“In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of “respect”.” – Salman Rushdie

“Where one burns books, one will soon burn people.” – Heinrich Heine

You may have heard that some Christians have a thing against Harry Potter. Rev. John Hagee, the famous pastor from San Antonio, Texas, devoted several of his shows to battling “the great evil of Harry Potter”, as part of his war against so-called witchcraft.

Certain Christians find the justification they need for such a battle in the New Testament:

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;” (1 Timothy, chapter 4, verses 1-2)

Whether Harry Potter encourages kids to delve into witchcraft (as claimed by some parent organizations across the US) is yet to be seen. One should wonder what is witchcraft anyway – not too many parents seem to ban Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, though similar reasoning may apply in this case. Does it sound too absurd? Not if you ask Rev. George Bender of the Harvest Assembly of God Church. On March 2001, the congregation gathered around a bonfire in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and burned Harry Potter books, together with Disney videos such as Pinocchio, some rock CDs and literature from other religions. The act was naturally justified as based on the Bible.

In various states in the US (especially in the south) there is a history of book banning. All over the world many Orthodox Jews have banned the New Testament itself. In recent years the issue of Harry Potter has appeared in several Jewish discussions because a central part of Judaism is the 613 Mitzvot (613 commandments) derived from the Bible, of which the 62nd one reads: “Thou shalt not suffer a sorceress to live” (Exodus, chapter 22, verse 17).

Burning witches in the past millennium was more of a Christian business. Yet, burning printed material and destroying other precious things – in the name of religion – has been the business of others as well. Islamic revolutions, such as the one in Sudan during the late 80s, experienced breaking and destroying many bottles of wine and other forbidden alcoholic beverages. The destruction of the huge stone Buddhas by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 shook the civilized world. The famous Egyptian Sphinx escaped a similar Fatwah (a religious edict) in the beginning of 2006. The Satanic Verses, a famous book by Salman Rushdie, was for Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini much more than what Harry Potter has been for Rev. John Hagee. In 1989, the now deceased leader of Iran declared that the book was blasphemous, and called for the death of Mr. Rushdie. Salman Rushdie went into hiding, with the protection of the British government. A million dollar reward was offered for Rushdie’s murder, and worldwide, many people associated with the book’s publishing were physically attacked.

It seems that some religious leaders are eager to limit the possibilities for the flock under their care to even know of other things, whether factual or fictitious. Not knowing seems to be a major part of not believing. Is religious belief so fragile that it needs to be nurtured all the time?

The issue is even deeper – it’s related again to the sensitive matter of believing vs. knowing. If people knew (scientifically speaking) about a God above who enjoyed our doing certain things, then there wouldn’t be any real reason to prevent them from reading opposing literature and opinions. Hence the very existence of the thought police is the best indication for the need for its existence. Guard and protect – this is one of religion’s self-defense mechanisms.

Orthodox Judaism generally forbids causing any harm to written religious texts. A hand-written official Bible even gets a proper burial ceremony if damaged. Yet, there seems to be a good excuse for anything when it’s arbitrarily deemed necessary. For example: When written by a heretic, the book should to be burned.

In the year 2000, a small Israeli organization named Daat Emet (Knowing the Truth) compiled and distributed interesting pamphlets among ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel. Most of the content of those pamphlets consisted of actual quotes from traditional Jewish religious literature, such as the Talmud, and even the Bible. However, the material was well organized in a way that demonstrated numerous contradictions and factual errors in the ancient texts.

The people who compiled the pamphlets obviously had a background in Judaism. Their purpose in creating the pamphlets was simple: Encourage people to raise doubts and be able to criticize, while talking their own language, using the very same texts that are studied on a day-to-day basis.

The response to the pamphlets was in many instances quite extreme and varied from public slander to actual violence. In several cases, the pamphlets were gathered and burned in public. Needless to say, in privacy many religious people did read the forbidden material, just as many of John Hagee’s followers probably read Harry Potter and many Iranians read Salman Rushdie.

With a bit of luck, this book will be banned as well.

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“A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.” – Groucho Marx

This is chapter thirteen of this book! Therefore, in order for it not to fail, quickly go to the next chapter. Do not collect $200.

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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did not escape the ancient deadly curse. Before implementing the Gaza Disengagement Plan in 2005, a group of religious activists were shown on Israeli TV, cursing him in what seemed to be a scene taken from ‘Charmed’ (you know, these three sister witches that practice magic and powerful spells while your kids are having lunch). Certain Kabbalah experts explained that either Mr. Sharon or the people involved in the act should have died within a month. In practice, the only thing that died within a month was the media’s treatment of this story. Major General Amir Drori, former head of the Israel Antiquities Authority, also enjoyed similar curses in his past. Certain Orthodox religious Jews hate archaeology, so it seems. Major General Drori died many years later (in the beginning of 2005) of old age. With or without ancient curses, we all die eventually!

And now for something completely different…

One of Monty Python’s most amusing scenes ever is the stoning scene from ‘Life of Brian’, where the old man is jumping up and down, waiting to be stoned, shouting “Jehova Jehova Jehova!” and then one of the stoners says “He said it again! He said Jehova!” and gets stoned himself.

And it’s all based on the traditional text of the third commandment (many consider it as the second commandment): “Thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy God in vain” (Exodus, chapter 20, verse 7). Modern study of the Bible talks about several different origins of its ancient text. Two of them are given the names ‘J’ and ‘E’ by the researchers, for using the names ‘Jehova’ and ‘Elohim’ appropriately as the name of ‘God’.

Historically, the old names are derived from even older names. ‘El’ used to be the chief god of the ancient Canaanite pantheon. The archaeological findings of Ugarit from around the 13th century BC contain lots of interesting data about El and his sons. Interestingly enough, some of these texts somehow found their way later into the book of Psalms. Elohim and Allah are considered to evolve from El. The name of the local god, Yahweh, has been archaeologically revealed in conjunction with the goddess Asherah, and the ancient Hebrews also adopted his name. It appears in the Bible, courtesy of the old ‘J’ source, spelled as Yehova.

Reading the last three paragraphs out loud would typically send an Orthodox religious Jew on a collision course with his or her friends and neighbors. We’re not talking about the era covered by ‘Life of Brian’. We’re talking about today, you know – flying rockets to the Moon and all that.

The various names of God are not only problematic to speak and write, but also to erase. In case you missed, there was a recent debate about the usage of God’s names in electronic documents. Rest assured, they’re okay to erase because the electronic text is made of pixels. Things that make you go hmmm.

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“All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

People who travel the old Jewish quarter of Prague (the capital of the Czech Republic) may be surprised to see shops with many little souvenirs in the shape of a strange and chubby human-like creature. The creature’s name is The Golem.

A well-known Jewish legend talks about Rabbi Yehuda Loew (also known as The Maharal), who lived in Prague in the 16th century. According to the legend, Rabbi Loew created the Golem from clay. Then he used some secret spells to put life into the body of the creature that became a servant of the community. Some versions of the legend talk about how the Golem later became a frightening figure for the people of Prague, and had to be shut down by its creator.

As for the spells used to convert our Golem into the world of the living, there are also several versions of the story. Some of them talk about quoting phrases or words from Jewish mythology, while others mention using the explicit name of God, whatever that may be. We’ll come back to this amazing issue soon.

The alleged power of the spoken or written word is probably as old as language itself. Mysterious texts designed to help or hurt may be found all over: In witchcraft stories, in Christian exorcism tradition and in Jewish Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), in Voodoo spells and in ancient Egyptian curses and blessings on the Pharaohs’ tombs.

Traces of this ancient perception are found aplenty within old scripts, such as the Bible itself. Jacob fights his brother, Esau, for getting the blessing of Isaac. God changes Balaam’s intention of cursing the people of Israel, into blessing them. Job’s wife advises him to curse God and die (blaspheme!).

If someone asked you to murmur certain unclear words and phrases in public, you would probably make sure to let that individual know what you think about his or her request. Yet, millions of people do exactly this on a daily basis, which seems perfectly okay as long as it carries the title “Prayer”. Praying – especially the parts that we understand – serves more than one purpose: While in trouble, we often express our deep desire for help, whether silently in our heart, or by actually speaking it. There’s nothing wrong with that. This is how we’re naturally programmed to behave in extreme situations (good ones as well). Ritual praying is also often used to help convincing ourselves of things that cannot be proven otherwise.

However, a great deal of praying – in all major religions – is done without the person engaged in the act really understanding what the hell is being spoken. The majority of Jews don’t know old Aramaic and the majority of Catholics and Eastern Orthodox haven’t got a clue about ancient Latin. Does it bother them to practice praying in these strange antiquated dialects? In a bizarre way, it may even contribute to the feeling of sacredness, the respect of the unknown. In many cases one should wonder if this respect would stay the same, given a better knowledge of the semantics and the history behind the text.

Does God really expect our praise three times a day or is once a week, enough? Does he prefer classical Arabic or ancient Hebrew? If it really doesn’t matter, then why stick precisely to the same old phrases? Is it important to quote the text exactly, or is the meaning of the text more important? According to the Jewish religion, a change of a single letter disqualifies a copy of the Bible from being sacred (though some researches show that much bigger modifications took place over the years).

Some variations of old religious texts followed intriguing paths into today’s known customs. Crying ‘Allahu Akbar’ (Arabic for “Allah is great”) almost became the identifying mark of a suicide bomber. Confused babies all over the world when being baptized hear traditional Christian phrases, and other well-known traditional Jewish phrases accompany the ceremony of painful religious circumcision.

The emotional text of ‘Shma Israel’ (Hebrew for “Listen, Israel”) has followed many Jews to their death, as the very last words spoken. It is also written on millions of Jewish doorposts all over the world. Many Jewish people physically touch it while entering the house, and afterwards kiss their fingers, as if the sacred words guard them. This is in spite of the fact that many of them – especially nowadays – don’t really know what’s written there. It’s even a tradition to replace the mezuzah (the small case containing the sacred words, together with its content), or check the letters for errors, if something goes wrong in the house – some sudden death, for example.

More than twenty people died, most of whom were children, in the Habonim disaster in Israel in 1985, when a train hit a school bus. Religious thinking dictates the necessity of a reason for such a terrible incident. It was Rabbi Itzhak Peretz, later the Israeli Minister of Interior, who infuriated the mourning country by suggesting that the tragedy was the result of certain improper mezuzoth (plural for mezuzah), and thus could have been prevented.

In practice, it appears that the Jewish nation that has kept this mezuzah tradition over the years is the one nation that has suffered the most, even when no letter was changed or missing in the protecting text.

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