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Dec 4, 2011

The 9th Of The 9th Of The 9th...

The following tzedaka ad ran in many of the frum papers this past week. I scanned the English version that appeared in the Hamodia, though it appeared in Hebrew in many, or maybe all for all I know, of the Hebrew papers as well.

What I find particularly astounding about this ad is that it implies a segulah without actually mentioning one. They must have run out of segulahs, or couldn't find one specific for this week/month so they had to do something that would just make you think it is a segulah.

What do I mean? The ad says that for 9 minutes on the 9th day of the 9th month of the 9th year 18 gedolim will daven for you at 12 holy sites.

The ad does not say that all these combinations of 9 make any sort of segulah, but I would bet that most people reading the ad will automatically assume there is a segulah involved...

Do they want me to only give 9 NIS?

Why 12 holy sites? Why not 9 or 18?

9th year from what? on what count?

At least this time nobody can claim they are selling remote segulahs that might or might not come true. They make no such claim here. Any assumption of a segulah is the readers own misunderstanding.

5 comments:

  1. This has been around for more than three years from Kupat Ha'Ir. The source for this segulah is the Sefer Brit Menucha by a talmid of the Ramban, Rabbi Avraham M’Rimon HaSephardi, who writes that every seven years on the ninth hour of the ninth day of the ninth month, there is a special time when prayers are accepted in Heaven. I guess they decided to make it an annual segula!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rafi, you missed one 9, it is hour, day, month, and year, 4 9's. What I don't get is how they can claim that this is the 9th year. This is not the 9th year of anything (including the Yovel cycle which doesn't exist nowadays).

    ReplyDelete
  3. the ad has the details. I was just being brief..
    yaak also posted on it with a suggestion, but also leaves that question open
    yeranenyaakov.blogspot.com/2011/12/its-annual-nines-prayer-again-this.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. its obviously a referring to Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan (if you follow US politics)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wasn't there a calculation that the last war was to last 9 minutes?

    ReplyDelete

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