Ghosts in Judaism

(3) Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that divined by a ghost or a familiar spirit out of the land. (4) And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa. (5) And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. (6) And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. (7) Then said Saul unto his servants: ‘Seek me a woman that divineth by a ghost, that I may go to her, and inquire of her.’ And his servants said to him: ‘Behold, there is a woman that divineth by a ghost at En-dor.’ (8) And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said: ‘Divine unto me, I pray thee, by a ghost, and bring me up whomsoever I shall name unto thee.’ (9) And the woman said unto him: ‘Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that divine by a ghost or a familiar spirit out of the land; wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?’ (10) And Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying: ‘As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.’ (11) Then said the woman: ‘Whom shall I bring up unto thee?’ And he said: ‘Bring me up Samuel.’ (12) And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying: ‘Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.’ (13) And the king said unto her: ‘Be not afraid; for what seest thou?’ And the woman said unto Saul: ‘I see a godlike being coming up out of the earth.’ (14) And he said unto her: ‘What form is he of?’ And she said: ‘An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a robe.’ And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and prostrated himself. (15) And Samuel said to Saul: ‘Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?’ And Saul answered: ‘I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams; therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.’ (16) And Samuel said: ‘Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine adversary? (17) And the LORD hath wrought for Himself; as He spoke by me; and the LORD hath rent the kingdom out of thy hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David. (18) Because thou didst not hearken to the voice of the LORD, and didst not execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD done this thing unto thee this day. (19) Moreover the LORD will deliver Israel also with thee into the hand of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me; the LORD will deliver the host of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.’

(1) Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. (2) And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the nations, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. (3) For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars for the Baalim, and made Asheroth, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. (4) And he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD said: ‘In Jerusalem shall My name be for ever.’ (5) And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. (6) He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he practised soothsaying, and used enchantments, and practised sorcery, and appointed them that divined by a ghost or a familiar spirit; he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him.

The dead know of their own troubles, but not of the troubles of others. Do they not [know of the troubles of others]? Lo, there is a teaching : It once happened that a pious man gave a denarius to a beggar on the New Year's eve in a time of drought. His wife upbraided him ; so he went and spent the night in the cemetery. He heard two spirits conversing. One said to the other, "Come, friend, let us wander in the world and hear behind the curtain what visitation is to come upon the world." The other spirit replied, "I cannot, because I am buried in a matting of reeds; but go thou and report to me what thou hearest." She went, and having wandered about returned. The other asked, "What didst thou hear, friend, behind the curtain ?" She replied, "I heard that if one sows in the first rainfall, the hail will smite it." This man thereupon went and sowed in the second rainfall. [The hail] destroyed everybody's crops but not his. The following year, he again spent the [New Year's] night in the cemetery, and heard the same two spirits conversing. One said to the other, "Come, let us wander in the world and hear behind the curtain what visitation is to come upon the world." The other spirit replied, "Have I not told thee, friend, that I cannot, because I am buried in a matting of reeds? But go thou and come and tell me what thou hearest." She went, and wandered about and returned. The other spirit asked, "What didst thou hear behind the curtain ?" She replied, "I heard that if one sows in the second rainfall, it will be smitten by the blast." This man went and sowed in the first rainfall. What everybody else sowed was smitten by the blast, but not his. His wife asked him, "How is it that last year everybody's crop was destroyed by hail, but not thine ; and this year everybody's crop was blasted except thine ?" He told her the whole story.

(109) 1) From what is known of the practice of an ov, it seems that the witch manipulates the bones of the dead, as a result of which a low voice communicates with the witch answering an enquiry directed at the dead. (Isaiah 29,4) Your voice will be as that of the ghost out of the ground, and your speech will chirp out of the dust." This sound then is considered as the dead having risen in response to the question.

(110) There is absolutely no basis for assuming that the questioner will see an image. There is certainly no question of spiritual beings responding by becoming visible as happened in the case of Saul at Endor. (Samuel I 28,12 )

(111) 2) It is reasonable to assume that the questioner of the ghost would be the witch, not her customer. In our story, however, it is Saul who does the asking and the listening.

(112) 3) Why would the witch be so frightened when Samuel appeared? After all, Saul had asked her to make him appear!

(113) 4) Why did G'd not answer Saul previously through the urim vetumim, a prophetic message, or in a dream? Even if Saul had not deserved reassurance from G'd, at least he could have received a negative message, as had other kings who had been told of their impending punishment!

(114) 5) Why did not Samuel criticise Saul for having used witchcraft to summon him, as seems apparent from Chronicles I 10,13, "also because he asked to consult by means of witchcraft?" Samuel here only refers to Saul's sin regarding Amalek.

(115) 6) There is an apparent contradiction in Samuel I 28,15, when compared with Chronicles I 10,14. We are told in Samuel, "the Lord departed from me, and did not answer me either through the prophets or in my dreams." In Chronicles we are told "he did not seek out G'd; therefore He killed him." (10,14)

(116) In addition to the problems listed, there are also a number of difficulties in the manner in which the whole episode is related.

(117) a) The account could have been abbreviated considerably by omitting the conversation between Saul and the witch, b) Why did Saul say to the witch "enchant for me?" Why not simply "consult for me?" The Torah seems to distinguish between three different terms, i.e. kessem, kessamim, me-onen and menachesh. c) Saul should have said immediately "raise Samuel!" Why did he say "raise whomever I shall tell you?" d) When Saul reassured the witch on oath that she would not be guilty of a crime doing what he asked her to do, he appears to have spoken carelessly. He could indeed have guaranteed her impunity, but how could he have guaranteed her innocence? Who knew better than he, since he had gotten rid of all the witches? e) According to the text, the witch did not do anything at all, since Samuel appeared immediately Saul requested his appearance by name. Moreover, Samuel's remonstrating with Saul, shows that he did not materialise in response to her machinations, f) The expression va-ekra-ehoo with the letter heh at the end, is extremely strange, and the vowel pattern in the word even more so g) Why is Saul scored in the account of the episode in Chronicles both for "asking," and for "seeking" illumination via an ov?

(118) We propose to proceed along two premises in answering all the questions raised. First of all, it is clear from Torah, the books of Prophets and the holy scriptures, that whenever beings that are purely spiritual appear to someone in our world, such beings appear garbed in human clothes. Hagar, Manoach, Gideon, all had encounters with angels dressed in human garb, and on that very account had doubts as to the identity of the party that addressed them.

(119) Similarly, whenever our sages speak of malachim mamash, such as the angels that Jacob sent to divine if Esau had hostile intentions towards him, what are meant by that expression are spiritual beings appearing in human form.

(120) Since we are not equipped to behold pure spirits, it is necessary to provide these beings with a shell, so that they can become visible to our eyes. The appearance of the prophet Elijah, with whom innumerable encounters are described, is then also an encounter with a spirit in human garb.

(121) Samuel's appearance then is bound to be of the same kind, and he would have to appear in human form. (The story in Ketuvot 105, further supports our theory) All of this is part of G'ds kindness in arranging for communication with the spiritual world for those who deserve it in varying degrees.

(122) The appearance of Samuel, dressed in a cloak, such as he used to wear while still on earth, is no surprising phenomenon then.

(123) The second premise is, that granted that kessem, enchantment is as far from real prophecy as right is from left, it still shares a common denominator with prophecy in that it is an attempt to divine events in the future. It had served such men as Bileam as a stepping stone towards reading the future. (Numbers 22,7, and other examples) The Torah testifies that after Bileam had employed these devices a number of times, he eventually dispensed with them, being confident that he was already on the right wave length without having to employ these gadgets as "tuning dials."

(124) At any rate, by means of nechashim and kessamim, he would be able to tune in to "G'ds transmission" This proves that these devices serve a useful function, are not entirely fraudulent. When we keep these two premises in mind, we will find that all the difficulties mentioned earlier are resolved quite easily.

(125) Accordingly, I feel that Saul's iniquity consisted in that though he knew that not having killed all the Amalekites, he had estranged himself from G'd, he had failed to humble himself and to do teshuvah, repentance. This is so especially, since he faced a hostile Philistine army of large dimensions. He should have prayed, fasted and repented until the gates of repentance would have been opened to him. No doubt, he would have succeeded.

(126) If even such hardened sinners as Achav (Kings 121) and Menashe king of Israel (Chronicles II,33,19) were given a reprieve and the latter was even restored to his throne, surely Saul's repentance would have been accepted.

(127) However, Saul, confident of his good standing, went to consult the urim vetumim. Failing to obtain a response, he expected word from a prophet. At least, he thought, he would receive a communication in a dream. He received neither, because he did not yet qualify for good news. His doom however, had not yet been decreed. Therefore, he did not receive any bad news either. It was still hoped in heaven that he would be penitent. In desperation then, and because he had run out of time, he resorted to the use of the kessem, in order to achieve contact with a prophetic message.

(128) Saul hoped that Samuel's spirit would have pity on his plight, and would communicate with him in a manner described in our first premise. When he said to his companions "seek me out a woman who communicates with ghosts, I will go to her and I will enquire through her," he deliberately refrained from saying that she would enquire on his behalf, but stated that he himself would enquire. The text in Chronicles I 10,13, confirms that the "asking of the ghost to enquire," refers to two different activities. The "asking" was for the purpose of facilitating the "enquiry."

(129) This explains why initially the woman felt she had been asked to commit a crime, whereas Saul knew she was not going to have a chance to commit a sin. He was therefore able to reassure her. The prophet never spoke to her, nor did she ask him anything. Saul had not said "ask the ghost on my behalf," but only "enchant" ' for me, which is merely a preliminary stage before actual necromancy.

(130) Since Saul knew that if he requested the appearance of the prophet Samuel, she would ridicule his request, he asked for "Samuel," without title. The name Samuel must have been borne by other men, not only the prophet.