Ask The Rabbi... 
January 21, 1995 
Issue #52
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    This issue is sponsored in loving memory of Harry M. Iskowitz O.B.M.  
           by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren  
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This edition contains:
1.  Now You See It, & Now You Don't...Prestidigitation in Halacha
2.  Bracha Riddle Answer 
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Aba Kadabra from Orlando asked:

>Dear Rabbi,
>
>I recently hired a magician for my son's birthday party only to be told by 
>a well-meaning friend that it's Halachically forbidden to do Magic.
>
>Is this true?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dear Aba,

First let's separate between two fundamentally different forms of Magic, 
that of the "Occult" and that of the "Birthday Party."  Any conjuring or 
manipulation using occult practices is prohibited by the Torah and subject 
to the death penalty.

Although seemingly innocuous, pure sleight-of-hand is also Biblically 
prohibited.  When listing forbidden practices associated with the seven 
Cannanite nations, the Torah mentions "Me'onen."  Our Sages explain that 
"Me'onen" means "illusions performed by sleight-of-hand" (Achizat Einaim), 
and is codified by the Shulchan Aruch as being prohibited.  The problem 
with sleight-of-hand seems to be that the magician leaves some people with 
the impression that he has supernatural powers.

I asked Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, shlita, about magic tricks, and he 
began by saying that this is not a simple issue, but that there is a way to 
avoid any possible prohibition.  The magician should:

o  Show some people how he does one of his tricks.  These people do not
   have to be the actual participants at the birthday party.  It is just to
   make known publically that the "magic" tricks is sleight-of-hand.
o  Tell each audience that all of the tricks are clever sleight-of-hand.

After following both of the above steps, the magician may perform the magic 
show in the normal way.  I remember the professional magicians Penn & 
Teller did this during their Refrigerator Tour show on Broadway.  They 
demonstrated a "magic box trick" with see-thru boxes so the audience knew 
how the "trick" was done.  However, when David Copperfield "vanished" the 
Statue of Liberty, I don't quite remember him stressing that his trick was 
"clever slight-of-hand," which one must do to make the trick permissible.

Back to your birthday party.  To add more "Yiddishkeit" to the show, the 
entertainer might consider adding another item:  Explain what "Abra 
K'dabra" means.  In fact, it is an Aramaic expression (the language of the 
Talmud, which has its roots in Biblical Hebrew) and means:
"I will create (A'bra) as I speak (k'Dabra)."

Coincidence of coincidences a friend called me up to tell me the following 
joke while I was writing this column:  There was a magician that performed 
on a cruise ship.  However, every time he did one of the shows, the 
captain's parrot would give away the tricks.  As you could imagine, his 
shows weren't doing well.  During one cruise (it should not happen to us) 
the ship hit an iceberg and sunk.  The magician was one of the survivors.  
While he was in the life raft, the parrot landed next to him.  It stared at 
him for several minutes, and finally said:  "OK.  I give up.  Where did you 
put the ship?"

Sources:
o  Shemot - 22:17.
o  Devarim - 18:10.
o  Shulchan Aruch  - Yoreh Deah 179:15.
o  Maimonides - Book of Mitzvot, neg. 32.

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Last week we posed a Bracha Riddle:

"Which four Berachot are said exactly once every year?"

Jeremy L. Rose <jrose@comsys.demon.co.uk> from Communication Systems 
Limited sent us the correct answers: 

1.  Seeing the first blossoms in the spring (OC 226:1, AS 228).
2.  Bedikat chametz (said the night before Passover) (OC 432:1, AS 654).
3.  The special bracha of "Nachem" during the Mincha Amida of Tisha B'Av
    (OC 557:1, AS 240).
4.  Lighting candles on erev Yom Kippur (OC 610:2, AS 296).

OC = Section in Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim
AS = Page # in The Complete ArtScroll Siddur where bracha appears
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