Insights from Past Parshiot: The Magic of Ov & Yidoni
I was sitting at my Shabbat table and describing the magic of Ov and Yidoni, which I explained had to do with necromancy. I then asked my children why they thought God had forbidden it.
I was prepared for a variety of answers- as I actually teach a unit on this topic- ranging from the magic stemming from the powers of tumah [impurity], it being akin to avodah zarah [foreign worship] or that it was fake, and God did not want us turning to charlatans with our questions.
But the simplicity of my seven-year-old daughter’s response stunned me.
“Maybe Hashem doesn’t want us to disturb the dead.”
It’s a creative response, and the kind that only someone with fresh eyes- someone who hasn’t learned the unit a million times- can muster. Most of us consider the topic through a self-centered lens. Why does God forbid us to practice this magic? Why can’t we seek it out? It must be something about how it affects us that is the issue.
But she had a different point of view. I think it’s creative- and also- accurate.
When Samuel is summoned by Saul, the very first thing he says is
וַיֹּאמֶר שְׁמוּאֵל אֶל-שָׁאוּל, לָמָּה הִרְגַּזְתַּנִי לְהַעֲלוֹת אֹתִי
And Samuel said to Saul: 'Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?'
Metzudat Tzion defines
הרגזתני. ענין תנועת החרדה ממקום המנוחה, כמו (איוב ט ו): המרגיז ארץ ממקומה:
In summoning Samuel, Saul disturbed his rest. He had shaken him awake.
This has always reminded me of the scene with the Cave of Wonders in the animated version of Aladdin.
Who disturbs my slumber?
Heshy brought another proof that the dead do not like to be disturbed from Berakhot 18a.
רַבִּי חִיָּיא וְרַבִּי יוֹנָתָן הֲווֹ שָׁקְלִי וְאָזְלִי בְּבֵית הַקְּבָרוֹת. הֲוָה קָשַׁדְיָא תְּכֵלְתָּא דְרַבִּי יוֹנָתָן. אֲמַר לֵיהּ רַבִּי חִיָּיא: דַּלְיַיהּ, כְּדַי שֶׁלֹּא יֹאמְרוּ: לְמָחָר בָּאִין אֶצְלֵנוּ, וְעַכְשָׁיו מְחָרְפִין אוֹתָנוּ. The Gemara relates that Rabbi Ḥiyya and Rabbi Yonatan were walking in a cemetery and the sky-blue string of Rabbi Yonatan’s ritual fringes was cast to the ground and dragging across the graves. Rabbi Ḥiyya said to him: Lift it, so the dead will not say: Tomorrow, when their day comes, they will come to be buried with us, and now they are insulting us.
It’s fascinating to think that perhaps the thrust behind the command against using the magic of Ov & Yidoni has to do with teaching us sensitivity to the dead. It is not our place to disquiet them or disturb them- and surely not simply so that we can selfishly find out something of interest to us about our futures.