Abracadabra
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
I don’t believe in magic, miracles or coincidences. As somebody whose name I cannot remember said: these are what is left over when you apply bad theories. We just don’t know how Life works, so that leaves lots of space for things that seem coincidental or magical.
If there is anything that comes close to magic, it is Language. Although we all use it 24 hours per day, most people rarely wonder about it. The study of Language is not even a science! Of course, there are many people studying the origin and workings of Language. Many are known as magicians. Anybody who understands language better than anybody else has power over that other. That is not really magic, but psychology. But I don’t want to start a rant about this subject, I just wanted to share with you something that I read in ”The book of words” by Lawrence Kushner.
Lawrence Kushner has written some great books about Life, Words and psychology from the viewpoint of the Jewish tradition.
My favourite book is ”God was in this place and I, i didn’t know”
But he has written twelve books and I have only read five so far.
For a long time I wanted to know where the word ”Abracadabra” comes from. I have read several explanations, but didn’t find any of these satisfying. And the idea that it is pure nonsense seemed never logical to me either. Our mind is simply unable to come up with complete nonsense, there is some sense is everything we create.
In ”The book of words” Lawrence Kushner writes that ”according to the Hebrew bible, God made the world with words. God just spoke and the world became reality. The Aramic for “I create as I speak” is “avara k’davara”, or, in magician’s language, “abracadabra”. “
This is by far the best explanation I have heard of so far. And I think it will be difficult to come up with a better one. But if you know one, please tell me.
Here is a video with Lawrence Kushner explaing a difficult subject in a few minutes:
And here is another video with Lawrence Kushner in it. He doesn’t say much, but what the monk is saying, is more than enough.