old man:
“Old superstitions don’t die, it seems, they just modernize themselves.”
I believe the technical term is “Halacha”. And you’re absolutely correct.
Did you know that there is a Gemora (no, I don’t remember exactly where) that says that there is a province/tribe within Amalek called “Germanya” (which the Vilna Gaon says is Germany), and that if that if they put their mind to to it they could “go out and destroy the world”. And until oh, about the 1930s there were probably plenty of arrogant, new-age “smarter-than-the-Gemora”s who thought the Gemora was backwards, superstitious, foolish, and just plain wrong. But who ended up being wrong?