Rabbi Meir Baal Hanes to find a shidduch

It is with trepidation I write this -- the last time I wrote about Rabbi Meir Baal Hanes I got hundreds of hits for people seeking to buy underpants. But anyway, here goes.

Shirat Devorah posts about a new development in the always exciting field of segulos:

Received via email from a friend of a friend of a friend....

(A true story)

A young lady was waiting for her basherte. But time was quickly ticking by and she was desperate to find him... She went over to her 'fridge where there was a magnetic segulah (see picture on right) for Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess (the Master of the Miracle). Taking some coins from her purse, the young lady dropped it into a tzedaka box whilst reciting this heartfelt request:

"Dear Hashem, I am donating these coins in the merit of the Sage Rabbi Meir baal HaNess. I have lost my basherte, PLEASE, PLEASE HASHEM LET ME FIND HIM SOON!!!"

And yes. So it was. Within a short while she was engaged to be married.

I can't guarantee the soul mate, but I can tell you that my mother once lost a very valuable diamond ring, I dropped some money in the Rabbi Baal Ha"ness pushka, said a prayer, and the ring was found within minutes.

I think I'll add some justification to this. In the beginning of maseches Kiddushin, we learn:

דתניא: ר"ש אומר מפני מה אמרה תורה "כי יקח איש אישה" (דברים כב,כד) ולא כתב "כי תלקח אשה לאיש"? מפני שדרכו של איש לחזר על אשה ואין דרכה של אשה לחזר על איש, משל לאדם שאבדה לו אבידה - מי חוזר על מי? בעל האבידה מחזר על אבידתו.

From Point by Point Summary, for a quick translation:

1. (Beraisa - R. Shimon) Question: Why did the Torah said that a man takes a woman, and not vice-versa?
2. Answer (R. Shimon): Because it is the way of the man to purse the woman, not vice-versa;

i. Woman was taken (created) from man - it is natural that the one who lost an object, he looks for it.

Thus, one's spouse might be termed a lost article, and the segulah is indeed appropriate!

The "problem" with this is that if we consider the gemara and braysa more carefully, we see that only the woman is considered the avaidah, not the man. Yet in the feminist story being circulated by email, the woman is the one who cannot find her lost article. This segulah is contrary to halacha!

OK, I am speaking a bit facetiously.

Even so, I would deem this chiddush, an innovation -- and not a good one. Whatever you think of the advisability and efficacy of the original segulah -- to find lost articles, at least this is an established one. But now, not only is the standard and time-tested hishtadlus coupled with tefillah insufficient, but all the well-established segulos are insufficient. People practice magic, and experiment. 'Well, this magic worked for this, so even though none of the seforim hakedoshim talk of using it for a shidduch, and talk instead of other segulos, I'm going to try this.' This is the way folk-religious grows, organically.

That it worked for this particular maidel does not convince me in the least. Tons of people are trying segulos, and probably some of them are experimenting in this way with new segulos. And at the same time, they are actively dating and praying. And there is something called Regression Towards the Mean which ensures that at least in some of these cases, the tested segulah will appear to work. Now that this is being forwarded around by email to the credulous and superstitious, I would guess that a lot more maidels will try this segulah, and that in some instances, it will appear to work. Such that ten years from now, this may well be one of the standard, "tested and tried" segulos.

Two Segulos to Cure a Toothache

Prompted by a recent Hirhurim post, I did a bit of investigations of segulos to cure a toothache.

Here is one that appears to be popular:

סגולה לכאב שיניים לומר לחש זה מול הירח ג` פעמים ":אליהו זכור לטוב היה מהלך בדרך ופגע בו איש אחד ואמר לו רבי יש לי כאב שיניים והשיב לו כשם שריפא הקב"ה את נעמן מצרעתו , כן ירפא הקב"ה אותך מחולי הנקרא כאב שיניים,

To translate: A segulah for a toothache, to say this incantation three times under the moon. "Eliyahu, zachur latov, was walking on the road, and a man met him and said to him, "my master, I have a toothache. And he responded to him: Just as Hashem cured Naaman from his leprosy, so shall {/should} Hashem cure you from the sickness called toothache."

This is somewhat mystifying. I understand the tangential connection of Eliyahu to curing toothaches, because there is a gemara in which Eliyahu haNavi, in the guise of Rabbi Chiya Rabba, cures a toothache of Rabbi Yehuda haNasi by touching his tooth.

But what is the connection to leprosy? And why should Eliyahu haNavi refer to the curing of Naaman, which was done by Elisha, not Eliyahu? And why specifically under the moon? And why specifically three times, which makes it very much like a superstitious incantation?

And why is the cure for a toothache to relate a story about someone else who had a toothache and was cured by Eliyahu?!

Then I saw the following, from a book called Witchcraft, Healing and Popular Diseases, volume 6.

That is, in the 19th century, in Wales, there was also a charm to cure a toothache, which involves telling a story about how Peter had a toothache, and Jesus cured him. In (5), we see that there is a parallel between curing other diseases and curing a toothache. I would note that in the New Testament, mention is made of Jesus healing lepers (as well as reference to Elisha doing the same).

My strong suspicion is that this began as a Christian folk-cure / superstition, and some enterprising individual modified the text of the cure to be more Jewish. Thus, Jesus walking down the road became Eliyahu Hanavi walking down the road. Peter became just some unnamed person with a toothache. And Jesus healing a leper became Elisha healing Naaman.

The threefold repetition in the segulah is because it is indeed a superstitious and forbidden magical incantation. Under the moon in the segulah is because so many of these forbidden magical incantations to cure toothaches are said under the moon.

To cite The Dental Cosmos:

INCANTATION TO THE MOON Very many toothache charms are devoted to tbe moon. Some of them show a close, almost literal resemblance to each other, so that we may confine ourselves to the recital of one or two paradigms of each type.

And to cite the Psychoanalytic Review, which references threefold repetition as well as the moon:

The Japanese believe the sun and the moon to be the father and the mother of the Kami (gods). In a great number of toothache charms the invocation of the moon is combined with the number three in some form...

From the New Ireland Review:

I have already given three or four other charms against this complaint, but this particular charm is to be said on one's first seeing the New Moon. ANOTHER CHARM AGAINST TOOTHACHE. Seven Paters, an Ave, a creed and a prayer...

and so on and so forth.

It is sad that such passes as holy Jewish tradition, when it is just superstition and idolatry made to sound Jewish.

This brings me to the second segulah, via Hirhurim, which is either simply saying kiddush levana or saying something specific in Kiddush Levana. Thus, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in Igros Kodesh, mentions that kiddush levana is a segulah for the teeth. In English:

Surely you scrupulously observe Kiddush Levanah — which is a segulah for the teeth. ...

Or as Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky taught, saying specific words in Kiddush Levana:

The increasingly mystical Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky teaches[1] that for a toothache, it is a “segula m'kadmonim", a segula from early generations, to add several words to the Kiddush Levana at a specific point in the prayer for relief from toothaches. After one has recited the passage of “kach lo yuchlu kol oyvai lingoa bi lera'a", so too, may my enemies not be able to harm me, one should immediately add “velo yehiye li ke’ev shinayim", and I should no longer have a toothache.

It seems that the Lubavitcher Rebbe concurred with the efficacy of this segula, as well.[2] This segula is also cited in the siddur "Beit Yaakov" of Rabbi Yaakov Emden. Rabbi Kanievsky adds that his father would recite these additional words not only for himself when needed, but also on behalf of others who were suffering from toothaches. The reason why teeth are associated with the moon and Kiddush Levana is because these words are all closely related to the word, lavan.

I would note that if you say this after kach lo yuchlu, it would seem that you are doing a threefold repetition. Unless it is only after the third time. Also, it is said under the moon, just as these other clearly superstitious practices are. Even though Rav Yaakov Emden did this, the Steipler did this, Rav Kanievsky promotes it, I would still call it superstition and possible Darkei Emori. And would say that this is an unfortunate direction in which to take kiddush levana.