Mysticism - it does not help, it may even harm

All the mystics are a bluff - not in Maariv, where they discover a postmodernist approach and claim that it is not known whether going to rabbis and mystics helps. They should read some of the books published by their sister company - Ma'ariv Library, especially Carl Sagan's books

"All the mystics are a bluff", was the headline today (17/10/2002) on page 4 of the Maariv Hayom supplement. So far everything is fine, but immediately after it comes an irritating subtitle: "Nobody knows if the advice of rabbis and mystics is really helpful." really? Nobody, here are some names: Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Dr. Ilya Leibovitz, Dr. Zvi Atzmon and many more who know that these are superstitions. On the contrary, not only are they not helpful, but they are often harmful, both because patients avoid turning to modern medicine and die from things that medicine has solved, and because these beliefs help charlatans control burning masses.
Who thinks otherwise? Jodi Shalom Nir Mozes who was enthusiastic about the Hartangan's candle burning ceremony, or maybe Dolly ben Eliezer Hatztagnina. If they asked me who to believe, you probably understand who I would choose.

The article tells about Uzi Verta, a taxi driver from Ashdod whose mother Marcel has been missing for about two and a half months after she ran away from the mental health center in Nes Ziona.

Here are some excerpts from the newspaper: "The search of Uzi Verta and his two brothers for their mother included a baptism in the mikvah of the Ari in Safed, a visit to a disabled 14-year-old boy with special powers, an organization of a Bedouin cavalry patrol that searched the gardens of Nes Ziona, a clerk for dozens of rabbis and mystics , and prostrating over all possible graves of the righteous. All this cost him a lot of time, effort and money and without results."

"My brother Shimon, who lives in the USA, heard about a disabled ultra-Orthodox boy from Holon named Nachshon, who was planted because he sees the occult," recalled the younger son, Nissim Verta. "A week after mother disappeared, he was with the boy, who sits in a wheelchair. This boy, who is said to have special powers, said that his mother is in the Kiryat region or Ramat Hasharon. I called him on the phone to explain to me how it works out that she is in two places and he told me that before she would be in the sands area in Kiryat and then she would move to Ramat Hasharon. The next day I called him again and told him that it was like I was in the sandy area in Kiryat and then he threw me another place. So I came to the conclusion that the whole story told by the boy sounded unbelievable to me. Even though I'm ultra-Orthodox, I know that no one can know where one or another missing person is."

He also said that he called a Canadian fortune teller named Jessica, who promised that the mother would return within two days, Rabbi Geinerman of Bnei Brak, Rabbi Yoram Abergel, Rabbi David Abu Hachira of Hariah, Rabbi Yosiah Pinto of Ashdod asked to light candles, Rabbi Bentov of Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem who gave Let's read a letter from Maimonides. "For each of them I left charity of hundreds of shekels because they say that charity saves from death." Quoted from Verta. He also prostrated himself on the graves of tzaddiks in Safed, Bedouin horsemen who carried out searches on horseback (which is actually the only plausible thing).

"A mystic from Ashdod and a rabbi told me that Mother is in Netanya. I searched in the Yam Hostel and public gardens in Netanya and found nothing. Sol Benishti, the mystic from Be'er Sheva who discovered at the time in which burial pit the late Kikos was buried, told me that she saw in the cards that Mother was in some unknown place near the seashore and that 'God's help you will find her before the holidays'. A friend told me to go to a mystic named Aisha from Jaffa", Uzi Verta continues to unfold the journey. I didn't want to go, I told him it was a waste of time. He convinced me when he said: 'You were at 100, you will be at 101. Aisha told me that mother is alive and that we will find her soon, but she didn't know where she was. No one told me she was dead."

As part of the search and appeals to rabbis, Uzi invested a lot of money, but he does not specify the exact amount. Uzi Verta has harsh complaints against mystics of all kinds: "I don't believe them, they are all bluffs, they take money and take advantage of innocent people like me. In my mother's case they just 'threw away' possible places.
Carl Sagan in his book "A Haunted World" (published by Ma'ariv Library - Had Artzi) quotes Leon Trotsky who described the state of things in Germany on the eve of Hitler's rise to power (although a similar description could equally apply to the Soviet Union in 1933).
"Not only in the peasant houses but also in the urban skyscrapers the twentieth century and the thirteenth century live side by side. A hundred million people use electricity, and still believe in the magical powers of magicians and exorcists... Movie stars turn to psychics. Pilots, who operate the miraculous mechanisms created by the rest of the human spirit, wear amulets under their leather jackets. What an inexhaustible reservoir of manners, folly and wildness there is!"
In Russia after the end of communism, one of the most popular people is Anatoly Kashpirovsky - a faith healer, who heals from a distance a multitude of diseases, from hernia to Ains, with the piercing gaze of his eyes above the television background.
In China there is a mixture of western pseudoscience (obscurations, channeling, etc.) together with ancestor worship, Chinese astrology and fortune-telling.
In the US, the special forces sell their wares on cable TV channels, and entertainers recommend them. They have their own channel, the "Friends of Friends Network" with a million subscribers. CEOs of large corporations, securities analysts, lawyers, and bankers have some sort of astrologer/fortune teller/power wielder ready to advise them. Nancy and Ronald Reagan relied on astrology in their private and public affairs unbeknownst to the electorate.
And what about Israel? Here the charlatans are celebrating left and right. Charlatanism has no financial limit. They have sections on the radio (so what - Friday morning on Channel B and "Not for Women Only", every morning at ten on Channel C), on television (Jud Luck), in newspapers (with the exception of Haaretz, every newspaper has sections or even whole pages each a day in astrology) and even on the Internet (Walla, YNET). On the other hand, when they ask to give at least the same space (or broadcast time) to Acetganins, I am looked at as eccentric.
Just this week, I tried to start a website that claimed to host a database of lecturers. Among other things, I wrote to Tommy that I had prepared a lecture (to date I have presented it voluntarily, but I am also allowed to earn if someone wants to book the lecture with me). This lecture describes a number of reasons each of which alone is enough to disprove astrology, let alone a combination of them. I answered in the negative, because the contents I offer are not suitable for the audience and therefore there is no point. A look at the site showed a plethora of satanins - from coffee readers to astrologers, numerologists and other strange specialties. Anyone who wants to defend the honor of the mainstream in science is looked at as a lunatic at best or as someone who has come to spoil their party.

And we'll end with Sagan's words again: it's clear as day that part of the decision-making process that affects the future of our civilization is in the hands of charlatans. Unfortunately, this is also true for Israel. In particular, when the names we have reserved are very close to decision makers in the two major parties.