New York – Our daf (153a) discusses a case of a certain deathly ill woman who wrote in a document that she gifts her possessions “from life and unto death.” The case came before Rava wo ruled in accordance with his view that the transaction is valid from that moment, and that it is likened to a gift of a healthy person. Rava ruled that the gift is valid and that she cannot rescind it. She stalked Rava telling him that he ruled incorrectly. His secretary advised him to give her a document that showed, in fact, that she was not correct but one she would be unaware of its content.
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She cursed him that he drown in his ship.
His friends and family tried to fulfill the terms of his curse by submerging his clothing in water. It was ineffective and he drowned.
The Sefer haChinuch (Mitzvah 231) understands the Rambam as holding that curses are, in fact, ineffective, and that the Mitzvah in the Torah is concerned solely with the effect of cursing upon the soul and spiritual development of the curser.
The Achronim ask from our Gemorah here on the Chinuch’s understanding of the Rambam. Our Gemorah clearly indicates that curses are effective.
Perhaps the Rambam could be understood to hold that curses are effective if one believes in the efficacy of curses. if one does not believe they are effective then they would not work. Rava did believe in the efficacy of the woman’s curse and therefore it did have the possibility of coming to fruition.
Rav Moshe Feinstein zatzal once gave an explanation quite similar to this in regard to the notion of Ayin Harah.
Although this may be the view of the Rambam, the majority of Litvish and Sefardic Poskim held that curses are, in fact, effective.
now tell us what happens to the one who curses – and why it’s assur to curse someone
See Sefer Hachasidim 459