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Arcane and the Dragon Prince don’t understand magic 😒
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Jewish oral torah tells the story of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurcanus: a particularly brilliant but obstinate member of the Sanhedrin, which is a democratic body of rabbis that make determinations on religious laws. There are no more prophets running around, so these rabbis are tasked with adapting the laws of the written Torah to modern issues, using hermeneutics to interpret the word of god. Rabbi Eliezer, a genius though he was, had trouble wrapping his mind around this ‘interpretation’ thing, particularly when it came to the majority-rules nature of the Sanhedrin.
The story goes that a problem is brought before the Sanhedrin, something concerning a new kind of oven. All the rabbis determine that the oven can become ritually impure, with only Rabbi Eliezer arguing the opposite. The Sanhedrin is a democratic body: majority rules, and Rabbi Eliezer should accept their decision regardless of his own opinion. But he can’t: he knows he’s right. In frustration, he cries out, ‘if it’s as I say, this carob tree will prove it!’ Miraculously, the tree springs out of the earth and begins to run on it’s roots far away.”
But the other rabbis roll their eyes. They’re like, “How exactly does that prove your point?”
