Chosen by Whom? Video of Kabbalistic Cursing Ceremony in Cemetery

Thursday 12 April 2012

Chosen by Whom? Video of Kabbalistic Cursing Ceremony in Cemetery

If God answers prayers, does Satan do likewise? It would perhaps make for a lively, spirited theological debate, and doubtless are those who would argue the case in the affirmative (presumably convinced—through personal experience perhaps?—of the correctness of their view), for of course worldly princes of darkness invariably manage to reap their share of admirers. In the following video we see a group of Israeli men in July of 2005 gathered at a cemetery where they invoke a Kabbalistic curse against then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon…

In early 2006, Sharon suffered a major stroke and has been in a vegetative state ever since.

Prior to his infirmity, Sharon had a lengthy career as an Israeli war criminal, having presided, for all practical purposes, over the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982—but of course this isn’t why he’s being cursed. Christian Zionists would do well to watch this video and reevaluate their presuppositions about Jews being “God’s chosen ones.”

So why would a group of Jews film themselves doing something like this unless they were exceedingly proud of it?

And similarly, how often does this kind of thing take place in Israel? The answer to that seems to be, with a fair degree of regularity :

Accusations of the use of this curse by religious Jews against Jewish figures who have committed major transgressions has been made often over the past 50 years and quoted in mostly Israeli media. As the saying goes in Israel "you have not made it in Israeli politics until you've been cursed by the Pulsa DiNura." Early in the 20th century, Haredi Jews in Jerusalem were accused by the media of having recited the curse against the linguist Eliezer Ben Yehuda. There have been unsubstantiated media reports of the curse being recited against archaeologists and authors. Prior to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, there have been reports that the curse had been recited against him. On February 26, 2012, Tamar Yonah of IsraelNationalNews.com interviewed Yosef Dayan, who with rabbinical guidance was involved in the Pulsa DiNura of Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon.

The illustrious Yosef Dayan apparently is one of our distinguished “cursers” in our video. A little bit more on him, including a radio interview, can be found here. It seems Dayan believes Israel should be elevated from the status of a “state” to a “kingdom,” and, conveniently, he claims to have traced his own lineage back to King David—which would seem to make him a logical candidate for future “King.” The boundaries of the royal realm are not mentioned, but we can all imagine what they might be. Evidently Dayan, in addition to cursing the occasional fellow Jew, also places a low value on the lives of non-Jews (no surprise there). Like many Israelis, he celebrated Baruch Goldstein’s 1994 massacre of Palestinians at a mosque in Hebron, and today he is listed as being on the academic staff of Lishkat HaGazit (School of Government), whose goals include “working to bring about the fulfillment of the three commandments the Israelite nation was given in anticipation of its imminent entry into the Land of Israel, viz.: to appoint their king and establish his kingdom, to wipe out the seed of Amaleq and to build their Holy Temple.”

There is one issue, however, on which many of us might find ourselves in agreement with Dayan—that Israel cannot be both a “Jewish and democratic state,” and that those who believe otherwise are deluding themselves. In his book, Throne and Crown, a chapter of which can be read online here, Dayan discusses why the “democratic” part of the equation should be thrown in the trashcan, finding himself especially critical of the “complete equality” proviso in the Jewish state’s Declaration of Independence:

The contradiction between “the Jewish State” and “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants”—which came to be termed, after a while, “the democratic state”—this contradiction has begun to bother more than a few people, whose eyes are still capable of seeing. The country’s institutions, and especially the courts, have made every effort to avoid a discussion of this issue, so they would not be obliged to take a stance. The judges, all the judges, knew very well that these two definitions could not coexist.

In a way we have to feel kind of sorry for Obama. He thought he had scored points by giving Jews virtually all the top posts in his administration, only to make the discovery that the “Chosen” demand nothing less than total obedience from their servants. In Obama’s case, total obedience, of course, means attacking Iran. Has a Pulsa DeNura curse already been placed on Obama, and if he should die suddenly will a video of the hexing be released? But maybe America’s president can rest easy. After all, the Pulsa DeNura, as we learn here, is not always 100 percent effective.

And finally, in closing—here’s a bit on the Kabbalah:

Other prayers or religious acts, as interpreted by the cabbalists, are designed to deceive various angels (imagined as minor deities with a measure of independence) or to propitiate Satan. At a certain point in the morning prayer, some verses in Aramaic (rather than the more usual Hebrew) are pronounced. This is supposed to be a means for tricking the angels who operate the gates through which prayers enter heaven and who have the power to block the prayers of the pious. The angels only understand Hebrew and are baffled by the Aramaic verses; being somewhat dull-witted (presumably they are far less clever than the cabbalists) they open the gates, and at this moment all the prayers, including those in Hebrew, get through. Or take another example: both before and after a meal, a pious Jew ritually washes his hands, uttering a special blessing. On one of these two occasions he is worshipping God, by promoting the divine union of Son and Daughter; but on the other he is worshipping Satan, who likes Jewish prayers and ritual acts so much that when he is offered a few of them it keeps him busy for a while and he forgets to pester the divine Daughter. Indeed, the cabbalists believe that some of the sacrifices burnt in the Temple were intended for Satan. For example, the seventy bullocks sacrificed during the seven days of the feast of Tabernacles, were supposedly offered to Satan in his capacity as ruler of all the Gentiles, in order to keep him too busy to interfere on the eighth day, when sacrifice is made to God. Many other examples of the same kind can be given. (Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, p.40-41.)

So how long has this trait within Judaism been around? Perhaps quite a while. Some of us might recall these words:

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Doubtless our merry band of cursing Kabbalists consider themselves “chosen.” The question, of course, is—“chosen” by whom?