Chochmat Yad and the Prohibition Against Interlacing the Fingers

Chochmat Yad and the Prohibition Against Interlacing the Fingers

The palm of the hand (kaf ha-yad) bears many lines and hidden signs that can reveal a person's fate. Rabbi Avraham Azulai wrote in his book “Or HaChamah” that there are 15 levels of wisdom in the Torah. As one ascends toward the highest level, one must learn the entire Tanakh, the grammar of the Torah, know all the tractates of the Mishnah and the Aggadah by heart, the four sections of the Turim, halachot... He placed Chochmat Yad, the ability to read the lines of the palm, in thirteenth place. Rabbi Chaim Vital relates that when he was 12 years old, a great sage appeared in their city whose name was concealed from the people. He opened the boy's palm and predicted that he would suffer a severe emotional upheaval at the age of 24. The crisis would last for two years, after which he would become either a wicked person or a righteous man and sage. As we know, Rabbi Chaim Vital became a righteous man and sage. The Arizal, writes Rabbeinu Chida, did not want to teach his students the wisdom of Chochmat Yad, not even his beloved student Rabbi Chaim Vital, who studied with him for one year and ten months and secretly recorded his teacher's words. But Rabbi Chaim so passionately desired to uncover the secret of the palm that he resorted to a ruse: he persuaded a woman whose daughter was of marriageable age to come to the yeshiva during a lesson and ask the Arizal to examine the girl's palm and tell her when she would marry. When they entered, the Arizal looked reproachfully at his student and told the woman to step aside, open her daughter's hand, and carefully examine the lines of the palm. The Arizal then closed his eyes and told the woman when and how her daughter would marry. However, the laws of the Torah (Deuteronomy 18:9-134; “Yoreh De'ah” 179) prohibit divination by any means and predicting the future. Many people possess extrasensory abilities, but their involvement in another person's fate can cause harm. The Zohar (Yitro, “Razei de-Razin”) warns that people should not be taught or initiated into the secrets of the Creator until they have risen to the highest spiritual level. A person must become righteous in order to gain access to these secrets and put the knowledge he has acquired into practice. (Babylonian Talmud, “Sanhedrin” 65) As it is said of the righteous Joseph: “And his master saw that G-d was with him, and that whatever he did, G-d caused to prosper in his hand.” (Genesis 39:3) The Prohibition Against Interlacing the Fingers This should be approached with caution, so as not to arouse the judgment of the Almighty against oneself. It is interesting to note a point described in the book The Zohar: when judgment is passed in Heaven against a person who has sinned, that person's reaction in this world is expressed through an unconscious movement—he interlaces his fingers (placing the fingers of his right hand between those of his left hand). Through this gesture, a person seems to affirm that even the mercy of the right hand agrees with the judgment proceeding from the left hand. The Holy Zohar explains why Jews do not interlace the fingers of their hands: if one looks carefully at the palms, one can see the letter מ on the right hand, and ו and ת on the left—together forming the word מוות (death). It is also cited in the name of the Arizal's students (may the memory of the righteous be a blessing) that one should not interlace the fingers. This became an explicit ruling in the book Shulchan Aruch. (Commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch, “Turei Zahav” 95:3; Aruch HaShulchan 91:7; Shulchan Aruch of the Alter Rebbe, 91:6; Kaf HaChaim 91:28) The head of the household is also required to instruct his wife and children to conduct themselves in this manner. In addition to the above, a sick person is instructed to be especially careful in this regard, as are all people during the Ten Days of Repentance. But if this has already been done, the person is required to repent for his actions, since, according to the words of the book The Zohar, he was judged above, and this made complete repentance for his sins necessary, without delaying for even a moment. (The Zohar III, p. 24a) (Rabbi A. Davidov, “The Letters of Our Life”; mashiach.ru)