Ghost Stories
Kedoshim 5784 - You best start believin' in ghost stories... yer in one!
V’ahavta - by Daniel and Josh Warshawsky
As Captain Barbossa says in one of my favorite movies (Pirates of the Caribbean), “You best start believing in ghost stories, Ms. Turner, you’re in one!” In a Torah portion about Holiness and connection, about hating the sin and not the sinner, about treating each other kindly and loving others like we love ourselves, we get a very strange prohibition,
אַל־תִּפְנוּ אֶל־הָאֹבֹת וְאֶל־הַיִּדְּעֹנִים אַל־תְּבַקְשׁוּ לְטָמְאָה בָהֶם אֲנִי ה׳ אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃
Do not turn to ghosts and do not inquire of familiar spirits, to be defiled by them: I the LORD am your God. (Lev. 19:31)
What’s going on with the ghosts here? Biblical commentator Ibn Ezra says, “The meaning of ‘Do not turn’ is, do not turn to the one who knows the art.” We can understand from this commentary that Ibn Ezra believes that there are those who can speak with ghosts (!!) We just aren’t allowed to consult them. By forbidding this practice, he admits that the practice exists.
The Mishnah in Sanhedrin doubles down, going so far as to actually define these terms from the verse (translation by my teacher Rabbi Dr. Josh Kulp), “A Ba'al Ob is the pithom who speaks from his armpit. The Yidde'oni is one who speaks from his mouth. These two are stoned; while he who inquires of them transgresses a formal prohibition. Leviticus 19:31 specifically warns that Israelites are not to make inquiry of the “Ovoth” or the “Yidde’onim”. These were different types of sorcerers or oracles who would conjure up spirits in order to tell the future. According to our mishnah a “Ba’al Ob”, or Master of the Ob” was a “pithom”, which in Greek means a conjurer. According to Rashi he would place a skull underneath his armpit and use it to predict the future. A “Yidde’oni” would also conjure up spirits but he would speak from his mouth.”
If we neglected to mention it at all, we would have no protocols in place, no idea what to do when we encountered something that was beyond our realm of comprehension.
According to the Torah, these people out there had practices that were abhorrent to us, and we had to acknowledge what was happening so we would actually know what to do if we encountered it. If we neglected to mention it at all, we would have no protocols in place, no idea what to do when we encountered something that was beyond our realm of comprehension.
The Talmud did permit us to study the manner in which these phenomena are being used so that we can seek to understand it or at least begin to understand our neighbors.
Sforno, a medieval Italian commentator, adds something here that I want to focus on for today. He explains that “אל תבקשו לטמאה בהם” “so as not to be defiled by them” means that you should not specifically seek them out as they would confer spiritual contamination on you. However, he notes that the Talmud did permit us to study the manner in which these phenomena are being used so that we can seek to understand it or at least begin to understand our neighbors.
There are so many ways in which this explanation from Sforno can be manifested in the world today. How do we strive to not live in fear of those who are different from us? How do we begin to learn from each other, not to take on each other’s practices but to better understand how we are each unique and holy. We can’t know what the future will hold, but if we walk forward with curiosity and openness, I pray it will be better than it is today.
Shabbat Shalom,
Josh Warshawsky