The JewelWay Craze

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

One of the most devastating MLM pyramid schemes to hit the community during the 1990’s was a company called JewelWay. All one need do was invest $1,000 for which you received some “expensive” jewelry in return. You supposedly would strike it rich by seducing three of your friends to also become distributors for JewelWay. These people you suckered in were called your “down-line.” For each sale they made, you too received a handsome commission in the form of some beautiful jewelry that you choose from their catalogue. When the people under you (your down-line) would get others to join, you would also receive a commission in the form of jewelry. It sounded like a great deal! They had a super group of salesman that made lots of big meetings at which they made a great presentation hyping up the people to join. The JewelWay craze soon spread like wildfire in the Jewish community.  Everybody began to join. Even those that didn’t have any money began borrowing from friends, sure that they would soon be able to repay it from the great riches they would soon make.

When I realized what was happening and that thousands of people were living with “Alice in Wonderland” and were about to lose lots of money, I immediately started warning people to stay away from this big hot air balloon since it would certainly burst and leave thousands devastated and distraught. I soon realized that there were many that refused to listen to reason or logic. I was talking to people who were totally brainwashed by the riches and jewels they dazzled in front of their eyes and that JewelWay was like an obsession or compulsion. Nothing I said seemed to enter their brain. I warned them that their dream couldn’t go on forever and eventually this scheme would topple and collapse as do all such type of pyramid scams and that thousands would lose their investment. Yet, for the most part, my words fell on deaf ears. Once a person was hooked on JewelWay, all my warnings were in vain. Everyone knew better, and I was just considered a killjoy by trying to stop Jews from earning an honest and easy living. An article entitled “Not all that Glitters is Gold” appeared in the Country Yossi magazine warning people to stay away. Those that were still not brainwashed on the idea began to think twice and the Twin Towers of deceit and fraud began to shake. 

I then began getting calls from some of JewelWay’s sales representatives since I was obviously hurting their “business sales.” They sent their top salesmen to visit me and to try to convince me that I was wrong and that I should retract my “foolish” stand. When I refused to back down, I was put on the company’s black list and they sent out a letter to all their salespeople and distributors to totally ignore anything I had to say since I didn’t have the faintest idea what I was talking about and didn’t understand how their great “get rich quick” scam worked. I even began getting all sorts of threats on the telephone warning me that I’d better stop if I knew what was good for me. Some of these people were even stupid enough not to shut their caller ID. When I saw their telephone numbers, I called them back and told them that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

It didn’t take long and soon the inevitable happened. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) seemed to get wind of what was happening and closed them down as an illegal pyramid scheme. Thousands of people lost their money. Some people who already had some jewelry soon realized that it wasn’t worth anything close to what they had made it out to be. The jewelry probably was worth less than $50.

I tell this story not to say “I told you so” but only because this is certainly not the end of the story since every few years another one of these MLM schemes opens up under another name and with a different twist entrapping thousands of the unwary into their net. They are like a snake that sheds its skin every year, taking on a new look The first thing they will tell you is that we are not a pyramid scheme and that they’re perfectly legal. Recent bankruptcies such as Enron and others should get people to realize that “What they say is not always what you get.” There is no hidden treasure at the end of a rainbow! If it sounds too good to be true then better beware! You’re probably being sold a barrel full of smelly old fish and not oil!

Before Investing in an MLM

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

While there are some MLM’s that are an outright pyramid scheme and illegal, there are many others like Amway that have been ruled legal by US courts yet that does not mean that they are a good business to go into. One of the big problems with many of these MLM’s is that they easily mislead people into believing that they are an easy way to riches. Before going into Amway or any other MLM, I would very strongly suggest that one read two very important books that will open your eyes on this subject. One is entitled “Behind the Smoke and Mirrors” by Ruth Carter who had made it to the very top of Amway before she realized her mistake and the other is “False Profits” by Robert L. FitzPatrick. Ruth Carter reveals the multi-level deception, delusion and guile she found in the Amway distributor business. According to the SA4400 (a document which Amway distributors are required by the FTC to give to prospective recruits) the average monthly gross income for active distributors was $88 in January of 1998. This was of course before expenses.

I still remember when Amway started in 1959 and many of my friends joined in hope that they’d soon make it rich and retire. It didn’t take them long to realize that there was no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and they all soon dropped out for one reason or another. Before one goes into any business, one must do careful research to find out the pros and cons. This is something that should be discussed with a good accountant and lawyer. The last person to ask is of course the person trying to get you into the business since he may very well have a personal interest in the matter.

The thing we must learn from the terrible Enron fiasco is that it’s very easy to make all kind of claims about a company’s great success and earnings yet it may all turn out to be a big balloon filled with lots of hot air. Since Quixtar is a “sister” business to Amway it certainly would be proper to learn a little about Amway before going into Quixtar.

Multi Level Marketing; Its Moral and Ethical Applications

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

ABC (not the real name) is the name of a company that sells energy such as gas, electricity, oil and many other commodities. All one needs to do is pay an initial $1,000 membership fee and one becomes an “official agent” for the company, and earns commission on all his sales. To really make lots of money, one is encouraged to get other agents called legs. Then you also make a commission on the sales that they make. And when they get legs that also make sales, you make additional commissions. As you build up the people beneath you (called your downline), your commissions can add up to big money.

This structure is commonly known as Multi Level Marketing, or MLM. As long as the main emphasis is on selling a product (such as gas or oil), the courts have declared it perfectly legal. And so, companies like Amway and many others continue to operate despite the many lawsuits that have been brought against them for misrepresentation of earnings. Amway has now closed its doors. While this method of sales sounds like a simple and legal way to become rich, it has one major flaw: Market saturation.

No product can have a limitless amount of salespeople. A simple calculation will show you that if each person just gets two legs under him, then within less then thirty generations one will run out of people in the world to sell it to. Everyone will be a salesman for the very same product. Obviously those at the bottom who paid $1,000 to become distributors will have no one to sell it to and will lose their $1,000 investment.

All MLM companies will of course deny that there is a saturation point. They will try to convince you that the world is so large that there are always new people being born and therefore it will go on endlessly. They will also tell you not to worry about what will happen 50 years down the line. In the meantime everyone is making lots of money so who cares what happens in many years to come. Does it make sense to say that a market can never become over saturated if distributors can be endlessly added to the network?

Anyone that has followed the workings of MLM’s knows that these schemes, no matter how good they may sound, just don’t work forever. We are informed that 99% of MLM companies themselves “spike and disappear in eight months.”(See False Profits page 181.) Pyramid schemes are structured to inevitably fail. They take money from those at the bottom and feed it to those at the top. The initial success of such a business is an illusion (See False Profits page 8). Early entrants make their money from the loss of later enrollees.

Most people who started with Amway left in disillusionment when they realized that they were not making the huge profits they were promised. The average Amway distributor earns a gross profit of around $780 a year. (F.P. page 152) (See the many books on the subject written by former Amway distributors, such as Behind the Smoke and Mirrors, by Ruth Carter. Another excellent book that should be required reading is False Profits by Robert Fitzpatrick and Joyce Reynolds,-1-888-334-2047 Herald Press.)

The FTC allowed them to stay in business because the initial investment to become an agent is only about $50, not very much at all. When the initial investment is a $1,000 or more, it becomes a different story. Anyone who wants to make commissions selling gas or oil can call up any oil company and they will gladly accept him as an agent and give him a commission if he can bring in as few as 5 or 10 accounts. Some companies will even pay to train you if they think you can be a good sales rep. So why pay anyone $1,000 to become an agent?

Another question we should be asking is, if everyone is making money and getting rich, where is all the money coming from? The answer is that it will be coming from the many people that are left hanging at the end of the chain and now have no one to sell to, and therefore will lose their $1,000 initial investment. It can be mathematically proven that 70% of the investors will eventually lose their money when the MLM collapses.

Understanding Multi Level Marketing

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

Nearly all products are sold in a multi level type fashion. The producer or manufacturer first sells it to a wholesaler who then sells it to a distributor who then sells it to a store who then sells it to the ultimate consumer. These various different levels are referred to as Multi Levels and this is the normal way of doing business. The more levels there are between the producer or manufacture and the consumer, the more the product will ultimately cost since everyone wants to make a little profit. When it reaches the point that there are enough people or stores selling the same product, we will then have reached what is called the “saturation point.” After all, we can only have a limited amount of fruit stores, groceries and hardware stores in one particular neighborhood. Open up too many stores of one kind and soon some of them will be forced to close up for lack of enough customers.

Any Multi Level business that is built in a way that just keeps adding an endless amount of distributors will soon reach the saturation point and will not be able to continue on any longer. So far everything is fine and dandy and we have no problem with this type of arrangement. The problem arises when one must pay a fee in order to become a distributor.  Let’s say that one pays $1,000 to become a distributor for a Carvel Ice Cream shop and then is left with no one to whom to sell the product because there are already two Carvel shops on the block. Obviously there can only be a certain amount of distributors of the same product in one neighborhood. When you reach the saturation point then some of the shops will have to close down for the lack of business.

Yet some businesses are set up in a way were everyone and anyone becomes a salesman for the same idem. If one has to pay a fee in order to sell this idem then eventually people will be paying a fee but will not have anyone to whom to sell the product. This type of MLM is called a pyramid and will eventually fail with all the last investors losing all their money.

Take the person who pays $1000 to become a distributor of jewels. Instead of actually selling any jewelry he decides to sell his distribution rights to ten others for $1,000 each making $9,000 in the process. Each one of these 10 people does the very same thing each making $9000 in the process. It sounds like a great business with lots of people making lots of money. Yet, a little math will show you that it can’t last too long. In less than 10 levels everyone in the world will have become a distributor and there is no one left to sell it to. It’s quite obvious that all those millions of people at the bottom of the pyramid that paid $1,000 to become distributors will of course have lost their money. This is why this type of MLM (Multi Level Marketing) scheme is sometimes referred to as a pyramid scheme and is illegal.

Depending on how they are structured, they may even be legal but not always moral or ethical. Making false claims about a product is strictly forbidden. This of course applies to any business.

Most MLM’s do actually sell a product and encourage you to get others beneath you to also sell the product as well. Those beneath you are called your “downline.” They convince you that the more people you get beneath you to sell the product, the more money you will make. This may work for a little time but can’t go on for long. You may also find out that you don’t make the big money they claim for the time one must put in. That’s because there are already too many distributors for that particular product or there may be many cheaper options available to the consumer.

Most MLM’s deny that their business is a pyramid scheme even when they are. Time has proven that they all come to a quick end and that most of the investors except for the first few at the beginning ultimately lose their initial investment.  Most people soon quit when they realize they are not earning enough money to make it worth their while. Lots of these companies make their money by selling you their sales promotion tapes and kits and inviting you to their many sales meetings where they hype you up by telling you how much money others are making by selling the product. Most of what they tell you is just a balloon filled with lots of hot air! I recommend you read “Behindthe Smoke and Mirrors” by Ruth Carter who reveals the multi-level delusion and guile in the Amway business. One must also read “False Profits” by Robert L. FritzPatrick

If It Sounds Too Good Too be True, Then You’d Better Watch Out!

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

From time to time I get calls from friends asking for my opinion about certain business deals or ventures that they would like to get into. My answer is usually the same. I know little about business and they should rather seek the advice of a good lawyer and accountant. Yet there is one piece of advice that I do give them. If it sounds too good to be true then it’s probably a swindle. This one piece of advice is worth its weight in gold and will usually keep people from falling into Ponzi scams, MLM pyramid schemes and other crooked deals. If you will resist the promises of that pot of gold at the rainbow’s end, than perhaps you’ll shield yourself from the advances of most con artists. The only thing you may find at the end of a rainbow is a pot of worms.

How sad that every few months one hears another hair raising story of scam artists conning even some very clever people out of hundreds or even millions of dollars. These con artists have no shame or guilt feelings and will take even the last dollar from those that can least afford it, leaving even the widow, the sick or the destitute, penniless.  Unfortunately, desperate people are ready-made marks for the con artist. I have often witnessed firsthand the tremendous devastation and human suffering caused by these scam artists.  They don’t think twice about promising their victims the world and giving them only heartaches in return.

Its time we realize that there is no such thing as easy money and for every person that wins the lottery there are millions that lose. While buying a few lottery tickets is just a small gamble, investing thousands of dollars in a business that offers pie in the sky returns can be devastating.

Here is a story that should confirm to you just how much larceny is out there kicking around in the hearts of investment advisors. This is a true story taken from a book titled "The Definitive Guide To Futures Trading," by Larry Williams. In the mid-1970's, a registered investment advisor I personally know sent out a market letter to 5,000 people telling them to buy soybeans. To another 5,000 people, the same investment advisor sent out a letter telling them to sell soybeans. I can't recall the exact details, but let's say soybeans went up. He, of course, did not send out any more solicitations to the people whom he told soybeans would go down, but he did divide the 5,000 names in half and sent two more letters. One letter said now it was time to buy pork bellies: the other letter said it was time to sell pork bellies. pork bellies went down. He then had 2,500 people who had seen him right on soybeans and right on pork bellies, so he sent out 1,250 letters to half of that group telling them that his next trade was silver. Buy it, it was going higher. To the other 1,250 people he sent out a market letter telling them it was time to sell Silver. Silver went up. To 1,250 people, our investment advisor looked like a hero, he had three major trades in a row correct. Now came the sales pitch. To those 1,250 people he offered a special subscription to his yearly market letter for only $500, which was an absolute pittance compared to the profits one would have made if he had taken the advice of the investment advisor on the last three trades

Some  scams are called "Ponzi schemes," named after Charles  Ponzi who (in 1919) cheated people by taking their  money and investing  it  into non-existing ventures, or simply gambled other people's money away. He established good credit by returning lots of money to the first few investors thereby making others believe that he could be trusted and was good for his money. Little did they realize that this money was coming from the new investors he was now defrauding, and that the business ventures were pie in the sky!

The problem is that as soon as one Ponzi scam topples, a new one is there to take its place. The chance of recovering one's money is about as likely as discovering an oil well in your back yard. Other clever schemes are known as MLM's (Multi Level Marketing, like Jewel-Way, Winners Circle, Purchase Plus etc.) that promise you the moon, but only deliver heartaches.

Be especially wary of the stranger that suddenly befriends you and soon follows up asking for a loan which he then repays on time. Once he has your confidence, he'll bamboozle you for big bucks for which he'll give you a genuine rubber check in exchange.

While our schools teach us to be book smart, they rarely teach the street smarts. It’s shocking to see how trusting and naive some people can be. Last year an ad appeared in a paper offering  a return of 3,000% interest on ones money-a practical impossibility. Yet  I was appalled when I later found out that many people  had actually invested in this plan which of course  has now  gone bankrupt.

One of the ways to entice people is to pay the first few investors lots of money. As soon as word gets out that some people are making a fortune all the mice start running to the trap to get onto the deal. In every Ponzi scheme, the money from the new investors goes to pay the old investors. This scheme work so long as new suckers keep putting in more money. As soon as they run out of more investors the entire scheme comes crashing down like a bunch of dominoes lined up one against the other.

 It seems that these scam artists appeal to peoples hearts rather than their brains. When hard economic times set in, people look for something easy that will make them rich quick. It’s the unemployed and the poor that are most vulnerable. As the need and greed for money grows, the con artists are having a picnic. It’s time people take off their green tinted glasses and stop being blinded by the quick and easy money scams? Always remember! Not all that glitters is gold!

One mistake people make is to believe that they are too smart to be conned. Little do they realize that you don’t have to be old, greedy, needy or stupid to be taken to the cleaners.  A smooth talker with an honest face and charming demeanor can take even the very clever for a ride. Remember! A good con artist never looks like a con artist. A good con artist is like a chameleon and can easily camouflage his real intent. He uses his charm, earnestness, guile and seeming innocence, to gain ones confidence and then cheats them out of all they’ve got. Some of these swindlers pull off such perfect con jobs that their victims don’t even realize that they have been scammed. I do hope that these essays will prepare you for the real world out there.

Beware of Bogus Scientific Claims

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

Unfortunately, spotting voodoo science, especially in regards to medicine, is a skill that the average person doesn’t posses. People can easily be bamboozled by technological gibberish that may sound very persuasive or by hi-tech claims that can sound very convincing. Many will even provide you with supporting evidence and testimonials that are no better than Arafat’s promises of peace. One has to learn to differentiate between scientific theory and fact – between science and pseudo science.

In 1989, two chemists from the University of Utah claimed that they had discovered cold fusion – a way to produce nuclear fusion very simply yet it turned out to be sheer nonsense. Beware of  health food claims that promise miraculous cures or long life. A number of years ago a health food company advertised a dietary supplement called Vitamin O which turned out to be ordinary water. People spend lots on money buying bottled water in the belief that their sink water is contaminated or unhealthy. Vitamin companies spend millions of dollars in advertisements convincing people of their great importance and necessity. They claim that stress “robs” the body of vitamins and creates vitamin deficiencies even though there is no scientific evidence to support their claims. The myth that some people possess miraculous remedies that modern science cannot understand or is unwilling to accept is sheer nonsense. Don’t be fooled by those who will sell you all sorts of magnetic, electronic, or mechanical devices that they claim can relive pain or cure the incurable. Medical claims must be proven through randomized double-blind tests before they can be accepted. Alternative medicine must be properly proven before given any credence.

Understandably, the news of the recent SARS virus is enough to make anyone nervous and this brings the scam artists out of the woodwork. According to the FTC, bogus operators have started to sell products guaranteed to prevent, treat, or cure this disease. They range from various pills to $150 air filtration systems to droplets of medications and ointments like “colloidal silver generator” that sell for as much as $99. Government officials warn that consumers should exercise a healthy amount of skepticism before buying any products from today’s snake oil salesmen.

Scam artists have taken advantage of the dangers attributed to cell phone radiation in order to sell us all sorts of “shields” that supposedly eliminate exposure to the dangerous radiation they emit, yet according to the FTC, these devices are absolutely worthless and are no different than an antigravity or perpetual motion machine.

It’s desperation and wishful thinking that distorts all reason and common sense. Health quacks are usually super salesmen often confusing people with double-talk and other gibberish. Just because some prominent person or scientist endorses a product does not mean that it will work as advertised. Legitimate products don’t need endorsements, and few honest scientists are willing to provide them. Don’t assume that just because a product is endorsed by a prominent athlete, that product will turn you into a champion or improve your athletic performance. The United Sciences of America is a multilevel marketing company selling various vitamins and health products. It claims that their products protect against many diseases and were endorsed by a prominent 15-member scientific advisory board that includes two Nobel prize winners. Yet, they were later discovered to be fraudulent endorsements. Testimonials are usually the cornerstone of a quack’s success. Don’t fall for them no matter how great they may sound!

About Homeopathy

About Homeopathy

This article appeared in the June 2001 edition of the Skeptic

All the idiocy that fits we print

Of all the things called "alternative medicine" one of the most ridiculous is homeopathy. It was invented in the late 18th century by Samuel Hahnemann. It had no less success than the conventional medicine of the time and probably saved the lives of many people, simply on the basis that people get better from many illnesses without any intervention, so doing nothing (which is essentially what homeopathy is) could often produce better outcomes than bleeding, purging, cauterization and amputation. The difference is that medicine has moved on and no longer does those things.

Homeopathy still relies on the principles set out at its invention. One of these principles is the Law of Similarities, which says that something which produces symptoms in large doses will be useful to treat diseases that have those symptoms. To determine what can be used for what, various things are subject to "proving" where they are administered in increasing doses until a reaction is observed. This reaction is then recorded, and when a patient presents with the same signs the homeopath can use a preparation of the cure to fix things. Presumably cyanide would provide a useful treatment for death.

To avoid the obvious problem, a second principle is invoked: the Law of Infinitesimals. This states that the more dilute a substance is, the better it will work against the "proved" symptoms. There are two sorts of dilution in common use - X and C. To make an X dilution, you take one tenth of the sample and mix it with nine parts of diluent. To make a 10X preparation, the dilution process is carried out ten times, each time taking one tenth of the mixture and diluting it. At each stage, the mixture is "succussed", which means hit in a certain fashion. Sometimes succussion requires the container to be tapped against a particular object, such as a leather-bound book. Preparations can be made at 6X, 10X etc. More powerful preparations can be made using the C method, where the dilution is one in a hundred each time. I have heard of M preparations where the factor is one thousand, but I assume these could only be handled by very experienced laboratories.
The folly of traditional homeopathy can be illustrated to even the simplest of minds, a fact that does not seem to deter those with "minds" coming in under the "simplest" score. As an example, someone suggested to me recently that a daily dose of 5 grams of some calcium salt could be taken in 6X homeopathic form to treat some condition or other. A simple calculation showed that this would require the patient to consume 49,995.995 kilograms of lactose per day to get the recommended dose of calcium. This weight of tablets will not fit into the back of your average semi-trailer, and would therefore require at least two truckloads of pills per day. Every day. (The same person had said that 30X preparations were so powerful that they should only be taken when under the care of a fully-qualified homeopath. To get 5 grams out of a 30X preparation, the daily weight of tablets would be just under the mass of the Earth. Every day.)

Faced with situations like this where the choice was either to eat the weight of forty small cars per day, drink a volume of liquid equivalent to one and a half petrol tankers or to take a manageable quantity of medicine that could not possibly contain any measurable amount of medication, the homeopaths have sought desperately for a resolution of the dilemma.

What they came up with was the memory of water. I assume lactose has a similar memory, but nobody seems to be talking about it. The memory of water voodoo says that water remembers things that it has been in contact with even after all traces of the substance have been removed. Strangely, however, it doesn't remember the bottles or bladders it has been stored in, or the chemicals that may have come into contact with its molecules, or the other contents of the sewers it may have been in at one time, or the cosmic radiation which has blasted through it. It just remembers the one thing that the "researcher" wants it to remember.

Then they tell us they can transmit this memory by email, but that's a story for another time
Water has a whole lot of special chemical and physical properties that nothing else seems to have. The molecules in liquid water keep grouping and ungrouping, combining and recombining into tiny crystals and patterns. This has a lot to do with the way life looks on earth and why water is essential for life. It also has a lot to do with why water is an almost universal solvent. What it hasn't anything to do with is the idiocy of homeopathy.

Homeopaths have adopted this "memory of water" nonsense in an attempt to recover from the disaster that arises whenever anyone who can think thinks about the ramifications of continuous dilution. In order to explain how something can continue to act even after all of its molecules have disappeared, it was necessary to invent the concept of "memory of water". Despite there being severe logical, philosophical and scientific reasons why any "memory of water" is a vacuous idea, and despite the fact that nobody has even come up with any even remotely feasible way of testing the concept, the homeopaths have simply willed it into existence. They then refer back to the weird way water molecules react with each other to say "see, some of these temporary structures could code for molecules that they have seen before".

The real problem for them is that, even if "memory of water" was both possible and proven, it would not make homeopathy any less ridiculous. You see, homeopaths go further by claiming that they can selectively control what it is that water remembers. We have the situation where they are claiming to do the impossible while working with something that does not even exist in the first place.

Let's look at making a typical homeopathic remedy. I have randomly chosen a treatment for cholera, which simply consists of a 30X preparation of human excrement. I won't bore you with the procedure because it just consists of successive dilutions and succussions. It's the final product I'm interested in.

How does the preparer ensure that only the excrement is remembered and nothing else? Remember how I mentioned that water is an almost universal solvent? How was the preparation controlled to eliminate the possibility that the water remembered any of the non-excremental molecules that it might have come in contact with? For example, if it had instead remembered the molecules in the glass preparation vessel, we might have ended up with a treatment for silicosis. What if the preparer had breathed out through her mouth and the air above the preparation vessel had become contaminated by mercury vapour coming off her fillings. Some of this could have become dissolved in the water and then we might have come up with a treatment for _____ (fill in whatever mercury in fillings is causing this week). If she smoked, we might get a cure for lung cancer. If some of the nitrogen in the lab air had got into the water, a cure for the bends might have resulted, and a tiny fragment of asbestos blown in from a nearby demolition site might have been remembered and a treatment for mesothelioma been produced. None of these would be of any use to the poor person sitting outside waiting for a cure for diarrhoea (well, sometimes sitting, sometimes hurrying to sit elsewhere).
If it were to be proved conclusively tomorrow that water can retain molecular structures related to other molecules that had been near the water ones, homeopathy would still be a stinking crock. Diluting it by a factor of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 would not make it more powerful or make it smell less.

 

Don’t get Ripped Off!

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

We try to teach our students all the skills they will need to be successful in the business world, yet, the one skill they will need the most is often neglected and barely taught. We must not only teach our students the skills necessary to make money but we must also teach them how to hold on to their money and not lose it to the many skilled con artists and other dangerous traps lurking out there. Enclosed is a collection of essays that will give you some very important basics that you may need in order to protect themselves from the many charlatans, swindlers and con artists that walk the streets in search of the unwary and unsuspecting.

It’s not easy to make an honest living nowadays, yet it’s very easy for a clever con artist to quickly relieve us of all our hard earned money no matter how well we did on our math test and no matter how clever we may think we are. I’ve seen even the very clever well-seasoned businessman suckered in by their many fraudulent, deceitful, and deceptive tricks of a good and polished con artist. Every few years there is another well executed Ponzi scheme that makes its way through our community with devastating fury, leaving people impoverished and destitute. It’s extremely important that we learn the “Street smarts” so that we are able to survive in this jungle of dishonesty in which we live. Unless we learn to recognize the signs of a scam, there is a very good chance that we will be taken by one of them. Each year there are thousands of people taken for a ride and fleeced of their lifesavings by those clever sweet talkers and rip-off artists that are out to sell us the Brooklyn Bridge or perhaps even the Twin Towers.

The most dangerous weapon and tool these scam artists possess are their well-sharpened guile and cunning tongue. Someone with a good mouthpiece can easily convince you that there is a treasure chest of glittering diamonds at the end of a rainbow or get you to invest in stocks of cheese made on the moon. They have the amazing power of persuasion and can easily convince you to invest your money in their numerous clever schemes that they seem to dream up on a perpetual basis. The greater the deal sounds, the more slippery the slope and the deeper the pit into which you may fall.

Over the years, I’ve attended some of their meetings and was entranced by their fascinating sales pitches and have seen first-hand how easily they can lure the unwary into their net. When I saw the horrid damage they caused, I tried my best to expose these charlatans so that people learn to avoid them like the plague. In the process, I’ve had to fight with the publishers of some of the newspapers that unfortunately accepted their fraudulent advertisements. Yet, in the end, their schemes collapsed as their companies all declared bankruptcy or were closed by the Federal Trade Commission for fraud. It was only then that they stood exposed for all to see, but that was only after many people lost lots of money. Unless we learn to recognize the signs of a Ponzi scheme, a fraudulent MLM deal or a Bait and Switch salesman, or the many other clever fraudulent business deals trying to entice us with their promises of a great buy or quick riches, we too can easily get caught in their net.

One is not permitted to watch his brother drown without coming to his aid. We must do everything possible to stop these thieves from operating in our midst. They come disguised in a variety of uniforms. Some will masquerade as charity collectors, or as holy kabbalists, lawyers, doctors, and even policeman. They’ll don any hat that will offer them legitimacy. We must keep a constant watchful eye out for them and be on the alert at all times.

There are many good books that have been written on this subject and I would highly recommend that we read them.

Putting the Scam Artists Out Of Business

While these scams will never end, if this book can stop even one of them, it’ll be well worth it. I've put some of my articles together so that others can learn from these experiences. Past experience has proven that lots of people are unfamiliar in these matters and have therefore given incorrect advise to others. I do hope these articles will help enlighten the subject and prevent people from falling into the hands of the many charlatans waiting to pounce upon the gullible and uninformed.

The Most Powerful Thirst Quencher on Earth

The Most Powerful Thirst Quencher on Earth

Pure Delicious Unadulterated H2O

From the fresh water springs of Kalamazoo

*Contains absolutely no caffeine, lead, or other additives.*Will prevent dehydration if taken daily.*Guaranteed to freeze at exactly 32 degrees Fahrenheit.*Contains absolutely no vitamins or minerals of any sort.*Contains 0 calories *Can safely be taken by Diabetics or those suffering from heart disease or any other ailment.*Has been tested on fish and found to sustain their life for many years.*Easily dissolves in human cells and tissues.*Proven over thousands of years, to contain vital life sustaining properties.*Recommended by leading doctors and psychiatrists.*Will not leave any stain if spilled on tablecloth, carpet, or clothing.*Good for netilas yodayim, mayim achronim and mayim shelonu.*Can be added to wine or vodka to lessen its dangers.*Can be used on Pesach if not mixed with any chometz product.*Keep a few extra bottles available in case of fire!*Endorsed kosher by the Hisachdus Ha’letzonim.*Only $10 per bottle while supplies lasts!*Remember to always keep a liberal supply handy especially when traveling through a desert.*For maximum pleasure, always keep refrigerated and mix with your favorite drink but don’t drive. Warning! Do not drink on Yom Kippure or other fast days!

Special discount for all drunks and the gullible! Endorsed by Country Yossi, the OU, and the FTC. Fully tested by Me’shu’shelach and guaranteed to live to a ripe old age if taken on a daily basis for 120 years. Money back guarantee if not fully satisfied.

Bottled and distributed by Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum. US Patent pending #74363Z67ZZXY243.

Warning! Always keep bottle tightly closed to prevent the spread of the West Nile Virus and other contaminants from entering!

A Fool Remains A Fool

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

I just couldn't help laughing to myself as I noticed the latest swindle advertised in a local paper. “Invest only $5,000 and collect $50,000 in only 10 years,” read the large full-page ad in big bold letters. At first I wondered as to how many fish would bite the worm hanging at the end of the hook? But when the ad kept being repeated week after week, I concluded that the bait must have been catching lots of big rich and gullible fish. These types of investment schemes come packaged in many different wrappers and in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they are advertised as “Wedding Plans” and other times as “Insurance Plans,” all “bank guaranteed” of course.  Yet their end result is identical.

The fisherman has ten years to use your money in any way he wishes before disappearing into some remote cave in Afghanistan. The greed and need for some easy money seems to dull our senses to the point that we lose our ability to think rationally. Even smart people believe there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The recent Enron scandal, the largest bankruptcy in US history, as well as the many other big time bankruptcies in recent years should serve as a warning as to how far this corruption has gone. Even when companies see that their end is near, they continue to abuse the public’s trust and siphon off the money from their own employees.

Just recently, state securities regulators issued a warning that nationwide scams promoting low risk and high yield so-called “prime bank” investments are on a dramatic rise. More than $450 million has been scammed from at least 41,000 investors in the past three years. “People want to believe there are secret ways to make fabulous amounts of money,” said NASAA President Joseph Borg.

Foreign bank guarantees are extremely dangerous and should be avoided. The promise of big money is a key tip-off that it is all a scam. One promoter shut down by federal authorities, Castlerock Investment Group, lured investors by promising that a $5,000 investment would produce $1 million in just 55 months. Always check if the seller and the investment are licensed in your state. You can call a securities regulator to find out. Any claim that doesn’t sound realistic is certainly a fraud! There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, only disappointment, heartache and a large can of worms.

When a person once advertised that “for a fee of only $100,000 he would teach a dog to talk within ten years,” a friend asked him how he could make such a preposterous and ridiculous claim? “Why worry about it now,“ was his reply. “In ten years many things can happen. Either the dog will die, or its owner will die or perhaps by then I won’t be around to worry about it. In the meantime, at least I’m making a good living.”

When the city of Chelm was once in bad financial straights, someone decided that he would sell his neighbor a case of fish for $10. His friend in turn sold it to his neighbor for $20. And so the case of fish kept on being resold to all the people of the entire city with each person making a handsome ten-dollar profit on the deal. When the last person in town decided to open up the case of fish he was horrified to find that it gave off a terrible smell and it couldn't be eaten. When he complained to Chelm’s Chief Justice that he had been sold a worthless case of fish, the Chief Justice replied,   “If all the people of Chelm were able to make a good profit, so what’s the big deal if just one person loses some money?!"

A Fool Believes All

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

The above phrase taken from the book of Proverbs authored by  the wise King Solomon, came to mind as I was reading an article in a magazine about “The Mysterious Powers of Orin Zarif” which claimed that he could drive a car while blindfolded, read peoples minds and all other such psychic nonsense. While I thought the article quite amusing and entertaining, I felt it should have appeared in the comedy section. I was shocked when I discovered later, that some readers actually believed that his claims were true! Are people actually so gullible as to believe it’s possible to bend spoons, blow out light bulbs, change the time of a watch, cure cancer or drive a motorcycle blindfolded just thinking and wanting it to happen? Don’t people realize that good magicians have performed far greater and more incredible feats? They’ve cut bodies apart and put them back together again, had themselves handcuffed and kept underwater for many hours, and disappeared in front of the amazed eyes of thousands of spectators, yet everyone in the audience knew that even the best of magic tricks were nothing but clever illusions.

Harry Houdini, one of the greatest magicians of all time, was always very careful to tell the world that every one of his amazing feats was nothing but a very clever trick and that no person in the world possessed any supernatural psychic abilities. Can one just imagine if he had told the world that his entire master escapes were done through some mystical means which he learned from his grandfather? Had he not revealed the true nature of his tricks, I bet that to this very day there would be thousands of people who would be convinced that he had the ability to change nature. Many people have a great capacity to believe in anything that seems to be related to mysticism, and no amount of convincing can change their opinion. Fortunately  Houdini did nothing of the sort, and his brilliant feats are explained in many books on the subject.

Orin Zarif let the cat out of the bag when he admitted that he was a big fan of Uri Geller. Those from the older generation (the 70’s) surely remember this Israeli con-artist who claimed to possess psychic powers and could bend metal spoons and keys just by willing it to happen. He gained worldwide fame and was featured on many television programs, and in newspaper and magazine articles. His powers were even confirmed by a prestigious research institute, whose scientists tested his psychic abilities and found them to be true. An article even appeared in the magazine Nature confirming his psychic abilities.

He would still be around today and making millions, if not for one very clever magician named James Randi who exposed Geller’s entire bag of tricks and showed that he used very clever deception. The driving while being blindfolded, by the way, is an old magic trick that doesn’t take much to figure out. And while a good magician could fool a group of scientists, he couldn't fool another clever magician. And so when Uri Geller once appeared on the Johnny Carson show, James Randi tipped them off as to what to look for, and that night Geller lost his psychic abilities. Nothing seemed to work right. He blamed his failure on the negative vibes that filled the air and explained to the audience that there were moments in time that his psychic abilities seemed to leave him for some strange reason. Little did the audience realize the true reason for his problem. And so, despite his failure, people continued to believe that he actually possessed special psychic abilities, even though all he possessed was the art of deception.

When James Randi later published a book entitled “The Truth About Uri Geller” in which he exposed him for the fraud he was, Geller immediately sued him for ruining his reputation. In court, Randi performed all of Geller’s bending tricks exposing his methods as well. He won the case and Geller had to pay him for all the court fees. After Geller was shown to be a fraud his name soon disappeared from the headlines. Today’s younger generation never even heard of him. Randi explained that had Geller admitted that he was simply a magician, he would not have exposed him. It’s when one claims to be a psychic that he becomes dangerous since sick people may actually believe his nonsensical claims.

Geller was not the only fraud that Randi exposed. Another con artist that he unmasked was a very famous evangelist by the name of Peter Popoff, who claimed that “god” communicates with him and gives him special powers to heal the sick. Popoff appeared on radio and television shows around the country making millions from his thousands of admirers who all personally witnessed his “cures”. They swore that he was the real thing, as he seemed able to know their names and what was ailing them, as well as other personal information.  He would seemingly cure people of cancer and other diseases in front of cheering crowds of thousands, who fell for his nonsense. His career came to an end when Randi exposed him on the “Tonight Show” as a master scam artist. He proved that Popoff had a tiny hearing aid in his left ear, connected to a high-frequency receiver, used by his informers to give him the needed information, and that all his healing powers were a fraud. People would fill out special healing cards before they entered the show and his wife would secretly broadcast the information to him. The audience was amazed at how they had been so cleverly fooled and that spelled the end of Popoff’s career. If not for Randi, he’d still be around today and many naive Jews would probably believe that he possessed the secret powers of tum’ah, with which he was able to perform his miraculous cures.

This would not have been the first time in history that the priests and evangelists have used their trickery to deceive their worshipers. The Talmud in Mesechta Sanhedrin tells us that Yerovom ben Nevot used a magnet to suspend the idol he had set up in Dan to give it the appearance of possessing mystical powers.

James Randi set up an educational foundation that offers $1,000,000 to anyone who can demonstrate any paranormal feat under the proper observing conditions. Many have tried for the prize money, but so far all have failed. Since the money is still unclaimed, I challenge Orin Zarif to prove his claims, if only to show the world that he’s not another fraud. If he doesn’t need the money, then I’m sure there are many good causes he can give it to. Until that moment, let’s all remember King Solomon’s dictum “A fool believes all!”

P.S. Those who are curious to learn how these tricks work can order Randi’s book by calling 1-954-467-1112. Since I’ve already exposed some of the clever tricks used by these con artists in another section of this book, there is no need to repeat myself here.

Facilitation, Miracle or Mirage?

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

A recent book and an article in Country Yossie all about autistic kids speaking their minds and giving all sorts of interesting advice and opinions got me all excited. Was it real? Could such kids  actually see hidden things and communicate them to us with a discovery called “Facillated Communication,” or FC for short, or was it all just a fake and sleight of hand? I hoped and wanted to believe it was really true, so I decided to do some research on the subject and share it with the readers of CY.

As always, one of the reasons that CY is so popular is that it is not afraid of controversy . It publishes articles and opinions that no other publication would dare accept. Readers must be warned to be very careful and never accept anyone’s opinion, including mine, until they check it out for themselves. Just remember, “A fool believes all”. Always be open-minded and try to do as much research on the subject as possible before drawing any conclusions. Make sure to read both sides carefully and don’t believe anyone, even if his name is Einstein. Many great people have made mistakes, and those who believe they are infallible are simply not looking into the mirror. Not  all mistakes are bad. Just look at what happened when Columbus  made a mistake. He discovered America!

How FC works.

FC is a very interesting phenomenon to observe.  Individuals of severely low function,  such as autistic children, are assisted in spelling words by specially trained teachers or parents  who are called “facilitators.” They provide the physical support the child needs in order to point to the letters on a printed display or a keyboard. The facilitator holds their hand, wrist or forearm, as the child points to the letters in front of him. A child who does not appear to know the difference between a cat or an elephant can seemingly identify them correctly by picking out the correct letters. When one watches it, it looks quite impressive and convincing. The things the child conveys can really blow your mind. Can it really be that these children are very perceptive and reveal lots of secrets, if only they are given the opportunity? Some say yes, while others cry foul!

Who discovered it?

It all began in the 1970’s with a women named Rosemary Crossley, a teacher in an institution in Melbourne, Australia. She became convinced that when she held the hands of her students who had  severe cerebral palsy, they could communicate their inner thoughts to her. She called her technique Facilitated Communication, and began to teach it to others. It soon caught on, but also started a great controversy in the scientific world that goes on until today. Some say that it is impossible and it is really the facilitator who is subconsciously moving the child’s hand,  while others firmly believe that the child is moving his hand all on his own. Over the years, many scientific studies have been made, with most of them disproving FC.

How can one prove or disprove it?

The best way to prove or disprove it is to have the facilitator ask the child a question for which the facilitator  does not know the answer, and see if the child will get it right. Let’s assume that the facilitator does not know the names of the child’s brothers or sisters or other such information.  Will the child get the answer right even though the facilitator does not know the answer? If the child can answer the question even in cases where the facilitator does not know the answer, then facilitating must be real. All experiments have so far shown that when the facilitator did not know the answer, neither did the child!

Another very clever experiment that has been tried was to put the facilitator right next to the child but block the facilitator from seeing the picture that is being shown to the child and in fact show the facilitator a different picture than the child is seeing. If the child will spell out the words that he sees, and not what the facilitator sees, then it will be proven that it is he that is really communicating his own thoughts and not that of the facilitator. All experiments have found that the child would never read the picture he sees but always described what the facilitator was being shown. Should that then end the controversy? For some, the answer is a resounding Yes, but for others who are completely mesmerized by it, as they are with flying saucers and Uri Geller,  the controversy will continue on.

What do I believe? Well, let me tell you about this person who was abducted by aliens from a foreign planet and......!

P.S. It should be noted that FC raises false hopes for many families and its promotion diverts efforts and fund-raising from more plausible long-term strategies that have empirical support. It also scams people out of their hard earned money which they could be using for more important needs. The truth must be told no matter how much it may  hurt!

RE: FC Facilitated Communication:

Dear Rabbi Teitelbaum

Thanks for the excellent and enlightening article on FC (Facilitating Communication). I too have read the scientific studies that claim that it is really the facilitator that is sub-consciously causing the autistic child to point to certain letters. Yet I am somewhat puzzled since I have tested one particular autistic child and he was able to get the answers right even when the facilitator did not know the answers to the questions. Others I tested were not able to so this. How do you explain this apparent contradiction? There are some that use facilitation to find out the future. Is this permitted? Also, could you explain what gilgul neshamos is all about and why these children must suffer so?

Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum replies

Since I’ve received many questions regarding F.C. I’d like to say the following. The subject of facilitation is a very controversial one and is dealt with in great length by many experts far more competent then I am on this subject. In my article that appeared in CY before the summer I wrote that the way to determine if FC is valid or not is to see if the autistic child is able to answer the question correctly even when the facilitator does not know the question the child is being asked or does not know the answer to that question. My article was based on the scientific papers that claimed to have tested these children and they were unable to answer the questions correctly when the facilitators did not themselves know the answers or the questions. However, most recently, a few people who have worked with these children have claimed that they have tried these same experiments and have gotten different results. They claim that the children were able to get the correct answers even in cases where the facilitator had no idea what the questions where nor did the facilitator know any of the answers. If this information were correct, then it would certainly shed  new light on the subject.

Since I have not personally tested any of these children and have relied on scientific studies that I have read, this new information should certainly leave the door open for competent unbiased research to be made. If competent experts in the field get the same results, then this will surely prove the case in favor of FC and I will surely be the first one to bring these results to the public’s attention since I certainly have no personal bias one way or the other. My aim is to get at the truth and let the chips fall where they may.

I have also spoken to some gedolim that felt that there may be some truth to FC but they warn against using it to ask these children to predict future events as some are now doing.

As far as gilgulim are concerned and where these holy neshomos come from I’ll leave these topics for those who are as great as the Ari z.t.l.. I just know that every neshamah comes from the highest of sources and is a “chelek elokai mi’mal” no matter in what kind of body it was placed. Why some neshamos come down to this world in such a manner we’ll have to wait for Eliyahu ha’novi to explain. May he come soon in our days.

The Game of Bait and Switch

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

It seems rather strange that instead of sending Moshe to Pharaoh and asking him to liberate the Jews, Hashem told Moshe to demand that Pharaoh allow the Jews to go on a three-day journey into the desert so that they can worship G-d. Pharaoh correctly assumed that Moshe is just playing the game of bait and switch and that this is just a pretext for the Jews to escape and therefore wouldn't allow them to leave.

Yet, all this seems rather strange and raises some difficult questions. Why did Hashem tell Moshe that he ask for just a short three day respite when Hashem’s true intention was to take the Jews out of Egypt for good? Why didn’t Hashem tell Moshe to just tell Pharaoh the full truth and demand that he “let my people go”? Hashem certainly doesn’t have to play the “bait and switch” game with Pharaoh. Why resort to a lie when He could go with the truth?

We also find that when the Jews left Egypt, Hashem told Moshe to tell the Jews to borrow gold and silver from the Egyptians. Why fool them and not go with the truth? They owed it to them for all the work they had done for them. Why mislead them with false pretenses when it was coming to them and they would be forced to give it to them in any case?

Once again we find the very same problem when Yaakov deceived Yitzchok into giving him the blessings. Chazal tell us that Rivka received a prophecy telling her that Yaakov was to receive the blessings and not Esav. Then why didn’t she just tell this to Yitzchok instead of having Yaakov receive the blessings through deception? After all, Yaakov is considered the man of truth so why did G-d want him to receive the blessings through deceit?

Perhaps the answer to these three difficult questions can be found in the Gemarah in Mesechta Sota as well as in Rashi Parshas Yisro (18:12). The Gemorah explains that “One is cooked in the very same kettle in which one cooked.” This means that Hashem always punishes people “Midah k’neged middah.” Someone who defrauds others will himself be punished by being defrauded. The punishment always matches the crime.

Pharaoh tried to deceive and fool the Jews into working for him for pay, but then didn’t pay them. Therefore he had to be given a taste of his own medicine and lose his money through being fooled as well. Also by fooling him and telling him that the Jews would return after a three day journey Pharaoh chased after them and later was drowned in the same manner in which he had drowned the Jewish children. He was treated in the same way he treated others.

Esav, too, led a life of deceit and fraud, always trying to fool and deceive everyone, including his own father Yitzchak. He constantly used his glib and deceitful tongue, as well as his many disguises to fool others. Therefore he had to be treated in the very same manner. He lost the blessings through the use of his own methods of trickery and chicanery that he had been using on others. When Yaakov’s father asked him who he was, he replied in the same way Esav always did by saying “It is I ( who brings you the food,) and “Esav is your firstborn.” This was the exact language his brother had used to fool his father throughout his life. He used words that could be explained in different ways.

Hashem could have spoken to Yitzchok personally and told him to give the blessings to Yaakov instead of Esav. By Hashem not revealing this information to him but rather to Rivka, she understood at once that it wasn’t meant for her to tell him and that Yaakov should receive the blessing by outsmarting his brother in the same way his brother had done to others his entire life. This is why she did not to mention it to Yitzchak.

The lesson is simple. Those who think that they have succeeded in fooling or defrauding others will eventually be given a taste of their own medicine and be fooled themselves. The way we treat others is the way we too will be treated.

A Study Finds...

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

Everyone seems to be making studies on any imaginable subject under the sun and most people drink a daily dose of their nonsensical findings without even questioning what these studies prove, who made them, and what they were based on. “Don’t confuse me with the facts,” is the average person’s response when shown the flaws upon which some of these “scientific” or general studies are based on.  And so theories on miracle cures of all sorts, and the strangest opinions on anything imaginable, are accepted without the slightest hesitation or thought. So long as a prominent scientist, The New York Times, or some politician lends his name, all is acceptable.

If three out of four doctors recommend vitamin X for a cold, no one is interested in knowing what the other millions of doctors have to say on the matter, or how much these three doctors were paid to give their endorsement on the product, or if they are the owners of the said vitamin company. We simply put our brain into neutral and refuse to engage the gears. We are living in the computer age and expect machines to do the thinking for us. And so if the computer tells us that four plus three is eight, we don’t even stop to realize that the computer has gone awry – we just continue on as if all is fine and dandy.

It seems that one can sell people shares of cheese from the moon so long as you hire a good Hollywood publicity agent. No wonder “Sparkling Spring Water” from the pure wells of Kalamazoo has become a billion dollar business, and vitamins of every kind are flying off the shelves of Health Food Centers. There are fish oil pills that claim they add a hundred years to your life as it supposedly has been done to people living in a well hidden remote village in Japan, and there are great kabalists that can know both your past and your future just by reading your kesuba or mezuzah, so long as you have the right amount of money in your bank account and are willing to part with some of it.

When a prominent bais din once asked me how I know that people should not invest their money with a person who’s offering 18% return on people’s money, I replied, “Would you invest your money in a gold mine he claims to have discovered in his back yard?” It seems as if people want to fantasize and believe that magic is real and that the impossible is possible if we just want it to be. No wonder that the book “Harry Potter” has become the world’s best seller.

I’m beginning to wonder if people are just very naïve or gullible, or have we simply lost our ability of critical analysis or just given up our desire to think for ourselves? Perhaps someone should make a study to find out the answer!

Magic and Witchcraft

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

Magic is usually divided into two different categories. There is the magic practiced by the great magicians of today and there is black-magic, witchcraft, or sorcery. The Torah forbids both types, yet, the punishments for them are different. For magic, the punishment is 39 lashes, (actually makos mardes), while for practicing witchcraft, it is stoning. Members of the Sanhedrin were therefore required to know the difference between the two.

All of today’s magicians will readily admit that they are only practicing the art of deceit and deception. Even the world’s greatest magicians such as David Copperfield, or David Blain, who can make the Statute of Liberty disappear in front of your eyes or cut a person in half and put him back together again will readily admit that they are just fooling you and the stunt is based on some clever deception. However, black magic claims that they can actually change or defy the laws of nature and can make the supernatural happen. They claim they can bend spoons just by looking at them, or speak to the dead, or have psychic powers to read people’s minds and know their past and predict their future. Supernatural claims made by people like Uri Geller fall within the category of witchcraft. Yet, today, all those who have claimed to have supernatural powers have been proven to be con-artists. So far, all those who have claimed to be able to use incantations or other supernatural means to make the impossible happen, or to talk to the dead, have all been proven to be frauds. While we don’t know what happened in ancient times, nowadays it’s all been proven to be a hoax. Some say that these powers never really existed, while others claim they were forgotten over time. The Randy Foundation offers over a million-dollar reward for anyone that can show any paranormal powers. So far, many have tried but there have still been no takers.

 Historically, both magic and witchcraft trace their origin to the priests of avoda zorah- idol worship. The priests of various religions used their magical knowledge and abilities to convince their followers to worship their false gods. Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism and many other religions, are based on the supposed miraculous powers and miracles of their founders. Unfortunately, even Jews used its powers to convince the people to serve the Golden Calf in the desert and latter in Dan. Many of their practices, especially some of their medical practices, are based on their false beliefs and therefore are prohibited to Jews who are forbidden to use medical methods or practices that are or were based on idolatry. This is why rabbonim must be familiar with them. For instance, the use of Chi, a type of energy healing system used even today, has its roots in Hinduism and Buddhism. One must be familiar with certain alternative medical practices in order to make sure that they are not used, based, or rooted, in the worship of idolatry.  It’s rather interesting to note that even the practice of saying pesukim over a wound in order that it should heal is forbidden in Shulchan Aruch.(See Rambam Hilchos Avoda Zara perek 11.) Certain illnesses are caused or are affected by anxiety and therefore saying soothing words over a wound is permitted even on the Shabbos, since it may have a placebo affect and help calm a person down.

 The Rambam (Hilchos Avoda Zara perek 11) as well as some others dismiss magic as nothing but clever trickery and deception and claim that there is no such thing and never was anything as true black magic. The Egyptians who were able to perform the first two plagues did it through clever trickery and even any amateur magician of today can easily change a stick into a snake, or turn water into blood, or make frogs jump out of an empty hat.

 Actually it may very well be that black magic or sorcery was done by using Hashem’s Holy Names.  We find that the Golden Calf as well as the large golden idol put up by King Baalshetzarthat was able to speak was made by putting Hashem’s Holy Name into them. When one desecrates Hashem’s Holy Name and uses it for idolatrous purposes, then the punishment is stoning. The Gemora Sanhedrin tells us that Rava created a man using the secret Names of Hashem found in the Sefer Yetzirah. This was only permitted for the purpose pf study.

Bilam’s powers of sorcery seem to be fraudulent and were probably based on his powers of prophecy. The Gemora Brochos tells us that he was able to know the one moment each day when Hashem got angry. He used this moment to put a curse and kill his enemies, while making believe that he was doing it through his magical skills. During all the time that he tried to put a curse on the Jews, he failed. That’s because Hashem never became angry during those days, and therefore his supposed witchcraft didn't work.