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Judaism and Psychical Phenomena: A Study of Extrasensory Perception in Biblical, Talmudic, and Rabbinical Literature in the Light of Contemporary Parapsychological Research
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
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May 9, 2022
Well, this book was not what I expected; while Judaism and Psychical Phenomena: A Study of Extrasensory Perception in Biblical, Talmudic, and Rabbinical Literature in the Light of Contemporary Parapsychological Research bills itself as primarily a book about the occult (or, more particularly, parapsychology) and how it relates to Jewish law, former Jerusalem Superior Court Judge Jacob Bazak's book is primarily a book on Jewish law, and what halakhah says about parapsychology—a clear but distinct difference.
A few notes of background: Judaism has traditionally been very strict about prohibiting fortune-telling, sorcery, and the like, from having been proscribed in the Hebrew Bible to the present day—but even many rabbis considered giants of their day (such as Abraham ibn Ezra) wrote treatises on astrology; the Hasidic master Nachman of Breslov states outright his belief that workers of magic (or "wonders", as the case may be) may influence actual events by expressing their desire (the concept of "abracadabra", one of its etymologies being "I create as I speak" in Judaic Aramaic, fits in with this phenomenon); and even into the early modern era virtually every Eastern European shtetl had at least some kind of fortune-teller, despite the ban. Modern practitioners of Judaism, Zo Jacobi among them have begun to reclaim what was often a female-centric shamanic tradition within Judaism, often suppressed as Judaism became more patriarchal in the face of increasing oppression from the non-Jewish cultures in which Jews lived after the end of the Second Jewish Commonwealth in 70 C.E., but the prohibition of any kind of parapsychological or occult practice or belief within Judaism has become something akin to common knowledge, to the point where the Rambam's utter and complete rationalism has become the general consensus for most of Jewish history and for most Jewish religious thought.
However, Bazak begins his narrative with his personal observation of having seen claimants before him in the Jerusalem civil courts cite witchcraft, in a manner such that he could not firmly deny the plausibility of their claims, and so Bazak thoroughly examines the state of Jewish law to the 1970s on the subject of parapsychology. And Bazak's approach is nothing if not thorough: He makes clear that irrespective of any tradition, amulets invoking supernatural beings, whether holy or un-, were common, if not entirely permissible, and at the very least, Jewish responsa addressed new phenomena wherever they arose. (Bazak notably cites hypnotism, originally believed to be supernatural in origin but now generally accepted as otherwise, as reviewed thoroughly by rabbinic sources, as well as sleight of hand, as having been ostensibly parapsychological in nature and thus to be analyzed under the rules set forth in the Talmud and later works of Judaic law.) Bazak's approach cites sources from all eras of Jewish thought, and within all traditions thereof as they relate to the occult and parapsychological, in part by illustrating that Judaism's general approach differed from those of the other Bronze Age and Late Antiquity civilizations, i.e. that prophecy was meant to rebuke the people rather than exert power, that parapsychological effects were more acceptable if not meant to take advantage of others, and so forth.
In general, the main difficulty of Judaism and Psychical Phenomena is just how stilted it is. One criticism of Philip Birnbaum's High Holiday and Daily Prayer Books is that their English translations are archaic, dry, and aloof, and given that both Bazak's original book in Hebrew and, especially, S.M. Lehrman's translation date from the same general popular tradition within Judaism, it's perhaps to be expected that Judaism and Psychical Phenomena is similarly hard to parse at times. Yes, Bazak's work is novel, if not groundbreaking, and it's interesting, but that goes nowhere if the reader finds the language impenetrable, already an issue when Lehrman uses non-standard transliterations of sources in Hebrew, Yiddish, Aramaic, and other vernaculars within Judaism, but exacerbated by the subject matter. Nevertheless, if one can get beyond the issues with choice of language, Judaism and Psychical Phenomena is indeed interesting and rewarding, and I'd like to believe it set a stage for later, more progressive approaches to the practice of Judaism in general.
A few notes of background: Judaism has traditionally been very strict about prohibiting fortune-telling, sorcery, and the like, from having been proscribed in the Hebrew Bible to the present day—but even many rabbis considered giants of their day (such as Abraham ibn Ezra) wrote treatises on astrology; the Hasidic master Nachman of Breslov states outright his belief that workers of magic (or "wonders", as the case may be) may influence actual events by expressing their desire (the concept of "abracadabra", one of its etymologies being "I create as I speak" in Judaic Aramaic, fits in with this phenomenon); and even into the early modern era virtually every Eastern European shtetl had at least some kind of fortune-teller, despite the ban. Modern practitioners of Judaism, Zo Jacobi among them have begun to reclaim what was often a female-centric shamanic tradition within Judaism, often suppressed as Judaism became more patriarchal in the face of increasing oppression from the non-Jewish cultures in which Jews lived after the end of the Second Jewish Commonwealth in 70 C.E., but the prohibition of any kind of parapsychological or occult practice or belief within Judaism has become something akin to common knowledge, to the point where the Rambam's utter and complete rationalism has become the general consensus for most of Jewish history and for most Jewish religious thought.
However, Bazak begins his narrative with his personal observation of having seen claimants before him in the Jerusalem civil courts cite witchcraft, in a manner such that he could not firmly deny the plausibility of their claims, and so Bazak thoroughly examines the state of Jewish law to the 1970s on the subject of parapsychology. And Bazak's approach is nothing if not thorough: He makes clear that irrespective of any tradition, amulets invoking supernatural beings, whether holy or un-, were common, if not entirely permissible, and at the very least, Jewish responsa addressed new phenomena wherever they arose. (Bazak notably cites hypnotism, originally believed to be supernatural in origin but now generally accepted as otherwise, as reviewed thoroughly by rabbinic sources, as well as sleight of hand, as having been ostensibly parapsychological in nature and thus to be analyzed under the rules set forth in the Talmud and later works of Judaic law.) Bazak's approach cites sources from all eras of Jewish thought, and within all traditions thereof as they relate to the occult and parapsychological, in part by illustrating that Judaism's general approach differed from those of the other Bronze Age and Late Antiquity civilizations, i.e. that prophecy was meant to rebuke the people rather than exert power, that parapsychological effects were more acceptable if not meant to take advantage of others, and so forth.
In general, the main difficulty of Judaism and Psychical Phenomena is just how stilted it is. One criticism of Philip Birnbaum's High Holiday and Daily Prayer Books is that their English translations are archaic, dry, and aloof, and given that both Bazak's original book in Hebrew and, especially, S.M. Lehrman's translation date from the same general popular tradition within Judaism, it's perhaps to be expected that Judaism and Psychical Phenomena is similarly hard to parse at times. Yes, Bazak's work is novel, if not groundbreaking, and it's interesting, but that goes nowhere if the reader finds the language impenetrable, already an issue when Lehrman uses non-standard transliterations of sources in Hebrew, Yiddish, Aramaic, and other vernaculars within Judaism, but exacerbated by the subject matter. Nevertheless, if one can get beyond the issues with choice of language, Judaism and Psychical Phenomena is indeed interesting and rewarding, and I'd like to believe it set a stage for later, more progressive approaches to the practice of Judaism in general.
Displaying 1 of 1 review