A Matriarch Rachel encounter is NOT a sighting of Virgin Mary !

Anyone who has been reading my occasional posts to beloved Bnai Noah and Hebrew Bible seekers from the last few years knows that I am a rationalist student of Rabbi Soloveitchik. I remember objecting to a Noahide who wanted to have an upsherin (first haircut of a 3 yr. old boy) ceremony, following dangerous superstion about "evil eyes" that crept into Hassidic ritual. The Rav's Lithuanian school of rationalist Torah observance disavows the popular Jewish shows of piety like kissing mezuzot (doorpost scrolls of the Shemah) and tsitsit (ritual fringes).

The Noahide who trashed a story where a mysterous woman , thought to be Mother Rachel, kept Israeli soldiers from harm in Gaza compared this to a Catholic who claims to have seen a vision of Mother Mary. For a week I felt chastened, confused, even critical of the many pious (usually Sephardic, North African) Jews who are overly fond of photos of sages and visits to graves.

But, as I thought further, I feel that this skeptic's opinion is an extreme, wrong-headed opinion, and based on the strong need to reject true idiocy, like sightings of Elvis or the Virgin Mary.

A deluled believer has a vision of Mary for no purpose, other than nominating the seer for sainthood or raising the real estate value of the setting.

The several different soldiers who risked their careers by revealing that a mysterious woman guided them away from Gaza deathtraps had nothing to gain. The sighting was not a religious revelation, but a practical act of saving lives.

The difference is huge. The facile skeptic did not seem to see this. I am not a Jew who goes to graves to pray, or even looks on the practice positivilely. But I know that these people are NOT G-d forbid (and He DID) praying to the souls of the deceased as deities with powers.

At funeral eulogies, or at Yahrzeits (anniversary's of a loved one's passing) it is common to hear "may the soul be an effective intercessor" for your family. Nobody is praying TO the dead. But every righteous Noahahide and Jew who passes to the spirit realm is closer to G-d, and certain specific requests MAY be, though they need not be, "posted" with a spiritual mail carrier to deliver to the Creator.

Of course all prayers should always addressed to the Holy One. But righteous souls may not be recycled or reincarnated to our Earthly realm, but are in a celestial abode with Enoch, Elijah and the heavenly hosts. We don't know details about post-Biblical angels who can appear in our realm.

When a supplicant has a particular request, say an infertile wife, it may not be inappropriate to say psalms to G-d at the grave of a particular righteous soul who is known to supplicate the Holy One for just this issue.

With Matriarch Rachel , Jeremiah depicts her as crying for her children.
No Hebrew Bibe verse mentions a virgin or a Miriam with such an eternal role.

At most, the 1st-C. Talmud does mention a Miriam engaged to a Joseph who got kocked up by a centurian named Panderos. Joe married her anyway, and the kid was explained away as an immaculate miracle.

Anyway, I won't have some unnuanced , knee-jerk opinion compare even a very gray area of
Jewish lore to psychotic idolatry.

Isaac edenics.net