that it wasn’t
helping to his the frog, but the anger made them unable to think straight and
control themselves. And so, they kept on hitting!” (Shalom Rav Haggada by Rabbi
Shalom Rosner, page 119)
Here we have
a case of anger mismanagement. I wonder how many of our houses are plagued with
anger mismanagement.
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