Do Jews see ghosts/get haunted?

[Octoberbride03]

I had to look that one up!

Dawn

Been a million years. I didn't have to look it it up but i can't remember the tune

 

[Golf4food]

Funny since the first Biblical ghost story that pops into my head is out of the old testament (Jewish history!) when King Saul calls up the ghost of Samuel, former high priest of the Jews who had been dead for a while...

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

So taking it a bit further if one became possesed and was not Christian how would an exorcism be performed? If you do not believe in Christ ...well do you all see where I am going with this? How come it is always the Catholic Priest who performs the exorcisms? Don't Protestants have exorcists? If one were Jewish and did believe in ghosts or negative entities then who would perform the exorcism? I never really thought of that. I know in primitive cultures there is a charmin priestess etc who performs these rituals.

 

[XYSRUS]

I say the jews do the haunting b/c I work in a Jewish nursing home and stuff is always going on there at night! Enough to make you think! It's alarming, but not scary.

 

[Chicago526]

So taking it a bit further if one became possesed and was not Christian how would an exorcism be performed? If you do not believe in Christ ...well do you all see where I am going with this? How come it is always the Catholic Priest who performs the exorcisms? Don't Protestants have exorcists? If one were Jewish and did believe in ghosts or negative entities then who would perform the exorcism? I never really thought of that. I know in primitive cultures there is a charmin priestess etc who performs these rituals.

I think some Protestent demoninations have "laying of hands". You know, the minister lays his hands on the head of the person and says "begone devil" or something like that and the person faints. I'd guess that would be a type of exorcisim.

 

[wendy46001]

I admit.....I inspected the contents of my next bag of Cheetos more carefully, but to no avail.

Cheesus .
thank you...i needed a good laugh today
i'm off to buy a bag of cheetos for lunch

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

I think some Protestent demoninations have "laying of hands". You know, the minister lays his hands on the head of the person and says "begone devil" or something like that and the person faints. I'd guess that would be a type of exorcisim.

Okay makes sense to me.

 

[sandramaac]

OK, looks as if Rabbi's do have a ritual for exorcism

http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/exorcism.html

even Islam has exorcism's

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/184343/exorcism_in_islam/

so I imagine, all religions have some sort of good/evil and living/ghost parts

 

[FergieTCat]

Jewish people believe in a "dybbuk" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dybbuk) or a lost soul.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Sure - frootloops come in all sizes, shapes and colors - and religions...

 

[snykymom]

The Kabbalah (not the one made famous by Madonna (the singer), but the real one) is the source of Jewish mysticism. There are many stories about ghosts & spirits & dybbuks.

There is, for example, the story of Lilith. Based on some different verses of the story of creation in Genesis, some believe that Lilith was Adam's first wife, who refused to obey him. Adam complained so much that God banished her from Eden and created Eve from Adam's rib. Lilith now roams the earth attempting to steal the souls of children, as she was never able to have her own. But, the mystics say, Lilith cannot cross water. So mothers would put a bowl of water at the foot of their childrens' beds to protect them from her.

There are similar stories about the Angel of Death - that's why European Jews (Ashkenazi Jews) generally name their children only after the deceased. They do not want to confuse the Angel of Death and have the Angel take the child rather than the adult.

But because the Jewish concept of heaven/hell is very different than that of Christianity, ghosts are generally different, too.

As Rashi said, "Now, go and study."

 

[Ekon]

I think that people who don't believe in ghosts do not see them, but when people do believe them their minds make them see ghosts.

 

[LuvOrlando]

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a good friend a few months ago who happens to be Jewish and an author. The 2 of us were talking about influential books and I declared "The Exorcist" the scariest book ever. Instead of agreeing he said, "Ehh, it didn't bother me at all." As I stood there with an open mouth and a confused look he offered, "Jews don't believe in hell so the story has no effect." THAT was an eye opening conversation that left me pondering how influential that one belief was on my entire perspective of the world. Fascinating food for thought.

 

[GeorgeG]

I agree that ghosts, or whatever we refer to as ghosts, are secular. Even within a religion, people will believe differently and everything is subject to interpretation. I think it's safe to say that there is a whole lot we don't know, but too often we're just too arrogant to admit it. What we call ghosts might very well have logical explanation that we haven't discovered yet. Until we have solid proof, we can only go with what we believe.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

The Kabbalah (not the one made famous by Madonna (the singer), but the real one) is the source of Jewish mysticism. There are many stories about ghosts & spirits & dybbuks.

There is, for example, the story of Lilith. Based on some different verses of the story of creation in Genesis, some believe that Lilith was Adam's first wife, who refused to obey him. Adam complained so much that God banished her from Eden and created Eve from Adam's rib. Lilith now roams the earth attempting to steal the souls of children, as she was never able to have her own. But, the mystics say, Lilith cannot cross water. So mothers would put a bowl of water at the foot of their childrens' beds to protect them from her.

There are similar stories about the Angel of Death - that's why European Jews (Ashkenazi Jews) generally name their children only after the deceased. They do not want to confuse the Angel of Death and have the Angel take the child rather than the adult.

But because the Jewish concept of heaven/hell is very different than that of Christianity, ghosts are generally different, too.

As Rashi said, "Now, go and study."

Could you clarify this for me? I do not understand do you mean that the children are named after someone deceased so the Angel of Death will know that person is already dead and not take another by the wrong name? My GF is Jewish and she told me that the tradition was to name the child with the first letter of the deceased person's name. For example if the deceased person was Allen then the baby would be named Amy or Arron using only the first letter. I asked her why this was the custom but she did not know since she really is not devoute in her religion.

 

[Zuzu03]

I believe in ghosts, but have never seen one (thank goodness - I would FREAK). My mom doesn't believe in ghosts (but she is Catholic) and she has seen her deceased mom sitting on the edge of her bed - YIKES!!!!

Question - if you see a deceased person in a dream, is that considered a ghost?

 

[LuvOrlando]

I agree that ghosts, or whatever we refer to as ghosts, are secular. Even within a religion, people will believe differently and everything is subject to interpretation. I think it's safe to say that there is a whole lot we don't know, but too often we're just too arrogant to admit it. What we call ghosts might very well have logical explanation that we haven't discovered yet. Until we have solid proof, we can only go with what we believe.

I will now interrupt this serious post for a bit of childish humor.

Ghosts - solid proof, Ghosts - solid proof ... get it, get it, get it

OK, I'm good now, on with it then

 

[Imzadi]

Could you clarify this for me? I do not understand do you mean that the children are named after someone deceased so the Angel of Death will know that person is already dead and not take another by the wrong name?

This is where you got confused. The Angel of Death doesn't need to take someone already dead. The Angel of Death comes to take someone about to die. Well, they are about to die because of him.

Say, there's an order in for the Angel of Death to take old uncle Ebenezer, but he gets to the house and there's also a kid named Ebenezer Jr., he might not know which one he's supposed to take, and takes the child instead. If you don't name two people alike, there shouldn't be a clerical error like that.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

This is where you got confused. The Angel of Death doesn't need to take someone already dead. The Angel of Death comes to take someone about to die. Well, they are about to die because of him.

Say, there's an order in for the Angel of Death to take old uncle Ebenezer, but he gets to the house and there's also a kid named Ebenezer Jr., he might not know which one he's supposed to take, and takes the child instead. If you don't name two people alike, there shouldn't be a clerical error like that.

Thanks I get it.

 

[snykymom]

Could you clarify this for me? I do not understand do you mean that the children are named after someone deceased so the Angel of Death will know that person is already dead and not take another by the wrong name? My GF is Jewish and she told me that the tradition was to name the child with the first letter of the deceased person's name. For example if the deceased person was Allen then the baby would be named Amy or Arron using only the first letter. I asked her why this was the custom but she did not know since she really is not devoute in her religion.

This is where you got confused. The Angel of Death doesn't need to take someone already dead. The Angel of Death comes to take someone about to die. Well, they are about to die because of him.

Say, there's an order in for the Angel of Death to take old uncle Ebenezer, but he gets to the house and there's also a kid named Ebenezer Jr., he might not know which one he's supposed to take, and takes the child instead. If you don't name two people alike, there shouldn't be a clerical error like that.

Additionally, it was traditional to defeat the Angel of Death to rename a very sick person (for the duration of the illness) "Chaim" if male or "Chaya" if female - those names mean "life" in Hebrew.