In his recently published Alternative Medicine in Halakhah, Rephoel Szmerla, an American ultra-Orthodox rabbi, makes the case that homeopathy, energy healing, and various other irregular medical treatments are not only permitted by Jewish law but in many cases superior—on religious grounds—to scientific medicine. To Ben Rothke, Szmerla’s embrace of “alternative medicine” is an affront to traditional talmudic reasoning and typical of a disturbing growth in certain Orthodox circles of enthusiasm for New Age thinking. Rothke contrasts Szmerla’s specious arguments for the efficacy of various therapies he promotes with the approach to scientific expertise taken by leading 20th-century rabbinic authorities:

Moshe Feinstein frequently called on the scientific knowledge of his son-in-law Moshe Tendler, [himself a distinguished rabbi], who had received his doctorate in microbiology from Columbia University. In Israel, Shlomo Zalman Auerbach relied on experts in biology and physics when addressing halakhic issues that required knowledge of these fields. . . . While [Szmerla] quotes extensively from myriad New Age sources, he does not once refer to any works by non-alternative scientists or medical doctors. . . .

For Szmerla, modern science is not God-focused. He contrasts the opinions of atheistic scientists with those of the creators of alternative therapies, who he feels realize that their healing powers originate from the divine. Both characterizations are overly generalized, and his simplistic observation does nothing to support his claims. [Furthermore], the author does not explain why alternative therapies, which may have their ancient roots in [various pagan religions], may be more acceptable or effective than those from non-believing scientists and doctors such as Linus Pauling or François Jacob.

The New Age movement, with its acceptance of occult practices, pantheism, and a “spirituality without borders or confining dogmas that is inclusive and pluralistic” is anathema to halakhah. Szmerla’s [approach] leads him to promulgate bad science while misrepresenting the thought of the talmudic sages. The danger with Alternative Medicine in Halakhah is that the author oversimplifies both halakhah and the often-complex fields of science and medicine. This leads to his acquiescence in therapies that other major rabbinic authorities outright forbid.

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.