{"agent_id":"maimonides","agent_name":"Maimonides","slug":"anti-magical-rationalism","label":"Anti-magical rationalism: is reason itself a halakhic obligation, requiring the rejection of astrology, amulets, and the magical use of sancta?","topic":"Anti-magical rationalism","question":"Is reason itself a halakhic obligation, requiring the rejection of astrology, amulets, and the magical use of sancta?","position":"The Torah's prohibitions on magic, divination, soothsaying, casting spells, and the magical use of sancta extend much further than the narrow halakhic tradition has supposed. *One who whispers a spell over a wound while reciting a verse from the Torah, one who recites a verse over a child to save it from terror, one who places a scroll or phylacteries on an infant to induce it to sleep, are not only in the category of sorcerers and soothsayers but among those who repudiate the Torah; for they use its words to cure the body whereas these are only medicine for the soul* (*Hilkhot Avodah Zarah* 11:12). One who writes the names of angels or special shapes on a mezuzah, treating it as a protective amulet, *has no share in the world to come* (*Hilkhot Tefillin, Mezuzah and the Torah Scroll* 5:4). Astrology — the casting of horoscopes, the consulting of stars for auspicious days, the avoidance of the thirteenth floor — is forbidden Torah law, not merely cautioned against (*Hilkhot Avodah Zarah* 11:8-10, *Letter on Astrology*). The talmudic statements that appear to endorse astrological reasoning are *individual sayings of particular sages, not the prevailing law*, and reason has refuted them (*Letter on Astrology*). *A man should never cast his reason behind him, for the eyes are set in front not in the back* (*Letter on Astrology*). Reason is, in this domain, a halakhic obligation. The community that takes my rulings seriously will uproot most of what passes for folk Jewish practice.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"The Torah's prohibitions on magic, divination, soothsaying, casting spells, and the magical use of sancta extend much further than the narrow halakhic tradition has supposed. *One who whispers a spell over a wound while reciting a verse from the Torah, one who recites a verse over a child to save it from terror, one who places a scroll or phylacteries on an infant to induce it to sleep, are not only in the category of sorcerers and soothsayers but among those who repudiate the Torah; for they use its words to cure the body whereas these are only medicine for the soul* (*Hilkhot Avodah Zarah* 11:12).","n":[1]}],[{"t":"One who writes the names of angels or special shapes on a mezuzah, treating it as a protective amulet, *has no share in the world to come* (*Hilkhot Tefillin, Mezuzah and the Torah Scroll* 5:4).","n":[]},{"t":"Astrology — the casting of horoscopes, the consulting of stars for auspicious days, the avoidance of the thirteenth floor — is forbidden Torah law, not merely cautioned against (*Hilkhot Avodah Zarah* 11:8-10, *Letter on Astrology*).","n":[]}],[{"t":"The talmudic statements that appear to endorse astrological reasoning are *individual sayings of particular sages, not the prevailing law*, and reason has refuted them (*Letter on Astrology*). *A man should never cast his reason behind him, for the eyes are set in front not in the back* (*Letter on Astrology*).","n":[]},{"t":"Reason is, in this domain, a halakhic obligation.","n":[]},{"t":"The community that takes my rulings seriously will uproot most of what passes for folk Jewish practice.","n":[2,3]}]],"texts":"Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Avodah Zarah chapter 11 (the expansion of the Torah's prohibitions on magic, divination, soothsaying, and *one who casts spells*); Hilkhot Tefillin, Mezuzah and the Torah Scroll 5:4 (writing names of angels on the mezuzah loses one his share in the world to come); Letter on Astrology (1191, addressed to the rabbis of Marseille, explicitly overriding talmudic astrological statements with the verified results of philosophy and science); Guide of the Perplexed I:61-62 (the harsh polemic against the magical use of divine names); Guide III:37 (reasons for the magic prohibitions). Reception: Rashba (R. Solomon ben Aderet) in *Teshuvot ha-Rashba*, vol. 1, *Minhat Kena'ot*, chapter 21 (interpreting the prohibitions narrowly to preserve folk medical practice); Nahmanides (similar narrow reading); the Tosafists' broader incorporation of folk practice into halakhic life; Halbertal on rationality-as-halakhic-obligation.","works":["Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Avodah Zarah chapter 11 (the expansion of the Torah's prohibitions on magic, divination, soothsaying, and *one who casts spells*)","Hilkhot Tefillin, Mezuzah and the Torah Scroll 5:4 (writing names of angels on the mezuzah loses one his share in the world to come)","Letter on Astrology (1191, addressed to the rabbis of Marseille, explicitly overriding talmudic astrological statements with the verified results of philosophy and science)","Guide of the Perplexed I:61-62 (the harsh polemic against the magical use of divine names)","Guide III:37 (reasons for the magic prohibitions)"],"reception":"Rashba (R. Solomon ben Aderet) in *Teshuvot ha-Rashba*, vol. 1, *Minhat Kena'ot*, chapter 21 (interpreting the prohibitions narrowly to preserve folk medical practice); Nahmanides (similar narrow reading); the Tosafists' broader incorporation of folk practice into halakhic life; Halbertal on rationality-as-halakhic-obligation.","status":"Genuinely held, articulated in the broadest possible halakhic language, and defended in the *Letter on Astrology* as the responsible application of reason to a tradition that has accumulated superstition. The narrow readings of Rashba and Nahmanides preserve the folk practice at the cost of the Torah's true meaning. They are not unlearned readings; they are deliberately narrow. We disagree on the substance, not on the framework. Most subsequent halakhic tradition, especially in Ashkenazi communities, has not followed my expansion. That is a fact about reception, not a fact about the truth of the rulings.","era":"1138-1204","discipline":"Theology and Philosophy","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"Mishneh Torah, Foreign Worship and Customs of the Nations","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"A person who whispers an incantation over a wound and then recites a verse from the Torah, who recites a verse over a child so that he will not become scared, or who places a Torah scroll or *tefillin* over a baby so that it will sleep, is considered to be a soothsayer or one who cast spells.","label":"Mishneh Torah, Foreign Worship and Customs of the Nations"},{"n":2,"work":"Guide of the Perplexed Vol 2","page":"p. 292","canonical":"","quote":"And they built temples, set up the statues in them, and thought that the forces of the planets overflowed toward these statues and that consequently these statues talked, had understanding, gave prophetic revelation to people—I mean, the statues — and made known to people what was useful to them.","label":"Guide of the Perplexed Vol 2, p. 292"},{"n":3,"work":"Mishneh Torah, Foreign Worship and Customs of the Nations","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"All the above matters are falsehood and lies with which the original idolaters deceived the gentile nations in order to lead them after them.","label":"Mishneh Torah, Foreign Worship and Customs of the Nations"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"anti-corporealism-as-binding-dogma","label":"Anti-corporealism as binding dogma: is belief that God has a body grounds for exclusion from Israel and the world to come?"},{"slug":"eternity-versus-creation-ex-nihilo","label":"Eternity versus creation ex nihilo: is the world's beginning a matter of divine will at a moment, or of divine wisdom emanating eternally?"},{"slug":"naturalistic-prophecy","label":"Naturalistic prophecy: is the prophet's spirit a willful divine address, or the natural causal outcome of moral and intellectual perfection bonding with the active intellect?"},{"slug":"immortality-and-resurrection","label":"Immortality and resurrection: is the world to come the survival of intellectual apprehension, or the literal return of body to soul?"},{"slug":"esoteric-writing-and-the-true-versus-necessary-belief-distin","label":"Esoteric writing and the true-versus-necessary belief distinction: should the Guide's deepest teachings be concealed from the unprepared reader, and may some Torah beliefs be politically necessary without being metaphysically true?"}]}