The JTA linked to a Seattle Times article on fortune teller Sana Kuma, one of the few people ever to be charged in Israel with practicing magic. Her crime of “tasseography”—
the ancient art of overturning a coffee cup and looking for answers in the patterns left behind by the grounds.
–is punishable by up to five years in jail. In Israel, it is apparently legal to predict someone's future based on tarot card readings or astronomy, but seeing what's to come in coffee grounds constitutes practicing magic, an explicit crime. Ms. Kuma has been the go-to fortuneteller for Israeli’s celebrity elite, having worked with model Miri Bohadana, television star Dan Shilon, and former Miss Israel Nicole Halperin. Ms. Israel herself testifies to Kuma’s prowess:
"She has special abilities," Halperin said after her reading. "She gives you ideas, names and events, and when she gives you specific names and events, it makes you know that she's special."
Police officer Avraham Beihou doesn't buy it, especially not with Kuma's three-figure prices. Beihou plans to sue Kuma for charging him well over $3,000 for quick-fix plans when Beihou’s coffee-grounds future looked portentously black.