He's Warning Jews About Fake Segulos (and Revealing Which Really Work)
If a person has a sore throat, don't go running to a segulah ... go to a doctor.
Clips from this episode are coming. The full episode is below.
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Quotes
“Sometimes very smart people that in business are very smart and very shrewd seem to be very naive when it comes to this topic of who they go to for advice.”
“When a person's in crisis, they're very vulnerable.”
“I don't think a person should ever do a segulah that [he might come] to regret doing.”
“Try to keep a low profile. You don't have to share all your successes with others.”
“If you're in a community where people are making ... a [simcha] with a certain standard, don't go over that standard for everyone to be talking about you. All you're doing is inviting [ayin hara] on you.”
Takeaways
- 1 Be as careful vetting spiritual "advisors" and charities as you are with business spending. A rav proves himself through his Torah; a miracle-worker's claims can't be checked.
- 2 Red flags: set prices, pressure that your gift is "not enough," payment to get in the door, traveling fundraisers with no known institution, relatives cashing in, VIP line-cutting.
- 3 Give directly when you can - middlemen can take a large cut. On Purim, give to anyone who asks; the rest of the year, check who you're giving to.
- 4 Prefer segulos that are mitzvos in themselves, so there's nothing to regret even without a visible result. If it doesn't "work," the mitzvah still counts.
- 5 Learning Torah is a segulah for everything - even more so when you learn the topic tied to what you need.
- 6 The Yissachar-Zevulun model: build a fixed share for Torah into each deal. Stay within the halachic limits on giving (e.g., one-fifth).
- 7 Ayin hara is real but often misunderstood. Protection comes from humility, a low profile, and not spending above community norms - not from folk rituals.
- 8 Advisors who take money develop bias. Clean advice comes with no strings.
- 9 "40 days at the Kotel" campaigns are fine if actually done as promised. For real personal tefillos, ask someone you know.
- 10 Don't tell singles about shidduch segulos (it can hurt); do the segulah in their merit instead.