The Oud

This story comes to me from my dear friend, Daniel.  Once he went to a small family run oriental carpet store to purchase a small rug for his new apartment.  Being the affable person he is, he started a conservation with the Turkish shopkeeper and his son.  As the conservation progressed, Daniel looked around and saw an old oud sitting on a shelf and asked about it.  Now, Daniel is one of those people who can pick up just about any stringed instrument and immediately “know” how to play it.  He has an instinct.  The owner turned to his son and grinned, then turned to Daniel and asked him if he wanted to buy it.  Daniel purchased it on the spot for an amount he will not admit to me.

 Photo Credit: Academy of Ancient Music, UK (http://www.aam.co.uk)

He took the oud home and over the next month cleaned it up, re-stringed it, and played and played it.  One day he made a cup of tea, set it down  on the table next to the oud, and wondered into another room to look out the window waiting for his tea to cool.  He began to hear lute music.  The music was so beautiful it brought tears to his eyes.  Standing there spellbound, Daniel stayed in front of the window until, eventually, the music faded.  That is when he realised he had purchased a haunted artefact – a haunted lute.   He was able to reproduce the music, finding that the conditions must be exact or the oud would not "perform": you must place hot tea in front of it and leave the room.  Later that year he happened to be walking by the oriental carpet store he had purchased the oud and stepped in.  The owner and his son instantly recognised him.  Daniel remarked, “That oud you sold me; that is a pretty amazing instrument”.  The owner simply replied, “Yes it is.  It belonged to my Dede (my grandfather).  He bought it from an old peddler in a pazar (a weekly open air market) in Turkey.  He also found out how special it is.  He would be glad you know it has a new home with you.”

Illustration 3: Turkish Tea. Image by friend Soydan Ustunergil, used by permission.

Mezzotints and Ambrotypes

As a practising Jewish mystic, I frequently contemplate how common objects can become “imprinted” with spiritual “strength”. Recall my post of bimahot, for example. The great Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz wisely summed up an underlying concept in Jewish mysticism in this manner: “The observed universe around us is only a part of an inconceivably vast system of worlds”. Most of these worlds being spiritual; they occupy the same place as the physical universe we perceive, but we cannot normally sense them.” Rabbi Aryeh Kaplin further observed that, according to Jewish mysticism, that “these worlds are highly coupled, that is, what actions you do in this physical world is reflected in many other worlds.” Moreover, with the Divine spirit, the Nefesh, which has been gifted to all of us, one may observe, and even effect, these otherwise undetectable dimensions in a conscious, purposeful manner.

An example of such a purposeful manner is the posing and subsequent capturing of a person by photographic means. Think of this process as “recording” a person's physical image, but owing to the raw nature of the photochemical process that ambrotypes and mezzotints employ, a person's Nefesh is also recorded or reflected in one or more of the highly coupled spiritual worlds. By means of the practise of Ma'aseh Markavah, with which the mystic seeks to perceive these spiritual worlds connected with the convolution of photochemistry and the subject's spiritual essence, such an image can be recalled.

In conclusion, concious, concentrated, and purposeful direction of spiritual activity is one of the ways a “haunted” artefact may be created.

These ambrotypes and mezzotints come from my small, but select, collection. Unlike paper photographs (including cabinet cards), ambrotypes and mezzotints seem to be able to capture the spirit of the subject better - literally. The blind Japanese man is my favourite. He has a strong presence – even what was imprinted on this ambrotype. Stop in for a visit or attend one of my workshops and I will show you what I mean! 

Photos by the author

 

Spirit Possession of Spirits of the Sages

According to Jewish tradition we all are, upon birth, gifted a Divinely-derived spirit. There are five aspects to this spirit, listed in order of most immaterial to most physical. They are: the Yehidah, the Chiya, the Neshemah, the Ru'ah, and the Nefesh.  When you die, four of the five aspects quickly return to the pool of Divine spirit, but the Nefesh lingers, “leaking” out of the body over a period of 24 hours, transitioning from a spirit of the living to a spirit of the dead.  Once liberated from the body the Nefesh becomes a purely spiritual entity. The Nefesh may journey to Sheol, meeting place of the recently dead, if the messengers find it free of unresolved transgression, that is, a tzaddik - a pure and righteous person, one who has rectified all transgression.

A Maggid (plural maggidim) is a departed tzaddik and usually a sage. The Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, writing in the third quarter of the 16th century, stated in his Drishot be-Inyane ha-Malakhim (Inquiries Concerning Angels) the “the types of ibbur (cling) depends on a person's moral and spiritual state, whether his Nefesh may cling to a maggid spirit if righteous".   Rabbi Hayyim Vital (1542-1620) in his book Shar'are Kedushah, expounds: “Seclude yourself in an isolated place, wrap yourself in a prayer shawl, sit and close your eyes, divesting yourself of the material world as if your Nefesh had left your body and were ascending. Following this abstraction, recite whatever single Mishnah that you wish, many times in uninterrupted succession. Cling to the Nefesh of the sage.... He will speak with your mouth and your will hear with your ears the wisdom of the words.” 

In summary, the Jewish literature contains accounts of spirit possession exercised between the great sage and prophets and tzaddiks spanning continuously over 3000 years.  It was not a theoretical practice, rather one regularly used to give the opportunity of spirits of the dead an opportunity to impart wisdom. 

Spirit Detector Dowsing Rods

I realise this is all about haunted artefacts, and I assure you, that even though I created my Spirit Detector Dowsing Rods, they do fit into this category.

 Photo by author

The L-Rod Dowsing Rods, as pictured above, have two compartments that may be loaded with anything. For instance, it you were looking for gold, to place some gold in the chamber. Or water, or oil, whatever you are looking for, you place a sample in the compartment.

Hans Holzer, American paranormal researcher, believed in “life after death and the existence of ghosts, spirits, and 'stay behinds'”. Ghosts were, according to him, imprints left in the environment which could be "picked up" by sensitive people. Spirits were intelligent beings who could interact with the living, while "stay behinds" were those who found themselves earth-bound after death.”

I work under the assumption that if a person is not sensitive in such a way as Mr. Holzer is, that, perhaps, there are ways to compensate. Thus, the “invention” of Spirit Detector Dowsing Rods.

Last November (2016), I lead a ghost walk around a famous and well-documented haunted site. I wanted the walkers to have a great experience (and I realised that they might not have the “sensitivity”). My wife and I drove out to the site extra early. Early enough to make a short detour. A detour to Multnomah County Pioneer Cemetery...

Photo by author

There we found a very recent excavation with a pile of loose dirt (see the far right of the above picture) and we grabbed a handful of dirt, shown in the pictures above, in the small plastic bag. Working under the assumption that if we fill the chambers of the dowsing rods with graveyard dirt, it will help the walkers find a spirit of the dead. I had two of the ghost walkers scoop in a bit of the graveyard dirt into the two chambers. Instant ghost detector!

The Horseless Carriage Tail Lamp

I found this horseless carriage kerosene tail lamp when I was about 10 years old. It was my first haunted artefact and I still am proud to have found it. Near where I lived as a boy, there was this informal dump which included, among other things, an old hand crank wringer washing “machine”, parts of a broken gas stove, several sets of springs from a horse drawn carriage, the twisted frame of the model T, and many lumps of unidentifiable rusted metal. One summer whilst admiring the junk, a green glint caught my eye; something I had never seen before had emerged from the dirt and sand. It was this horseless carriage kerosene tail lamp.

I am not sure if I was drawn to it, or it was drawn to me, but when I first caught the green glint from the green lens, I knew it was something very, very special. As I grew up, I tried to mentally understand this strange attraction, and without realising, began to develop my mystic insights well beyond my age. Years later, my wife and I were cleaning out some old boxes we have never unpacked from our last move (which had been over ten years ago!), when she turned to me, holding up the lamp, and said, “What is this? It is really cool! There is something really interesting about it.” That evening after dinner, I pulled out the lamp and showed her the green glint. Thereafter she understood why I had kept it all these years.

To this day I am still uncertain about the nature of this strong attraction to, what most people would consider, a bit of junk. When you see the green glint, you too will agree it is not junk, but just as I, you may not understand why.

 

Photo by author

Calling on the Spirits of the Dead – A Jewish Perspective

Calling on the Spirits of the Dead – A Jewish Perspective

 The idea for this entry came to me as a challenge from my good friend Bryn.  It was in 2014 when he said he wondered what Jewish Seance would look like.  Considering the limitations in Judaism put upon communicating with the dead, it took considerable research to determine if a Jewish Seance was not forbidden, but more importantly, what would it entail. 

Talking With the Dead

There is confirmation in Hebrew literature (Torah, Tanach, and Talmud, in particular) that it is possible to communicate with the dead, but in almost all cases, it is frowned upon.  However, there are technicalities; in particular, there is the technicality is that a newly dead person it not, in the words of Billy Crystal as Miracle Max, “...mostly dead, and not all dead”. 

Does it say anything in the Tanach or in the Talmud about talking to the dead through a medium?

In I Samuel 28, there is told the story of King Saul going to a medium in order to be able to consult with the prophet Samuel who had died recently. The medium succeeded in bringing up Samuel, and he spoke with King Saul. The verses show that the medium was quite shocked when she saw Samuel which seems surprising as she was an experienced medium. Our sages explain that her surprise was due to the fact that he came up right-side-up, and the dead usually rise upside-down.

 

The Book of Samuel.  Photo by Author


The Talmud (Shabbos 152b) tells us that a non-believer once asked Rebbe Avahu how it was that Saul was able to bring up Samuel if the souls of the righteous are under the Throne of Glory. He responded that within 12 months of death one is able to bring up even the righteous.

From this response it would seem as if the medium has the power to do it during that time period, even if the deceased soul doesn’t want.

The mystic commentators take this statement further. The Talmud is explaining the success of causing Samuel to rise, but why was he right side up? The Radvaz explains that since there was nothing Samuel could do to prevent himself from being brought up, he was facing a very uncomfortable situation. Coming up in this manner is a result of the medium using powers of impurity (Tumah), and to be forced to come up by such methods would have been devastating to a holy man like Samuel. Therefore, seeing the inevitable, he came up instead through the power of prophecy which is holy, in order to pre-empt being brought up through impurity. This is why he came up right side up, in a respectful manner befitting holiness, and not upside down which is a manner befitting impurity. He then told Saul the prophecy he had for him.

The Arizal, who asks how it is that a holy person like Samuel can be affected and controlled by powers of impurity?  He explains that there are five levels of the soul. The medium can only bring up the lowest, least holy, level.

The Five Aspects of the Human Spirit

We speak of five aspects of the human spirit.  These are present in live people, but also in dead people as well.  We are not meant to commune with the dead.  In the case of King Saul, he only consulted with the dead as he was facing a life and death situation, the nation was under attack. He had tried getting Divine direction through more conventional means, but G-d was refusing to respond to him.  In a case of life endangerment nearly all the commandments of the Torah are suspended.  Therefore Saul did what would usually have been forbidden by speaking with the dead.

The five aspects of the human spirit are:
Nefesh - the life giving force – the Life Breath
Ruach - The connecting point between the Nefesh and the higher levels
Neshama - The spiritual force
Chaya and Yechida are the two highest levels; only a master mystic can access these.

In my workshops on Jewish mysticism I have two different people “elevate their awareness” of one of these five aspects.  Then, we allow these two “elevated aspects” in interact.  The results are frequently very amazing and wondrous. 

Since both living and humans in transition form life to dead have these five aspects of spirit, it is clear that allowing one of these aspects to be “elevated in awareness” is the mechanism in which living and dead humans may interact in similar amazing and wondrous ways.  This is how “contact” and “communication” between the living and the dead may occur.   Essentially, this is “talking” to the dead using mysticism, rather than mediumship or the forbidden methods listed in Deuteronomy 18:9-12.

My Conclusions

The main source of communicating with the dead being distasteful comes from Deuteronomy 18:9-22. Here the attitude that Torah takes is disparaging. It describes the various ways that the ancient peoples had of contacting the dead and telling the future. The usual explanation for the distaste is that the ancient religions that surrounded Israel were very death-centered, but Torah is focused on what we should do in this world - the world of the living. There are a number of other places in the Torah that briefly discuss the “ob” and “yid’oni” (Leviticus 20:27), ancient ways of contacting the dead. All the references are quite negative. Specifically, Torah states:
כִּי-תוֹעֲבַת יְ - [fortune telling and talking to the dead] is an abomination to G-d.  This is the basis for treading lightly regarding these subjects.

As a little bit of counter-point to this, in the last days of Saul (I Samuel 28) he is abandoned by the prophets, unable to find proper advice on how to deal with the Philistine threat, he takes a drastic and desperate step: He contacts a woman from Endor who can bring back the shade of Samuel the prophet to advise him.

However (in Jewish philosophy there is ALWAYS a 'however' - usually several), the Torah says that G-d gave the people of Israel prophets CAN (i.e., are given permission to) give exact predictions of the future and see things beyond our mortal view. But even there, “you should be whole-hearted before your G-d.” The purpose of prophecy is not to be an oracle, but to help us understand how to serve properly in this world.

Most interestingly, it is the early prophets that we get the beginnings of Jewish mysticism. The techniques, the method of the prophets, were carefully guarded, kept orally until the first century after the destruction of the second temple, taught by one individual to another. The first written records appear in about 100 CE, but references to them are preceded by 200 years in the Mishnah (the oldest part of Talmud).

So, the challenge is not to step too hard on contacting the dead or fortune-telling, but recognise that the Hasadei Ashkenaz, the leading German rabbis of Thirteenth century, gave permission to consult the spirits of the dead. They made a distinction between consulting upon a dead body, which they forbid, however, allowing the consultation with a spirit.  Most notably, the Maharam (Rabbi Meir ben Baruch, 1215 – 2 May 1293) made the above argument recounted in the Beit Yosef and the Yoreh De’ah (179) which may have been based on passages in the Arba'ah Turim.  Even then, we must tread lightly. Personally, I refuse to tell fortunes. I will give personal readings and advise on past and current spiritual matters (as I have formal training in the latter), but always stop short at looking into the future. If they insist, I refuse and cite the above argument. Contacting the dead, luckily for me, has several mentions in Tanach (Samuel I, 28, Isaiah 8), in several places in Torah (Leviticus 20), albeit the attitude is not so positive. Later mystics talked to the dead regularly as is documented in Talmud (Sanhedrin 65B, Moed Katan 28A).

Rabbi Meir ben Baruch grave

Image from: http://www.tourismus.rothenburg.de

As you will read in later installments, I use a technicality for seances. Rather than contacting a dead person, we try to contact the spirit of a newly deceased person.  You see, it is believed that the Nefesh (the life breath) of a person leaks out slowly over a period of hours upon physical death of the body.  It is never to be done for selfish reasons; it should be done to help all spirits (living and dead) in their service to the Divine. 

The Origin of The Universal Magic Word

The Talmud, the venerated commentary on the Torah, relates that Rabbi Yosef (ca. 270 C.E.) knew the mysteries of the Markava – the Way of Spiritual Ascension and had studied the Ways of Creation. The Rabbi's students, Rava (299-353 C.E.) and Rabbi Zeira learnt the lessons of their teacher well and were credited with the saying “If the righteous desired, they could create a world”. The ancient tradition holds that these two learned men worked for three years meditating, and when the finally mastered it, created a calf, which they had butchered and fed it to their entire community. So great were their powers that once “Rava created a man” and sent him to Rabbi Zeira; when the latter asked the creation a question, he found it could not talk. For reasons quite rational, it was shown the creation was not perfect. The phrase “Rava creates a man as he speaks” in Hebrew is "רבא ברא גברא - Rava Ba'Rah Ga'Bahra. Putting this same phase in first person, it becomes “אברא כארבא” or Avra Ka'Davra. The letter בּ – B is frequently written without the dagesh – the diacritical mark, which is its double letter ב – V. Those translating the above phrase confused the two letters giving us the most used magic word of all times: Abra'ka'dabra.

Image by Author