Faith Is Magical Thinking

At times I have been accused of magical thinking, but this is what I know; Hashem tells us this:

Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that YHWH thy God, He is God; the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations;

And this,

Deuteronomy 7:15 And YHWH will take away from thee all sickness; and He will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee, but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.”

Now, I can’t say that I have never been sick, or that I have always been faithful.  I struggled with mental illness, and opiates, which to me these are the “Evil diseases” I knew at my worst.  Even to this day, I have a few allergies.

However, Hashem’s word promises me that he will keep me free from sickness, in return for obedience, and that is precisely what I experience.

I do my best to follow His commands, and this is what I get:  I have never been vaccinated against the flu, yet it has been several years since I have had any viral infection.  In addition, it has been at least 20yrs since I have had a bacterial infection, going back to one time in high school when I had small one under my toenail, probably from the boys locker-room.  This seems like magical thinking indeed, but I don't care because it works, sort of; one must do in addition to acquiring belief!  At one time I had a job that dealt with sewage, and I still didn’t get sick, not even once!

Therefore I suggest that one can live free from disease through religion, but it’s not as if one can state that he or she has faith and continue to doubt Torah.  One must have faith first, and possibly prove later.

As a former atheist, I am not going to be able to tell you that everything in this existence is reasonable, or provable.  We may never be able to study about Hashem in a quantifiable way, or to understand before doing.  If that sort of thinking is an obstacle for you, then I truely feel sorry for you.

Note: Quotes from 1917 JPS Corrected version.

Being Careful with the G-d's Name on The Computer

My Q:  How do Jews treat hard drive ROM if it contains permanently stored sacred information?  Should it ever be deleted?  Should a name of Gd be saved if it is encoded in data?  We are careful with languages other than Hebrew.  Why would the readable language a computer processes be any different?  Some software is more powerful than other software when it comes to file deletion, which opens up a similar question: If the computer code for a word such as “Gd” enters a computer, is it okay to delete any of its sacred contents at all?  Perhaps, computers should be made more sacred by programming them to remember every key stroke, or use picture recognition to save words such as Gd, such that Gd never ends up deleted.  Even images of words in the refresh rate of a monitor could be saved.  Why not?

Rabbi's A:  t's an interesting question that was raised right when various forms of media were coming out. The general consensus of the Halachic authorities was that electronic information that needs to be opened, played, etc is not considered holy texts to the extent they can not be thrown away or deleted. (Once opened, etc. it should not be read/listened to in bathroom or similar place in which Torah is not allowed(

Waves (Binah), Particles (Chochmah), The Glue (Ayn Soph) and Revealing a Miracle: Moses and Parting of the Sea

Please note:  This has been edited by the author from the original post.

If one has no faith, it is not that he just does not have Gd, it is also that he fails at science. Particle physics and wave physics meet with the Ayn Soph. A trinity is needed; waves as binah, particles as chochmah, and the crown to comprehend each at the same time, the Ayn Soph. With this trinity neither particles nor waves are sufficient to explain reality. There must be spiritual binding glue. One must have partial knowledge of each of these three, waves, particles, and Or Ayn Soph or the result is quagmire.

Within reality there are waves, and smaller waves hidden within waves. Often these smaller waves are mistaken as noise, yet noise analysis may give reliable data. With reason, it is thinkable that a positive feedback loop of waves, a resonant signal of waves within waves could accomplish many unusual events. The minor waves within the major waves may add up to or even multiply to something extraordinary, such as parting a Sea.