Q&A: Abilities of Rabbis
Abilities of Rabbis
Question
What is the Rabbi’s view regarding rabbis about whom one can say with absolute certainty that they possess supernatural abilities? And it is all completely true—they know things in a way that can shake people’s minds; divine inspiration rests upon them.
What is the Rabbi’s attitude toward this? Do you agree with the claims and the facts?
And how does this fit with your rationalist worldview?
Answer
The question is not what my opinion is about these phenomena, but whether such phenomena exist. If you assume that it is absolutely clear that they have powers, then that is a fact. What is my opinion supposed to be about facts?
I have already written in the past that I do not rule out this possibility; I am only skeptical about it. In most cases this is nonsense, public self-delusion, and perhaps even the stupidity of the “righteous man” himself. But in principle it is possible that there are people with unusual powers. Clearly, I cannot rule this out categorically.
We have the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, who according to rumor said that he was the messiah. About this, Yeshayahu Leibowitz said that he was either a fraud or insane, and after he passed away one may assume that apparently he did not have unusual powers.