Ha'aretz: Pulsa Dinura Ceremony Fake, Invented By Neturei Karta

Shahar Illan has an article in today's Ha'aretz debunking the Pulsa Dinura ('kabbalistic' death curse) ceremony. It seems that the 'ancient' ritual was made up 50 years ago by a leader of the haredim:

It should be recalled that the Haredi newspaper "Mishpacha" (Family) published three months ago the results of a study that found that there was no kabbalistic basis for the pulsa denura ceremony. It is a ceremony that was invented in the early years of Israel's statehood by one of the then-leaders of the Haredi public, who made an especially dramatic adaptation of the good old excommunication ceremony. Excommunication isn't such a scary matter, but pulsa denura sounds at least as mysterious as a voodoo rite. And all the rest is folklore.

Who was that haredi leader? Rabbi Amram Blau, the leader of the vehemently anti-Zionist fringe group Neturei Karta.

So, the "Pulsa Dinura" ceremony is really a version of a 15th century excommunication rite:

And an article by Dov Schwartz and Moshe Blau, on the origins of the Pulsa deNura ceremony. As my friend Blau explained it to me, the content of the ceremony is the excommunication formula which was published in the Sefer Kolbo (though not in Orhot Hayim. I told him to check the manuscripts of OH, which contain an entire section that was not published). The scary name and mystical trappings were added by his great-uncle, Amram Blau, as a tool in his various political struggles.

(To answer a question posed by Miriam Shaviv, excommunication must take place during the day, preferably at noon, just like any other Beit Din / court procedure.)

(First seen on Bloghead.)

Comments

[rebeljew]

Oh well, another non kabala kabala myth bites the dust. Thank G-d we still have the pigeon cure for hepatitis though. :)

[Miriam]

Gotcha. Thanks.