Can Someone Really Curse You?

Hi, this is Dov bar-Levsky with our question and answer series where in a few minutes we try to give answers to the questions that our listeners have submitted. Someone wrote, "Is there a significance to curses in these days? What about a non-Jew's curse? Do things people consider a curse in today's world like using a particular finger have any significance?" So, Avraham Avinu, when he began his mission to become the chosen people, Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to him, "I will bless the people who bless you, and those who curse you I'll curse." So, it's backwards. It should have said, "I'll bless the people who bless you and curse the people who curse you." It doesn't. It says, "I will bless the people who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse." Why? Because somebody wants to bless you, I will first give them blessing. Because a person who is a rich person and is healthy and is good gives a better bracha. And somebody wants to curse you, I'll curse him after he curses you because a poor person, a sick person, their curse is much worse. A rich person curses you, he says, "I hope your air conditioning breaks down. I hope your car gets a scratch." And what does he know about suffering? But a poor person who knows hunger and disease, their curse is a terrible curse. So, who are we talking about? We're only talking about non-Jews. There was nobody else in the world. Right? Means anybody can give you a blessing and anyone can give you a curse. The uh Gemara brings different examples of non-Jews who gave blessings. And the Gemara says, "Atiya birchas hedyot kal ba'einav." A simple person's blessing should not be light in your eyes. And the same thing is true by a curse. Anybody's blessing and anybody's curse has an effect. Now, obviously, if I can quote uh Mad-Eye Moody from uh book four of uh Harry Potter, where it turns out it wasn't really Mad-Eye Moody, it was really Barty Crouch pretending to be Mad-Eye Moody, but I don't want to get there. But he was teaching them the uh the death curse. Uh Avada Kedavra. And he says, "All of you could point your wands at me now and say Avada Kedavra and I won't get even a nosebleed." Because you need power to put it into a curse. The same thing is true about an eye in hara. Anyone can give you an eye in hara, but depending on who the person is, the curse will have that much more power. And the same thing is true about a blessing. Anyone can give you a blessing, but obviously a godol ba'torah who gives you a blessing is much more effect. But can anyone give a blessing and anyone give a curse? Sure. So, when we say a curse today, we have to be careful of differentiating between what is a curse and using a curse word. A curse word is called uh >> [clears throat] >> not using lashon hara. That's not a curse, but when a person says "Die and drop dead." You know, "Or choke on it." You know, or I I you know, uh any terrible thing that a person says, that is definitely a curse. And can it affect you? Of course it can affect you. Likewise, anyone who gives you a blessing, that blessing can take effect. And so, um yeah, we don't want anyone to curse us and we want people to bless us. Even if the person is a simple person, out here, because had it calaba ain't of simple blessing should not be light in your eyes. And the same thing is true by a curse. Why? Because everybody has the power of speech. And speech is what went into the creation of the world. Baruch she amar v'haya olam. Blessed is he who spoke and the world came into existence. V'yomer Elohim v'yomer Elohim and God spoke and said, "Let there be light." And God spoke and it's it's the words. That's why the Maharal points out the relationship between the words daber and davar. Speak and thing. Because everything is a result of a speech of a word. And therefore, we should know that our words carry power in them. And so therefore, we should always make sure that our words should be blessings and not curses. And with that thought in mind, I bless all of the listeners to the Rabbi Alansky show, to our question and answers, to the Parsha in 5. Whether you're Jew or non-Jew, religious or not religious. Yeah. Um young and old. Whoever you are, I give you a bracha that through listening to the words of uh insight that I uh share and the schus that you have listened to my words, I bless you. That I give you the blessing my mother used to give before Rosh Hashanah and Kippur. I wish you everything you wish for yourself. That you should have all the blessings in the world. This is David Alansky with our question and answer series.