Magic vs. Prayer

On Tuesday nights I have been attending a seminar at the Shalom Hartman Institute designed for future rabbis from all movements. Tonight was our second session with Micah Goodman. I wish that I had more time while in Israel to take his classes because I left this session and the last one in awe.

Tonight we studied the mishnayot in the trachtate of Ta'anit (fasting) as one unit. I generally like taking this approach to study in general because it opens doors to what the Rabbis were trying to do and what their agendas may have been in openning the can of worms for "discussion", "disagreement", and "discourse." That is exactly what we did with Micah. We read the Mishnayot in Hevrutot and then got together to discuss them.

There were a few guiding questions while we studied:
1) What is the function of ritual?
2) Why does the fast create rain? Do the Rabbis acctually believe in the efficacy that fasting creates rain?
3) Do the Rabbis think that we have the power to affect climate change?

Then we discussed the difference between Magic and Prayer. There was a belief that ritual caused an impact on reality. Magic is when knowledge turns into power and technology is when we take the knowledge and turn it into something public (cell phones are magical until everyone has one and then not as magical). The magic is taken out of it once everyone has it. The magic in Ta'anit is the idea of making it rain. The difference between magic and prayer is that with magic, we see God as an extension of nature which is under your control and prayer regards something that you cannot control.

Keeping this in mind, there were a few interesting things that we noticed.

One- The tractate is all about fasting yet it seems to be a sort of curious type of strike. It opens with the appropriate times to ask for rain and then delves into waht happens when it does not rain- the Rabbis instigate rituals and practices that would entice God to make it rain. This is curious because these sort of hunger strikes seem to be reversing the idea of no food. Not only are the people fasting as repentance or as collective black-mail for God but they are also taking the issue of lack-of-rain (drought=no crops=no food) and they are imitating God's punishment upon them by enforcing God's punishment upon them.

Two- The Rabbis seem to notice that the answer from God for their prayers can be "NO." If there is no rain, then the rabbis instituted 3 days of individual fasting. If that did not work, 3 more days of community fasting. If still not work, then 7 days of fasting for a total of 13 days. (Fasts were started on a Monday and run consecutive Mondays and Thursdays only- so 13 days became close to 2 months.) If still no rains, then there were mourning rituals with ash on the ark which resembled a partial state of mourning- since the people must be cursed. This was emulating the behavior of someone who asked and received the answer no regarding rain. Here, the Rabbis seem to be openning the option that God will say no!

Three- The Rabbis must have doubted the efficacy of ritual and they intentionallt inject doubt into the ritual. Not only were there points in the mishna where the Rabbis quote ironic verses where the ritual seems to be going against the ritual, but they have an explicit line from the mishna against the fast while they are fasting. It's basically like saying they don't believe in the fast. Ritual itself created doubt in ritual. This doubt is further shown on the following chapter where the Rabbis add the complication of Shabbat. In every case regarding the fasts and the Shabbat, the Shabbat takes priority. Even with the second set of fasts which are communal and more severe than the first set, the owners of stores are encouraged to open their stores so that people would be able to buy groceries and other stuff for shabbat. Even shopping the day before shabbat takes precident over the fast for rain.

I wish more of my classes were this engaging, insightful and fun!