In Jewish tradition (I know I know...another troll... check it out though, you’ll find it interesting...) When Caleb “...came to Hebron” [Num 13:22] it was to pray at the graves of the Fathers to give him the strength to avoid the counsel and council of the spies. In Hebron, the Cave of the Machpela, in Jewish tradition, is where Jacob and Leah, Isaac and Rebecca, Abraham and Sarah, and Adam and Chava (Eve) are burried. It’s the same cave Abraham purchases from Efron in Gen 23:10-20.
FYI our intent at any gravesite (and it is still done today, particularly before the Jewish New Year) is to ask the departed soul to intercede and beseech the Almighty, not that the departed has a power independent of G-d, G-d forbid.
I hope you have found this interesting...
Thank you, Phinneous, for your post. This tradition is further supported by 2 Macc. 15:12-16 – the high priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah were deceased for centuries, and yet interact with the living Judas Maccabeas and pray for the holy people on earth.
In a later comment posted to this thread, freeper editor-surveyor states: Prayer to the dead is called necromancy, and is forbidden. When you pray to the dead, you are just attempting to contact another hopelessly lost soul.
Without any doubt Scripture condemns "necromancy." Consider Deuteronomy 18:10-12. The problem arises with the attempt to apply the term necromancy indiscriminately to mean all manner of communication with those who have died. This is an improper usage of the term. Dictionaries define necromancy as "conjuring up spirits" or "communication with the spirits of the dead in order to foretell the future, black magic or sorcery." When Catholics pray to saints, we do not "conjure up" spirits or tell fortunes. In fact, the Catholic Church is in complete agreement with the Bible when it condemns consulting "mediums" and "wizards."
Those who claim that God prohibits communicating with the dead in any sense run into a serious problem. Jesus would clearly be guilty in Luke 9:29-31.
According to Deuteronomy 34:5, Moses was a dead guy! And yet Jesus was communicating with him and Elijah about the most important event in human history—the Redemption. There is no contradiction here as long as one makes the distinction that is very clear in Scripture: there is an essential difference between going to "mediums" or "wizards" to conjure up the spirits of the dead and communicating—as Jesus did—with those we either hope (if they have not been canonized) or believe (if they have been canonized) died in friendship with God.