Rabbinic Charlatans

It's always fun to read a report about something said by Rav Ephraim Zalminovitch, rav of Mazkeret Batya. he has taken some interesting positions on a variety of issues.

The latest is a response by Rav Zalminovitch to the trend of people, and he refers specifically to businessmen, flocking to rabbonim who claim for themselves special powers with the ability to do wonders and create miracles.

Rav Zalminovitch said, as reported in Mynet, "only Hashem has supernatural powers. A human who claims  to have such abilities, to change fate or to move stars out of their constellations, is nothing but an idol worshiper, literally.... [such rabbonim] are impostors who attribute to themselves powers and the ability to change the "sidrei breishit", they claim to be able to heal the sick without any knowledge or medical equipment and they blow hope with false promises into the hearts of people who are in crisis"

The best part of it is when he says, directing his words towards the businessmen who consult with these rabbonim for financial and business advice, "any financial activity taken based on the advice of such rabbonim can lead to the entire Israeli economy going into crisis. The Torah says It shouldn't be found among you magicians.. - the public should be wary of anyone claiming the ability to see into the future."

I don't think the rabbonim generally make such claims, but many people make the claims about them. the rabbonim involved in these things do allow it to happen, they do allow the claims to persist and they benefit from such claims as well.

The only point I would really disagree with is that asking advice form these rabbonim will lead the Israeli economy into crisis - many of these rabbonim are very astute businessmen themselves, see the recently published Forbes list of wealthiest rabbis as an example, and consulting with them regarding business and financial concerns actually makes sense.



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