"Pulsa diNura"

From Wikipedia...

Pulsa diNura or Pulsa Denoura (Aramaic: פולסא דנורא "lashes of fire") is a kabbalistic ceremony in which God is asked to curse someone who is believed to be a sinner...Some adherents of Kabbalah developed the idea of invoking a curse against a sinner, which they termed pulsa diNura.

According to Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzadok, from Yeshivat Benei N'vi'im, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, the popular perception of the pulsa dinura as a curse is mistaken. He writes:

The Pulsa D’Nora has wrongfully been associated with a certain school of Kabbalah known as Kabbalah Ma'asit (magic). The Pulsa D'Nora is not a magical formula. Torah and Judaism have no connection to or tolerance of magic in any form. Therefore, the consideration of anything in holy Kabbalah, an integral part of [God's] Torah from Sinai to have any ties to magic is a spurious and offensive suggestion. The Pulsa D'Nora is actually not a "curse of death" as many mistakenly believe. No Rabbi or Kabbalist has the right or authority to curse another to death. In accordance to Torah Law, the only way a Jew is put to death is for violation of specific Biblical laws and then only after being tried and condemned by a kosher and authoritative Sanhedrin, the likes of which have not existed in Israel and among the Jewish people since the days of the Temple.

The curse is sometimes used by religious Jews against figures whom they find objectionable. Early in the 20th century, agitated Haredi Jews in Jerusalem recited the curse against the linguist Eliezer Ben Yehuda. There have been instances of the curse being recited against archaeologists and authors. Prior to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, there have been rumors that the curse had been recited against him by right-wing extremists.
On the night of October 6, 1995, Avigdor Eskin, a member of the Gush Emunim (bloc of the faithful) recited the following maledictions of the Pulsa diNura:

"Angels of distruction will hit him. He is damned wherever he goes. His soul will instantly leave his body...and he will not survive a month. Dark will be his path and God's angel will chase him. A disaster he has never experienced will beget him and all curses known in the Torah will apply to him. I deliver to you, the angels of wrath and ire, Yitzhak, the son of Rosa Rabin, that you may smother him and the specter of him, and cast him into hed, and dry up his wealth, and plague his thoughts, and scatter his mind that he may be steadily diminished until he reaches his death. Put to death the cursed Yitzhak. May he be damned, damned, damned!"

Rabin was assassinated within the month.

In July 2005, opponents of the Gaza pullout plan recited the Pulsa diNura in the old cemetery of Rosh Pina, asking the "Angel of Death" to kill Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Sharon has recently suffered two strokes and is currently in a coma, fighting for his life. Of course, most analysts link this to his age, 77, and obesity.

Ten rabbis and kabalists, including Yosef Dayan - who instigated the same curse several months prior to the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin - assembled at the gravesite, which is located near Safed.

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I blogged about this bizarre ceremony when I heard about it last year. The two newspaper links are no longer working, but the link to the source is still there.

Two comments:

1. As I have said before, for the believer, no evidence is needed. For the non-believer there will never be evidence enough.

2. If Sharon's stroke (or Rabin's assassination, for that matter) is/are the result of a curse, there is no way to determine if it derives from the forces of light or the forces of darkness.

Just saying...
I report. You decide.