Letters Aug. 2026

Rabbi Moshe Ben- Chaim

Rejecting Jesus

David: I need assistance with a rebuttal to some people insisting that God is punishing His people for rejecting Jesus. I usually counter sarcastically, “Yeah, the Almighty is punishing the Jewish people for following Deuteronomy 13:2-12 and 18:20; and for not believing in human sacrifice.” I regularly read Rabbi Skobac (Jews for Judaism) and Rabbi Singer's (Outreach Judaism) literature, however I cannot seem to phrase what I'm trying to say correctly.  Thank you for your time and assistance.

Rabbi: The following quotes are helpful:

You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth (Exod. 20:4)

Do not to act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever: the form of a man or a woman (Deut. 4:16).

Your approach is correct: we validate God’s view based on what He said, referring to not creating other gods such as figurines of anything in the heavens or the Earth, including humans. God hid Moses’ grave, precisely to prevent human deification (Deut. 34:6). This fully rejects deification of Jesus: as worshipping a mere “form” of man is prohibited, certainly worshipping man himself is prohibited. God does not punish, but rewards people who follow His words, like rejecting Jesus. This is also why we reject Jews flocking to the Rebbe’s grave to give him notes, which shares crime of praying to Jesus. We do not defend our own and this equal condemnation shares Torah’s honesty and fairness.

And on this note of following only what God says, God never stated that He's punishing Jews for rejecting Jesus. A person is not capable of knowing God's thoughts in order to make such a statement. That's what Isaiah 55:8,9 says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not Mine.” God clearly discounts a person making any assumptions about how God operates. And there's a very good reason why.

Rejecting  Superstition

Yehuda: I have sent some of your writings to a few people and I was surprised that they liked it more than I expected. 

You can't change the superstitious people much, they are following nothing but emotions and bias. But you can give a BIG wake up to all the mostly normal people who sit by idly and allow it all to happen and are swayed by “what we see everyone else do.”

Regarding the section “False Notions” in your book, have you ever thought about  כוזו במוכסז כוזו?  This is written on mezuzas and is a code for the words  אדנ-י אלה-נו אדנ-י where each of these letters is replaced with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet, viz., (Aleph becomes Bet format).  Basically, people write these 3 names of God on the mezuza, so is this a violation to “adding a mitzvah to the Torah?” The Rambam in the famous Mezuzah 5:4 allows writing  שד-י on the outside of course, otherwise one forfeits his World to Come. What are we lacking without שד-י?

 In Yoreh Deah 179 there are some strange things allowed. Did the Rabbis go along with these superstitions?

1. One who says, "My bread has fallen from my mouth!" or "My staff from my hand!" or if a deer stopped before them on the road, or a snake passed on their right, or a fox on their left; someone to whom these things have happened, and they derive divination from it not to go on a trip, or not to begin a project or similarly, these are prohibited.

2. Someone who has been bitten by a scorpion: it is permitted to whisper spells for them, even on Shabbat, and even though this thing is completely ineffective, because the person is in danger, they permitted it in order that their mind should not be torn apart (made insane).

3. A child who has been wounded: we may not recite verses over them, or place a Sefer Torah upon them.  A healthy person: it is permitted to recite verses over them, in order to protect them from the damaging forces.

Rabbi: All these laws are consistent with how reality operates. The first source teaches that there is no correlation between those events and our success or failure: things falling from our mouth or hands, or passing animals are unrelated to our fate. To attribute any connection is superstitious, imagination and fallacy. Judaism was created by the world’s Creator; both operate with perfect reason and scientifically. That is why God gave us senses, to determine what is real. And nothing observable validates any correlation between these events and our success. Although many Jews—including flawed rabbis—are mystical, and believe things without proof, God demands we use our senses and our minds. Those flawed rabbis’ views are nowhere to be found in God's Torah. But God equally recognizes human limitation. Therefore a person who was bitten by a lethal animal is not restricted from saying some words that would prevent him from going insane from his fear of death. Similarly, God did not prevent a soldier from taking a gentile wife that he captured in war. The soldiers' victorious state of mind would not tolerate being restricted from her (Rashi). 

And the 3rd case that you cited above is prohibited, namely using a Torah, tefillin or mezuza for physical protection. Maimonides refers to this as heresy, for he says that Torah is to perfect our souls, not to heal our bodies (Law of Star Worship 11:12). The heresy is in rejecting the true purpose of Torah, which is for our souls. But a healthy person can recite Torah verses or do mitzvos with the proper thought that the merit of fulfilling God's commands will earn him God’s reward. This complies with Torah. 

The Prohibition of Adding to Torah

God created man’s personality traits with many qualitative and quantitative variations. Therefore, Torah allows degrees of observance, as in hiddur mitzvah, where one fulfills tefillin, but can buy more beautiful tefillin to express one’s love of that mitzvah and make it more beautiful, although not necessary. One does not add to the mitzvah in this respect. Rashi gives examples of the sin of adding mitzvos to the Torah, like wearing 5 tzitzis, making tefillin with 5 Torah sections, or carrying 5 species on Succos, or adding a 614th command like wearing red on Fridays. Again, tzedaka has a minimum, an average of 10%, but one may give up to 20% if he is so motivated to fulfill the mitzvah best, unless he is extraordinarily wealthy, in which case he may give over 20%. 

 The structure of a mitzvah’s core components must not be changed, but variations in each mitzvah may be tolerated. To alter Torah, one must alter the object of mitzvah or the performance, or change the amount of 613 mitzvos. 

Writing שד-י on the unwritten side of the mezuzah parchment does not alter Torah’s text, and is not obligatory, so it’s not adding to the Torah. Similarly, painting one’s succah does not suggest this to be a command, so there is no addition to Torah’s laws, and is permissible.