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Question: Is Judaism against mediums, fortune tellers, witches, sorcery , etc? I was told that this was a problem and that it was in the Old Testament. Is this true? I mean I love Harry Potter books and fantasy/sci-fi. If this is true, what do you tell a Jewish child reading Harry Potter?
Answer: Witchcraft, fortune telling, necromancy, are indeed forbidden in the Torah. See Ex. 22; 17 and Deut. 18; 9-16 for details. You might also like to compare Deut 18; 13 with Deut. 29; 28 which seems to suggest that our job isn’t to put our finger on the pulse of the spiritual universe and achieve a God-like understanding of its inner workings, but to work and live in this world, perfecting ourselves using the tools and wonderful this-worldly gifts that He has given us.
You might also be interested that Maimonides was of the strong opinion that none of these activities had any power or worth, but that the whole genre is a great fraud (and the Torah wants to keep us from fraudulent foolishness). Most other sages disagreed (and felt that, while certainly forbidden, that there was substance to it all), but Maimonides does carry some weight. However, all that doesn’t mean that reading fictional accounts of their practice is equally forbidden. Some Jews do oppose having Jewish children reading the Potter books because of the lifestyle and mindset that they represent. But that feeling certainly isn’t universal.
With my best regards,
Rabbi Boruch Clinton
[Reposted from the Archives]
As a related comment, part of a response to kids that are reading the Harry Potter series is to connect other themes in the series to Torah principles. Even without condoning the witchcraft in the series, we can acknowledge the skill of the author of Harry Potter at engaging her readers and incorporating interesting themes into the series. Such themes could certainly have Jewish perspectives.
I wrote a book presenting Torah perspectives on such themes, titled Harry Potter and Torah. It’s available at Amazon, and more information is available at www.harrypottertorah.com
I certainly can’t argue. And I really like your choice of publisher – I have more than a dozen books being sold through Lulu myself!
With best regards,
BC
Comment by ATR — May 29, 2007 @ 12:51 pm