n a few short weeks we’ll be faced with a similar showdown – between those who find great spiritual meaning in Lag BeOmer bonfires and others who point to Talmudic sources that include dancing round fires in a list of forbidden pagan-type practices. Uman-pilgrimages, red strings, Reb Shayale prayers and segullot– the list goes on…
What is it about these seemingly harmless practices that makes many Jews uncomfortable and motivates them to protest so vehemently?
Admittedly for some there may be an element of superiority complex which leads them to suppose that their “rational thought-through” approach to Judaism is inherently better and more sophisticated than the “uncultivated uneducated superstitious” practices of others. But for those who truly understand the worldview of Rambam (and those Geonim-Rishonim who share his approach) the matter is far deeper – it goes to the very heart of what Judaism stands for.
The universe we inhabit, to an untrained human mind, is a chaotic and confusing place. Human nature is guided by primal fears and a powerful imagination to identify numerous existential threats and dangers at every turnn, and to perceive a pagan system of forces and powers that are seen to lie behind them. Rambam, in his opening chapter of Hilchot Avoda Zara (and elsewhere) describes how pagans looked up to the heavens and imagined the celestial bodies as multiple competing sources of power that toyed malevolently with helpless humans.
These imaginary powers, further propelled by dark human fears, were gradually developed into more complex belief systems with accompanying modes of worship of and appeasing these predatory forces. The celestial bodies were represented by symbols, talisman and temples, and methods of worship were concocted – some of which involved extreme acts of cruelty and immorality. Torturing and sacrificing children in the belief that the tears would prompt the “rain gods” to shower abundance, licentiousness and appalling acts of sexual abuse visited upon virgin girls – often by priests in temples – in the belief that this would generate blessing from the gods of fertility.
Omens and divinations are almost limitless when the human mind is guided primarily by the imagination rather than rational intellect. The pagan mind could easily lead itself to imagine that success or failure had been caused (rather than correlated with) an encounter with specific animals or the recitation of a magic formula to an idol. Even in modern times there are those who insert imaginary meaning into the patterns found in stars, tarot cards, crystals, animal entrails and the palms of people’s hands and alter their conduct accordingly.
Judaism Reclaimed describes how the Torah’s most basic and fundamental function, according to Rambam, is the repudiation of this imagination-based way of perceiving the world as pagans did (and to an extent continue to do). Avraham Avinu is the “Founding Father” of the Torah’s monotheistic revolution. He looked at the same universe as did the polytheists and instead perceived with his intellect a cohesive and comprehensive system – all created and coordinated by a single supreme Deity. As depicted in the Midrash, while Nimrod proposes that each natural force in turn be deified, worshipped and appeased, Avraham firmly refuses to recognize such a chaotic pantheon of rival natural forces, seeking instead the single Supreme Power that instituted and governs them.
The Torah, which was revealed to Avraham’s descendants, contained a set of laws designed to wean them away from pagan imagination-led thinking and fortify them against the sorts of superstitious practices that this led to. In the parshiyot we are currently reading, we are repeatedly commanded not to copy the type of actions that the Egyptians and Canaanites pursued; the Chukkat HaGoyim of the surrounding nations. Not to seek out and follow imagined omens, magic, necromancy and divinations but to “be perfect with Hashem your God”. A later parashah even prohibits bringing idolatrous objects and symbols into one’s home: as explained by Rishonim this recognizes the overwhelming tendency of the human imagination to attribute success or failure to ritual objects and subsequently develop religiously meaningful beliefs and practices around them.
The system of commandments devised by the Torah to replace pagan beliefs and rituals is a strict legal system rather than a loose collection of imagination-led rituals. Some of these commandments, such as sacrifices, are explicitly described as being intended to guide the people away from pagan practice:
“the kohen shall dash the blood upon the altar of the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting…And they shall no longer slaughter their sacrifices to the satyrs after which they stray.” (Vayikra 17:6-7).
