Report:
Credible sources [sic] tell YWN that the missing body of 39-year-old Naftoli Smolyansky Z”L, who went missing while on a boating trip in Lake Piru, California has just been found. Naftoli was in a boat on the lake with his 9-year-old son and his two daughters, ages 5 and 7 last Monday afternoon, when his youngest daughter fell overboard. He jumped in to save her, and managed to push his daughter back into the boat, but he R”L went under and did not resurface. Hundreds of people joined the massive [sic] search by air, land, and on the lake - and a few moments ago [sic] was B”H found. The Levaya details will be posted as soon as they are made available to us. Sources told YWN that approximately [sic] 5:00AM on Monday morning, a group of 10 Rabbonim gathered on a boat on the lake, and performed a Segula in the hope of finding the body of Naftali Z”L. Apparently, a flat bread was baked in his Zechus, and the bread was set afloat on the lake with a lit candle on it. Certain Tehillim and other Tefillos were then said until the bread stopped moving. At that precise location a stone was dropped into the water, and shortly later the body rose to the surface!Notes:
1. Readers of Mark Twain know that Huck Finn's neighbors in rural 19th century Missouri were familiar with this segulah. As Huck recalls: ...they always put quicksilver in loaves of bread and float them off, because they always go right to the drownded carcass and stop there. How did Tawin, and the characters upon who his stories are based, come across this holy/choshuv/tremendous Segulah? Were kabalists operating in middle America two centuries ago?
2. The reason this "segulah" often works, comes down to chemistry, not magic: A cadaver sinks as soon as the air in its lungs is replaced with water. Once submerged, the body stays underwater until the bacteria in the gut and chest cavity produce enough gas—methane, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide—to float it to the surface like a balloon. (The buildup of methane, hydrogen sulfide, and other gases can take days or weeks, depending on a number of factors.) If you wait long enough, the body will almost always surface, and if the body appears within a few hours, or days, or even weeks of performing the segulah, charlatans credit the charm instead of the chemistry.
3. YWN's report is part of the problem. By lying about the details, he helps make it seem like something extraordinary occurred. One of YWN's own commenters (#20) was present at the scene, and this is what he saw:
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED! Some very chushuve rabbonim went out to the lake to do this segula, more on the families insistence than anything else. They left the lake at 8AM and marked a spot they thought was the spot where he would be. At 11:30 some divers were on their way to dive in that spot (divers that were asked by our askanim to work on the weekend) when a park ranger spotted the body floating 300 yards away.Note the differences between the two accounts. In YWN's version the body pops up "shortly later" at the "precise location." In the more measured account the body is "spotted" some 300 yards away, more than 3 hours after the segulah was performed.
4. I don't like that YWN is reporting this story with his mouth hanging open in credulous amazement as if peasant witchcraft was an authentic part of normative Judaism. I want to provide an open, public, unassailable refutation. You can help. Provide me with names and phone numbers for any of the segulah-working Rabonim and I will try to get their on-the-record confirmation of YWN's account. Meanwhile, anyone who believes that we are enjoined by the Torah to distance ourselves from lies, should desist from spreading this fairy tale.
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Buy my book. (or I'll hex you with a magic segulah.)
