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A very good friend of mine gave me a divination object for a present. She spent a few years in the Peace Corps in Mongolia, and brought me back a little hide box with sheep and horse ankle bones, which the people of Mongolia use for divination. Well, i don't believe in divination, nobody i know does, and even if i happened to meet someone who believes in divination, i think it would be rather unlikely they would know how to use the small trove of ankle bones to achieve anything.

So as a history major, i find the bones fascinating, i don't mind having them around, however, since i'm religiously Jewish, this seems like it could be prohibited. And therefore it makes me curious. Since the Torah seems to be mostly concerned with people believing that idols or divination objects worked, i'm not sure that logic applies anymore.

i know we aren't allowed to practice divination, and i imagine we would therefore be prohibited from having divination instruments. But since beliefs have changed so much throughout the centuries, i'm wondering if the more recent poseqim have commented on the following situation: if someone's entire household doesn't believe in divination, and even if they did, wouldn't be able to use the object for it, is an object still prohibited for them to keep?

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  • Might this fall under ולא תביא תועבה אל ביתך (D'varim 7:26; see, for e.g., Rambam, Sefer HaMitzvos, Lav 25)?
    – Fred
    Jun 12, 2015 at 19:25
  • Edited the question, let me know if it needs to be altered even further
    – Aaron
    Jun 12, 2015 at 19:29
  • @Double AA Does this question need further editing to be reopened?
    – Aaron
    Jun 21, 2015 at 23:24

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