Voodoo
Dialogue
Jews who practice Haitian Voodoo Religion
Here is the most
astonishing article in a Jewish magazine that one could ever imagine: Jews that practice voodoo. In this puff piece
some rabbi’s rationalize that this is perfectly acceptable for any Jew to
participate in as it is a legitimate expression of spirituality? This story plays up these sick degenerate people
sound like spiritual pioneers. The story
brings out that how Jews are ending up in this pit of hell is that they are Kabbalists,
that is they are readers and practitioners of the Jewish book of the occult the
Kabbalah that has become a hot item in recent decades. The Kabbalah is all
about the use of secret numbers, secret words and the secret name of God
to cast spells along with the making of said secret potions. The Kabbalah in a real sense here is about
witchcraft and spell casting, and putting curses on people.
Nevermind that the reading of this book and or the practice
of this is a sin unto death in the five books of Moses, such things never stop
any talmudic rabbi from lauding and praising such activities, from reformed
Jews all the way to ultra orthodox Jews as in the Talmud itself it has potions,
curses to be given, and the mention of occultish practices as well. Talmudic Judaism’s love for Babylonianism
from its social order, to its temples and priesthood, to its occult practices
is as strong today as it ever has been. Even now they are building groves, and altars on hills to a lexicon of false gods and
godesses and are draw to destruction by loving all the evil and perverse isms
of this day and hour.
One final note in this article it is repeatedly asserted
that one should fear to speak anything ill of voodoo. Thank God that greater is He that is in us
than voodoo. Thank God the blood of
Jesus Christ has unlimited power to cleans and purge evil and corruption at all
levels.
The Jewish Week ^ | Jonathan Mark
Posted on Monday, February 22, 2010
by Jonathan Mark, Associate Editor
There is Jewish-Christian dialogue; Jewish-Muslim
dialogue; Jewish-Hindu dialogue; Jewish-Buddhist dialogue; rabbis have met with
the pope, the Dalai Lama and imams, but Voodoo dialogue is the ecumenical
stepchild. An informal round of phone calls to rabbis turned up nothing. Voodoo
gets a laugh; to most Jews it’s a punchline.
Even Clal-The National Jewish Center for Learning
and Leadership, an organization that, decades ago, was one of the pioneers in
serious interfaith understanding, has yet to meet its first houngan, mambo or
manbo (Voodoo priests).
And yet, out on the street, there is more of a
Jewish-Voodoo intersection than one might think.
Up in the
“We sell
books on kabbalah,” says Mizrahi. “In Spanish.”
We telephoned Martha Ward, professor of
anthropology at the
She laughs out loud. “The largest [Voodoo] congregation here in
Glassman, who also operates a
“She got
into this out of the kabbalah,” says Ward.
“Mysticism crosses all artificial boundaries. The Spirits choose whom they
will, it is said, picking out people with special
abilities and qualities and the Spirits contact them.”
Ward, a Methodist who practices Voodoo, explains
that Voodoo, though a braiding of African shamanism and Catholicism, allows
dual citizenship with other religions and doesn’t require conversion.
[....] Has she met Voodoo Jews other than Manbo
Sallie? “My God,” laughs Ward. “Are you kidding? Of course, I meet Jews” in
Voodoo. “Half my relatives are Jewish! Hell, this is
“Above all,” says Ward,
“is a God who looks exactly like the one you might have heard about in
synagogue. When you write about us,” she adds as if praying, “do us well, and
kindly.”
Clal’s co-president, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, who
just returned for a meeting with Islamic leaders in
“But I can also tell you that there’s a deep
theurgic impulse in kabbalah, meaning attempts to manipulate the Divine.
There’s a distinction between magic and ritual, which is that ritual tries to
influence God; magic believes that it can influence God, whether God wants to
be influenced or not.
“Now, that’s a very fine distinction,” says Rabbi
Hirschfield. “So I don’t make fun of Voodoo, because anyone who prays to God in
the hope of shaping what God does shouldn’t be making fun of Voodoo.
“We all love to tell the story of the Golem. If
that isn’t shamanic,” continues the rabbi, “I don’t know what is. Some guy goes
into an attic, recapitulates the Genesis story, making a person out of dirt,
slaps [the Holy Name] on its forehead and it comes to life. Change that ever so
slightly and you have a guy with a doll in
“Voodoo is one more spiritual mechanism for both
bridging worlds, between life and death; for people to feel empowered in their
relationship with God,” says the rabbi. “We shouldn’t confuse the rituals we
reject, and the theology we reject for the underlying human impulses that are
part of all of us.”
Rabbi Irwin Kula, co-president of Clal, adds,
“Does Voodoo help people get through the night? Does it give them hope? Does it
let them still believe that it pays to be good and to love, though at any
moment the earth can open up under your feet? Does it give them a sense of
continuity with generations at a moment in which all seems lost?
“If the answer is yes, then I am all for Voodoo,
and the onus is on the interfaith specialists who see Voodoo as pagan, demonic,
heresy, to look at their own systems.
“My tradition,” says Rabbi Kula, “teaches that the
moment when the dead are still before us is not the time for theology; it is
the time for kavod hameit and nichum aveeilim,” respecting the dead and
comforting the mourners, “two acts that trump theological differences.”