My Jewish monster hunting gear boxes were ready to go. But what was in them?
Last night was Shabbat, one of the two nights (along with Tuesday), that Agrat bat Maḥlat, one of the queens of the shedim (aka demons), haunts the air with her train of eighteen myriads of messengers of destruction (1). With Havadalh behind me, I was out on patrol driving around in my beloved Honda Element loaded with all my Jewish monster hunting gear….ready for Agrat or whatever else might happen.
Actually I was home reading. Like usual. But my Jewish monster hunting gear boxes were ready to go. But what was in them?
Before I list out what I’ve collected so far, I want to point out that my gear collection is authentic if a bit eclectic. It draws draws from a range of Jewish sources and time periods, includes Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Misrachi elements, mixes rabbinic and kabbalistic elements with elements from Jewish women’s segulot and prekante (Hebrew and Ladino terms for household charms) and Jewish medical lore. My goal is was to develop the gear that a modern ba’al shem (wonder rabbi) (2) or babske refuah (wise woman) (3) might have on hand. Just in case Agrat bat Maḥlat shows up or, more practically, I get to teach a class.
Part 1. Here’s a list of my original Jewish monster hunting gear.
In some cases I provide links on where to buy your own. These are just examples. I don’t have any financial relationship with the vendors. Please buy from small local business if you can.
Salt. Shedim and ghosts don’t like salt and it can be used as a barrier.
Iron pins. Traditionally, a Jew would wear an iron pin when traveling. Giving how much metal we carry with us these days wearing an iron pin isn’t really necessary..but it can’t hurt either. (Creating-Unkamen @ Etsy)
Kero masa wood. According to the Talmud (Pesachim 111b), kero masa is harmful to shedim (4). Kero masa is sorbus, also known as the Serviceberry Tree. This stick is Latvian rowan wood, a kind of sorbus. (TrueWilderness @ Etsy)
Shofar. Shedim can be scared by loud noises..so blowing a shofar is a go-to move. This is a cheap one I picked up on my one trip to Israel. Someday I’ll get a better one and learn to blow it properly. (Any local or online Judaica vendor)
A card with text of Psalm 91, the Monster Hunter’s Psalm. Need to memorize this one or keep it handy.
Ketoret Gear
Amber incense. Shedim hate strong smells. Incense points back to the priestly koteret incense (Scents of Earth or a lot of Etsy sellers)
Wooden pipe (for regular tobacco). Shedim hate strong smells but, more importantly, there is a tradition of rabbi’s smoking pipes with the mysitical intention of invoking the powers of the temple incense (koteret) to banish demons and plagues. (Any pipe will do. I like this walnut one. HousewarmingUA)
Amulets
Shmirah amulet (the big one with the upturned hand). Amulet to protect mother and baby from Lilith the demon queen. Amulets like this are hung in baby’s rooms and hospital delivery rooms. (Eichlers)
Anti-COVID amulet. I picked this up on eBay from an Israeli seller. No idea who the scribe was or if it’s intended for the Charedi community or the tourist trade. Probably the latter, but it’s still cool. (eBay)
Hamsa. Anti-evil eye charm. This one’s a cheap key chain. I have a couple of other ones but no really nice ones. (Nice vintage ones show up on eBay regularly. I’ll get one eventually.)
Amulet Making Kit
A box of amulet making gear, including kosher torah ink, 5 kosher mezuzah klafs, 2 kosher quills, a metal scribal blade (for scratching out errors) and some replacement blades. – An experienced Ba’al Shem makes their own amulets. (A sofer supply store such as HaSofer)
Estrie Gear
String. For tying up an estries hair. They lose their power when their hair is tied up.
Rocks. Killing an estrie isn’t hard, but getting them to stay dead is. You nead to bury them with rocks in their mouths.
Salt. If you hurt an estrie you can heal it by giving it your bread and salt.
Entrenching Tool
Army surplus shovel / entrenching tool. For digging a trench over a grave, in order to become willingly possessed by with an Ibbur (eBay)
Books
Prayer books. Got to be ready for anything. I carry a vintage US Army Jewish prayerbook, a rabbi’s manual, and small “Prayers and Meditations” for funeral usage. Not in this picture, but I also have a couple of tahara manuals (preparation of the dead for burial).
Shabbat kit
Shabbat kit. Portable Shabbat candle holders and matches case
Havadala kit. Candle and candlholder, a collapsable wine glass (not pictured), and besamim. All of which have anti-demon properties, the besamim in particular.
Medical Kit
I usually have some of my medical kit in my gear box as well. I’ll document my medical gear in another post, but I usually have lead and cloves on hand in case of the evil eye.
Notes and References
(1)Peasachim 112B.15 “With regard to the instruction: Do not go out alone at night, the Gemara states that this is as it was taught in a baraita: One should not go out alone at night, neither on Tuesday nights nor on Shabbat nights, i.e., Friday nights, becausethe demon Agrat, daughter of Maḥalat, she and 180,000 angels of destruction go out at these times. And as each and every one of them has permission to destroy by itself, they are all the more dangerous when they go forth together. The Gemara states: Initially, these demons were present every day. Once Agrat, daughter of Maḥalat, met Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa and said to him: Had they not announced about you in the Heavens: Be careful of Ḥanina and his Torah, I would have placed you in danger. He said to her: If I am considered important in Heaven, I decree upon you that you should never travel through inhabited places. She said to him: I beg you, leave me a little space. He left for her Shabbat nights and Tuesday nights.And furthermore, once Agrat, daughter of Maḥalat met Abaye and said to him: Had they not announced about you in the Heavens: Be careful of Naḥmani, Abaye, and his Torah, I would have placed you in danger. He said to her: If I am considered important in Heaven, I decree upon you that you should never pass through inhabited places. The Gemara asks: But we see that, notwithstanding these anecdotes, demons do pass through inhabited areas.”
(2) Ba’al Shem were, and in some places still are, Jewish healers, exorcists, and amulet makers. While not “monster hunter’s” per se, they are pretty darn close. See YIVO’s article Ba’al Shem, for an overview. Ba’al Shem could be formally elite rabbi’s or folks who pieced their knowledge together as they could. But they were guys. Ba’al shem is an Ashkenazi term, but there were Sephardic and Mizrachi equivalents.
(3) Babske Refues were, and still are, older women well versed in traditional home healing lore including exorcisms and protection from the evil eye. See YIVO’s article on Health and Healing. Again, I’m using a Yiddish term but am absolutely including Sephardic and Mizrachi equivalents.
(4) The text of Pesachim 111b reads “And any tree whose wood is hard, its shadow is dangerous, except for the tree called kero masa. Although its wood is hard, its shadow is not dangerous, as the demon said to her son: Leave the kero masa tree alone, as it was that tree that killed your father. And the tree later killed the son too. The kero masa tree is harmful to demon” Despite this claim, I’m not aware of any Jewish tradition that involves the practical use of kero masa to defend against demons. I figure it doesn’t hurt to keep a bit around, just in case.
I’ve been building a library of books in English on Jewish monsters and magic. Here are the books I come back to over and over again.
Jews are the People of the Book, right? So it figures that if you want to learn about about Jewish monsters and magic then you might want to grab a few. Over the last couple of years I’ve shared a few versions of a starter list. Over time it’s grown into this list here.
Two things about this list. First, the focus here is on books and articles written or translated into English. There’s lots more great stuff out there in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic but I’m not able to cover that. I can’t do much past basic prayerbook Hebrew. Someday I’m going to fix that.
Second, the folks who’ve asked me for reading lists have done so for their own, and often very different, reasons and have needed very different lists. These have included:
Jewish fiction writers, artists, and game designers wanting a better basis than what our synagogues or pop culture have delivered
Jewitch practitioners, looking at Biblical divination methods, Sephardi protection charms, or Ashkenazi folk healing methods to add richness to their daily lives
LGBT Jews and others with a complicated relationship with Judaism who approach Judaism with a deep love and a DIY attitude
women who realized that their grandmothers, or great-great-grandmothers, had a ritual life that never got handed down to them
others, like me, that are just nerds for this stuff and find our lives and Judaism enriched by it
Regardless of why you’ve found this list, I hope that you find resources that are useful. If you want a bigger list, I’ve got a LibraryThing list of all the books in my library. All sorts of wild stuff. For the articles, I’m only listing stuff that is easily available free online. Some of my favorite articles aren’t on the list beause they require JSTOR access. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, or want some help finding the right resource leave a comment on the page, or message me on twitter @adnesadeh and let me know what you’re looking for.
Some of the articles I list are posted on Academia.edu. Free registration is required. In most cases the books are easily available wherever you buy books. Most of my links will be to Bookshop.org, which helps you buy new books from local stores, or Alibris, which is a good used-bookstore aggregator site. In some cases, though, your best bet is to go right to the publisher. Some of these are kinda pricey academic books. But most aren’t.
I’m sure I’m going to update this occasionally. So check back. This version is dated April, 18, 2023, one night before the funeral of my father Dr. Joseph Zaientzז״ל.
Update 1. Dec 26 2022. Added two books on legendary figures (the Baal Shem Tov and Rabbi Ya’aqov Wazana), Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s book on Jewish Meditation, and a video of the Moroccan Tahdid sword ceremony for a brit milah.
Update 2. Dec 30 2022. Added essays on Jewish astrology, Jewish “superstitions” in the 1920’s, ruach ra’ah, the “last” Jewish demon (still actively included in Jewish ritual). and an amazing essay on the anti-demon aspects of Jewish weddings which includes a summary of the three main Jewish anti-demon strategies; fight, bribe, and conciliate them.
Update 3. Small update adding Dr. Sara Ronis’ article on Ashmedai, demon king and sometime Torah scholar, and Rabbi Elli Fischer’s video presentation on how smoking pipes was used to replicate temple incense and used to fight plagues.
Jewish Magic and Monsters 101
Super Fast, Super Fun Intros
Check out Ezra Rose’s one page print & fold zines. They’re free or pay what you want.
The Ceremony of Breaking a Glass at Weddings. 1925 essay by Rabbi Jacob Z. Lauterbach. Describes three strategies for countering demons (fight, bribe, and conciliate them) and how many modern Jewish rituals have anti-demon origins or aspects including, you guessed it, breaking a glass at weddings.
The last Talmudic demon? The role of ritual in cultural transmission. by Richard Sosis. “I briefly survey the historical trajectory of demonic beliefs across Jewish communities and focus on one demon, a ruach ra’ah, that has survived the vicissitudes of Jewish history and maintained its relevance in contemporary Jewish communities.”
A Demon for the Ages – Sara Ronis. A short history of Ashmedai, demon king and Torah scholar
Sources in Translation
Seferia.org – “Sefaria is home to 3,000 years of Jewish texts. We are a non-profit organization offering free access to texts, translations, and commentaries so that everyone can participate in the ongoing process of studying, interpreting, and creating Torah” While not everything at Seferia is translated into English, a lot is. I pretty much live there. Tanakh, Talmud, later writings, dictionaries. Everything crosslinked to commentary. So many wonderful texts. Also check out their Source Sheets, which Seferia users put together on interesting topics. To get you started, here are 5 sources.
Deuteronomy 3.11 – “Only [the giant] King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaim. His bedstead, an iron bedstead, is now in Rabbah of the Ammonites; it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide, by the standard cubit!”
Sanhedrin 65b – “Indeed, Rava created a man, a golem, using forces of sanctity. Rava sent his creation before Rabbi Zeira. Rabbi Zeira would speak to him but he would not reply. Rabbi Zeira said to him: You were created by one of the members of the group, one of the Sages. Return to your dust.”
Chagiga16a – “The Gemara returns to discussing the heavenly beings. The Sages taught: Six statements were said with regard to demons: In three ways they are like ministering angels, and in three ways they are like humans.”
Berakhot 6a – “In another baraita it was taught that Abba Binyamin says: If the eye was given permission to see, no creature would be able to withstand the abundance and ubiquity of the demons and continue to live unaffected by them.”
Otzar Midrashim 2c (alternate version of the Alphatbet of Ben Sira) – “He said to him, “The angels appointed for healing: Sanoy, Sansanoy, Semangalof. When the Holy Blessed One created the first Adam alone, They said, (Genesis 2:18) ‘It is not good for this Adam to be alone.’ They created for him a wife out of the Earth like he had been, and called her Lilith. Immediately they began to challenge each other.”
Books
Jewish Magic and Superstition by Rabbi Joshua Tractenberg. Written in 1939, Jewish Magic and Superstition is still the best starting point. It focuses on 13th century Ashkenazi Jewish lore which is as wild as it comes. It’s inexpensive and easily available. JMS is also online at Sacred-Texts.com. Highly recommended.
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism by Rabbi Geoffry Dennis. Exactly what the title describes. Encyclopedic in scope, but very short descriptions. A great gift and great for finding things of interest, but you’ll want more if you want to understand something with any depth
Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism by Harold Schwartz. So good. Mostly covers legends up to the Talmudic period and some Zohar. Wonderful writing and great commentary.
Magic, Mysticism, and Hasidism: The Supernatural in Jewish Thought by Gedalyah Nigal. Nigal describes the Baal Shem “wonder rabbis” and their amulets, holy name magic, kefitzat ha-derekh (“shortening of the path” or Jewish teleportation), transmigration of souls (reincarnation), and demonic possession. This one’s harder to get. As of today Alibris has a reasonably priced copy.
Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women: Sweetening the Spirits, Healing the Sick by Isaac Jack Lévy and Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt. An amazing exploration of prekante, or charms, in the Sephardic community. If you want to be ready to handle the evil eye, this is the book. Also, this is a must read if you want to learn more about Jewish women’s rituals.
Ashkenazi Herbalism. “Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel add a new dimension to our picture of everyday life in the Pale of Settlement with a highly readable portrayal of folk healers, herbs, and medicinal practices.” Great book for a modern practitioner to draw on but its presentation of Askhenazi medical lore is way too sanitized for me. Where are the cures based on wearing a mouse around your neck or eating fried sawdust? Where’s the horse teeth and lead?
A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenazby David Shyovitz. “Analyzing a wide array of neglected Ashkenazic writings on the natural world in general, and the human body in particular, Shyovitz shows how Jews in Ashkenaz integrated regnant scientific, magical, and mystical currents into a sophisticated exploration of the boundaries between nature and the supernatural.” The werewolf article, above, became a chapter in this book.
On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture by Mika Ahuvia. “Angelic beings can be found throughout the Hebrew Bible, and by late antiquity the archangels Michael and Gabriel were as familiar as the patriarchs and matriarchs, guardian angels were as present as one’s shadow, and praise of the seraphim was as sacred as the Shema prayer” Fantastic discussion of angels in Judaism.
Demons in the Details: Demonic Discourse and Rabbinic Culture in Late Antique Babylonia by Sara Ronis. “The Babylonian Talmud is full of stories of demonic encounters, and it also includes many laws that attempt to regulate such encounters. In this book, Sara Ronis takes the reader on a journey across the rabbinic canon, exploring how late antique rabbis imagined, feared, and controlled demons.”Another book that as academic in depth but very readable.
Amulets and Magic Bowls: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity by Joseph Naveh and Shaul Shaked. “Amulets and magic bowls are part of a long-standing tradition of magic in the Near East. They were used to protect the home and inhabitants of the home from evil and disease as well as to arouse love. Texts taken from these items provide insight into the society, religion, and culture of pagans and Jews during the early Christian era which corresponds to that of the Talmudic period.”
Jewish Meditation: A Practical Guide by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. “Students of mediation are usually surprised to discover that a Jewish mediation tradition exists and that it was an authentic and integral part of mainstream Judaism until the eighteenth century. Jewish Meditation is a step-by-step introduction to meditation and the Jewish practice of meditation in particular.” He’s an amazing writer who was deeply involved in the meditative aspects of Kaballah. And yeah, this is the same person who wrote a commentary on the Serfer Yetzirah (see below)
Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan translation. The Sefer Yezirah describes the mystical process by which God created the universe and is traditionally, the text that rabbi’s studied to learn how to make golems. Kaplan’s translation is tiny part of the book, it’s his commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah that makes this a must read.
Sword of Moses. Yuval Harari translation. As Harari notes, of the “two Jewish magical treatises – the other being the Sefer ha-Razim (The Book of Mysteries) – that have survived from antiquity in many respects [the Sword of Moses] is the more significant one. It presents a broad assortment of magical practices for accomplishing various goals, all based on the use of a magical ‘‘sword’’ of words, which Moses brought down from heaven.” The link is to a downloadable .pdf from Academia.edu
Sefer ha-Razim, The Book of Mysteries. Michael Morgan translation. The Sefer-ha Razim is a “Jewish magical text supposedly given to Noah by the angel Raziel, and passed down throughout Biblical history until it ended up in the possession of Solomon, for whom it was a great source of his wisdom and purported magical powers.” (quote from Wikipedia)
Shimmush Tehillim (Magical uses of the Psalms). Attributed to Rav Hai Goan, document by Reuven Brauner. Describes magical uses of the Psalms for protection from demons, protection from miscarriage, and a lot more. The link is a downloadable .pdf from Halakhah.com
The Aleph-Bet Bookby Rebbe Nachman of Bresolv. Not a spellbook, per se, but tucked in with the Rebbe’s aphorisms on how to live a good Jewish live are a wonderful assortment of segulah (charms).
Beliefs about Death
Jewish Views of the Afterlife by Simcha Paull Raphael. “Jewish Views of the Afterlife is a classic study of ideas of afterlife and postmortem survival in Jewish tradition and mysticism. As both a scholar and pastoral counselor, Raphael guides the reader through 4,000 years of Jewish thought on the afterlife by investigating pertinent sacred texts produced in each era.” Another must read.
Final Judgement and the Dead in Medieval Jewish Thought by Susan Weissman. “Through a detailed analysis of ghost tales in the Ashkenazi pietistic work Sefer Hasidim, Susan Weissman documents a major transformation in Jewish attitudes and practices regarding the dead and the afterlife that took place between the rabbinic period and medieval times.” Ghosts. The walking dead. Here it is folks.
Folklore Collections
Lilith’s Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural selected by Harold Schwartz. Great collection from around the Jewish world. Includes stories about Lilith and “The Finger,” one of the inspirations for the Tim Burton film “The Corpse Bride.”
Yiddish Folktales translated by Beatrice Weinreich. Includes stories about early modern Jewish monsters including shretelech, who are sprites that, if shown respect and given gifts, will protect the house.
Without Bounds: The Life and Death of Rabbi Ya’aqov Wazana. “Without Bounds illuminates the life of the mysterious Rabbi Ya’aqov Wazana, a Jewish healer who worked in the Western High Atlas region in southern Morocco and died there in the early 1950s. Impressed by his healing powers and shamanic virtuosity, Moroccan Jews are intrigued by his lifestyle and contacts with the Muslim and the demonic worlds that dangerously blurred his Jewish identity.”
Late Modern period (mid-18th century to the 1920’s)
The Jewish Dark Continent: Life and Death in the Russian Pale of Settlement by Nathaniel Deutsch. “Just before World War I, a socialist revolutionary and aspiring ethnographer named An-sky pledged to explore the Pale. He dreamed of leading an ethnographic expedition that would produce an archive—what he called an Oral Torah of the common people rather than the rabbinic elite—which would preserve Jewish traditions and transform them into the seeds of a modern Jewish culture. … Consisting of 2,087 questions in Yiddish—exploring the gamut of Jewish folk beliefs and traditions, from everyday activities to spiritual exercises to marital intimacies—the Jewish Ethnographic Program constitutes an invaluable portrait of Eastern European Jewish life on the brink of destruction.” No one every answered any of An-sky’s questions, but the questions themselves are a portrait of Ashkenazi Jewish beliefs.
Og, King of Bashan riding a Unicorn from Aunt Naomi’s Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends
Other Media
There’s a lot of great material out there and a lot of weird stuff that I stay away from. Here are a few bits I know about and want to share.This list is also really short on rabbinic material. I need to fix that. I’ll cover Jewish monsters and magic artists in another posts.
Podcasts
Jewitches – “Talking about all things Jewish witchcraft, mysticism, folklore, magic, and practice. Bi-weekly deep dives into all things magical & Jewish, hosted by Jewitches.com”
Throwing Sheyd – “Better living through Jewish demonology”. 48 episodes deep dive into Jewish demons filled with warm and wisdom. Alan a nd Miriam are great hosts.
Websites
Pulling Threads – Rediscovering the forgotten rituals of Eastern European Jewish Women
Videos
Jewish Monster Hunting – A practical guide to Jewish Monster Hunting. This is my channel. Only one video so far, but it’s a fun one.
10 Historic Jewish Women Mystics You’ve (Probably) Never Heard of “Are there any Female Jewish Mystics or is Jewish Mysticism just a Boys Club? Join us as we explore ten incredible women Mystics, Martyrs, Mothers, Messiahs, masters of Kabbalah, Educators, Oracles, Patrons, Prophets, Poets and Philosophers who left an unforgettable mark on Jewish History.”
Plagues – Rabbi Elli Fischer. When smoking a pipe became a ritual substitution for burning incense to ward off plague.
“The word Tahdid comes from hdid, metal, in Arabic, bringing in technologies of metallurgy to protection rituals. The women used to hold the mother and baby ‘hostage’ in the room and barter jokingly with the men who were knocking at the door and begging to come in. Joking negotiations back and forth in Judeo-Arabic were meant to make everyone laugh and ensure that everyone knew where the real power was! Once allowed into the mother’s room, the men sang liturgical poetry in Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew, lightly tapped ritual swords against the walls of the four corners of the room, on the baby’s crib and on the four cardinal points, all the places where the evil spirits are said to hide. They then continued singing mystical poems and murmuring prayers in Hebrew and the women finished with loud yuyus of celebration. Afterwards there is a feast for everyone gathered. This Tahdid, from July 2013, was led by the paytan Jacob Wizman, a student of the famous Rabbi David Bouzaglo. Filmed in Casablanca by Ron Duncan Hart.”
Banim Shovavim are half-demons, children of humans and sheydim. The fear of these “wayward children” inspired Jewish folktales as well as religious rituals.
We (humans) have something that sheydim (demons) want. We have bodies. Sheydim were, according to one story (1), created at twilight on the last day of creation and left unfinished. Because of this they have no physical bodies of their own and can take on whatever form they want (2). This is one of the reasons that we Jews recite psalms when, during the ritual of shmirah, we guard the dead. We want to protect the bodies from being inhabited by sheydim (3). Similarly we have methods for protecting ourselves from being possessed by sheydim (e.g. dybbuks) and for exorcising them if necessary (4).
Another way that sheydim attempt to get bodies is by having a child with a human, either by seducing the human (male or female) or by stealing the male’s seed (sperm) when he masturbates. According to Eruvin 18b. after Cain killed Able, Adam and Eve separated for 130 years. During this period they each had sex with demons resulting in a large number of demon children.
Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar said: All those years during which Adam was ostracized for the sin involving the Tree of Knowledge, he bore spirits, demons, and female demons, as it is stated: “And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth” (Genesis 5:3). By inference, until now, the age of one hundred thirty, he did not bear after his image, but rather bore other creatures.
Eruvin 18
We are not Adam and Eve though. The child of normal human and a sheyd is a banim shovavim; half-sheyd (demon) and half-human. The term banim shovavim means comes from Jeremiah 3:14 and means, literally, “wayward” or “rebellious children.” Sheyd believe that banim shovavim can obtain a body as an inheritance from the human parent if they cling to him, particularly when he dies. Traditionally, Jews have been terrified of this. Our religious writings and folklore are filled with maxims to avoid being alone at night and to avoid sexual immorality including (euphemistically) spilling seed. In the modern world, though, its hard to not be a bit sympathetic to the banim shovavim who are children of two worlds and fit in neither.
Banim Shovavim Collage art by Jack Zaientz, 2022 (5)
The “Tale of Posen” tells one of the classic banim shovavim stories. In the story the banim shovim, who have been living in the cellar of their human father, come into conflict with the new owner of their father’s house after he dies. The story is wild in that the banim shovavim ask for and are granted the opportunity to defend the claim to their inheritance in rabbinic court. They lose their case largely on the grounds that as half-demons they do not have the rights of a human. They are then exorcised by R. Joel, a famous Baal Shem wonder rabbi.
As Joshua Tractenberg, in “Jewish Magic and Superstition” tells the tale….
This occurred in Posen at the end of the seventeenth century. … In the main street of Posen there stood a stone dwelling whose cellar was securely locked. One day a young man forced his way into this cellar and was shortly after found dead upon the threshold. Emboldened by this act the “outsiders,” who had killed the intruder in their subterranean haunt, entered the house itself and began to plague the inhabitants by casting ashes into the pots of food cooking on the hearth, throwing things off the walls and the furniture, breaking candlesticks, and similar pranks.
Though they did no harm to the persons of the inhabitants, these were so distressed and frightened that they deserted the house. A great outcry arose in Posen, but the measures taken by the local savants (including the Jesuits) were not sufficiently potent to oust the interlopers, and the foremost wonder-worker of the time, R. Joel Baal Shem of Zamosz, was sent for. His powerful incantations succeeded in forcing the demons to disclose their identity. They contended, however, that this house was their property and demanded an opportunity to substantiate their case before a court of law.
R. Joel agreed, the court was convoked, and before it a demon advocate, who could be heard but not seen, presented his argument. We may still sense in this graphic account of the trial the dramatic tenseness of the scene, the earnestness of the advocate’s plea, the solemn attentiveness of the three bowed gray heads on the bench, the open-eyed wonder, spiced with a dash of terror, of the audience.
The argument ran in this wise: The former owner of the house had had illicit relations with a female demon who, appearing to him as a beautiful woman, had borne him children. In time his lawful wife discovered his infidelity and consulted the great rabbi Sheftel, who forced a confession from the guilty man, and obliged him, by means of an amulet containing fearful holy names, to break off this union. Before his death, however, the demon returned and prevailed upon him to leave her and her offspring the cellar of his house for an inheritance. Now that this man and his human heirs are all dead, contended the advocate, we, his spirit children, remain his sole heirs and lay claim to this house.
The inhabitants of the house then presented their case: we purchased this house at full value from its owner; you “outsiders” are not called “seed of men” and therefore have no rights appertaining to humans; besides, your mother forced this man to cohabit with her against his will. Both sides here rested, the court retired for a consultation, and returned to announce that its decision was against the “outsiders.” Their proper habitat is in waste places and deserts and not among men; they can therefore have no share in this house. To make certain that the decision was carried out R. Joel proceeded to deliver himself of his most terrifying exorcisms, and succeeded in banishing the intruders from cellar as well as house, to the forests and deserts where they belonged.
retold by Joshua Trachtenberg (6)
“A Jewish funeral in Vitebsk” by Shlomo Yudovin (7)
The banim shovavim make their impact on Jewish ritual practice. In addition to inspiring rabbinic exhortations for young men to keep their hands out of their pants, the banim shovavim add an additional fear to funerals. Along with fears that the departed might end up punished in Gehenna (8) or experience hibbut ha-kever, the beatings of the graves (9), the family had to worry that the departed or the departed’s human children might be attacked by his banim shovavim children. Gershom Scholem, one of the first major academic researchers of Kabbalah and Jewish magic, described a protective funerary ritual born from that fear.
The custom I shall now describe is rather extreme in character, but I believe that it illustrates the process by which such ‘anti-demonic’ rites-which later gained almost universal acceptance developed among the Kabbalists. Until quite recently (and occasionally to this day [1960]) Jewish burials in Jerusalem were often marked by a strange happening. Before the body was lowered into the grave, ten men danced round it in a circle, reciting a Psalm which in the Jewish tradition has generally been regarded as a defense against demons (Psalm 91 (10)), or another prayer. Then a stone was laid on the bier and the following verse (Gen. 25 : 6) recited: ‘But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away.’ Tis strange dance of death was repeated seven times. The rite, which in modern times has been unintelligible to most of the participants, has to do with Kabbalistic conceptions about sexual life and the sanctity of the human seed. Here we have an entire myth, the object of which is to mark of the act of generation from other sexual practices, which were interpreted as demonic in nature, and especially from onanism.
Gershom Scholem, “On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism (11)
I’ll admit that I got chills when I first read that passage. Abraham giving gifts to his concubine’s children and then sending them made a certain economic sense, e.g. managing inheritance, but feels cold and alienating from a family connection perspective. The banim shovavim “no-gifts, you’re not really my kids, scram” version is even more brutal. In an earlier era that felt that they were on the receiving end of demonic terror, this was just a safety precaution. Now it just feels like banishing kids who are different. Henry Abramovitch, in an anthropological essay on the “mismeeting” between religious and secular Israelis (12) describes “the situation in which an observant parent is buried with full ritual to the dismay of the nonreligious children.” I feel a bit of that dismay here. Banim shovavim might be wayward children but they’re still our children.
Notes and References
(1) This version of the creation of Demons comes from Pirkei Avot chapter 5, which catalogs a list of wondrous things created on the last day. There are other stories of how demons were created, too. They’re fallen angels. They’re the evil spirits of those who drowned in the flood. They are the children of Adam and Lilith and Eve and Samael. They come from the unfinished corner, from outside creation. More too, those are just some of the big ones.
(2) Except for their feet. Sheydim feet are always chicken feet. Go figure.
(3) For more on guarding the dead, see the article “The Soul, Evil Spirits, and the Undead:: Vampires, Death, and Burial in Jewish Folklore and Law” by Saul Epstein and Sara Libby Robinson, in the journal “Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural.”
(5) I did the collage image for my “Banim Shovavim” Jewish Monsters and Magic trading card. Right now, I’ve completed 90 cards and will hopefully do a Kickstarter in mid-2023. The image combines the 1873 painting “Cellar” by Willem Linnig II with clipped and color adjusted images from the 1935 photo “Small girls sitting on cellar door, Georgetown, Washington, D.C” (courtesy of the Library of Congress).
(8) Gehenna. Is where the dead go if they are not yet fit for the world to come. For a great contemporary book that covers Gehenna, check out “Jewish Views of the Afterlife” by Simcha Paull Raphael. The Jewish Encyclopedia and Wikipedia have good articles too.
(9) Hibbut Ha-Kever, the Beating of the Graves, is described alternately as a pre-Gehenna punishment in the grave or a pre-World-to-Come punishment in the tunnels between your grave and Jerusalem. The Jewish Encyclopedia has a short article and it’s described in the Simcha Puall Raphael book (note 8) and in Joshua Tractenberg’s “Jewish Magic and Superstion” (note 6). Also see the Mosaic magazine article “Who Presides Over the Dead in Judaism? His Name Is Dumah.“
(10) Psalm 91 is commonly used as a segulah (charm) for defense against sheydim.
(11) Gershom Scholem “On Kabbalah and It’s Symbolism” published in 1960, translated to English in 1965. The quoted description is on page 154 in the 1996 Shocken Books / Random House edition. An early edition is currently available online at Archive.org (I’m skeptical that it’s there legally so its likely to vanish some point.)
I haven’t posted since last fall but I’ve been pretty busy with JewishMonster Hunting related shenanigans. I’ve been working on Jewish Monster Hunting Trading Cards. I’ll write a post about them soon, but inthe meantime you check out my pinned post on twitter: https://twitter.com/adnesadeh
Edit: the version of the maps originally attached to this post was V6. I got a lot more suggestions, so the maps at the bottom and their corresponding links are now for v7. No idea if this is the final version, but I’ll keep the post updated.
Edit 2: I got more suggestions so now we’re up to V8.
Judaism doesn’t have a very clear doctrine on what happens after death (1). There is a “World to Come” (HaOlam HaBa). It includes some sort of rebirth but the specifics are contested by the great rabbis. Maimonides described it as a place beyond human comprehension (2). The Torah says little about it. There some references to Sheol, a place of stillness where the dead go. According to some later Jewish writings, we’re spiritually reborn in a new Eden. But other writings describe our rebirth in much more physical terms. We’re reborn here, on earth, in the land of Israel. By some accounts the dead buried at Mount Olive, in Jerusalem, are reborn first so that they can welcome the patriarchs and matriarchs, who are buried in the Cave of Machpelah, when they arrive.
What about those of us who don’t live in Israel. How do we get there to be reborn? According to the Talmud we roll there through tunnels.
The Gemara asks: And according to the opinion of Rabbi Elazar, will the righteous outside of Eretz Yisrael not come alive at the time of the resurrection of the dead? Rabbi Ile’a said: They will be resurrected by means of rolling, i.e., they will roll until they reach Eretz Yisrael, where they will be brought back to life. Rabbi Abba Salla Rava strongly objects to this: Rolling is an ordeal that entails suffering for the righteous. Abaye said: Tunnels are prepared for them in the ground, through which they pass to Eretz Yisrael.
This traveling is called gilgul mehilot, tumbling through tunnels. We are still in our graves, a crumble of bones and earth, when our grave suddenly are connected to other graves through the opening of rough tunnels. These tunnels lead to larger stone lined tunnels to larger tunnels sleek and clean and shining. We roll, bounce, and clatter our way through them. First alone, then with the rest of our family and graveyard neighbors, then in larger and large noisier crowds. Like Ezekiel’s Valley of Dry Bones but our bones are not dry, we’re damp and dusty as our disconnected parts bounce into and through each other on long tumble. Not alive and not aware yet, not really, we vibrate with the excitement of moving and the fear of the demons who inhabit the tunnels who’s chains and whips crack out mercilessly (4).
At least, that’s how I imagine it. I love the image of not just me tumbling, someday, but all of us tumbling together in these angel-hewn passages. I realize my description might sound a bit horrific. Well yeah it is but it’s also comic with my tangle of limbs jumbling with yours until we need to stop and sort out who’s femur is whose and whether these clods are us or dirt or does it matter anyway….we just need to roll and keep rolling. The tunnels echo with the roar of avalanche or an us-alanche as we tumble by the tens and thousands and then millions all the long way to Jerusalem.
That led to me to a funny question. How would we get there? What would map of these tunnels look like? So I made one. I used Wikipedia’s list of “Jewish Cities by Population” which also noted locations of high concentrations of Jews including the entirely Mountain Jewish town of Qırmızı Qəsəbə in Azerbaijan. I also included Lublin, Musul, Granada, Balkh and other Jewish towns now empty of Jews.The map has gone through a number of versions thanks to the contributions of dozens of folks on Twitter who good-naturedly took me to task for missing obvious stops including Galveston, Teaneck, MBale, and Tokyo. It’s not meant to be exhaustive but it is suggestive of where are we and how would we all get there.
Rolling To Jerusalem. A Map.
The map is formatted to a 3:4 ratio for 11″x 18″ poster printing. Here’s a link to a free high resolution file for 3:4 ratio prints. There are lots of print-on-demand sites that will print it for you. It’s about $18 at FedEx. Reach out if you see any errors, want a different aspect ratio for a different print size or if there’s a town you want to see me include. If anyone does print one, let me know!
(1) There are a number of good books on Jewish views of the afterlife. For broad coverage, I highly recommend Simcah Paull Raphael’s “Jewish Views of the Afterlife.”
(3) For the full discussion and contest, see Ketubot 111a at Sefaria.org.
(4) Angels or demons beating the dead in their graves, or while tumbling, is called Hibbut ha-Kever, the Beating of the Graves. Simcha Paull Rahael talks about it in “”Jewish Views of the Afterlife.” The Jewish Encyclopedia has an article on it. Finally, to read a source description of it in English, see Moses Gaster’s 1899 translation ofChronicles of Jerahmeelat Archive.org.
We Jews are people of the book, a nation of priests, with a strong distaste for violence and warfare. The Mishna, citing Isaiah, states “they [weapons] cannot be seen as anything other than reprehensible and in the future they will be eliminated, as it is written: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not raise sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore” (1) But we Jews have, and will continue to, pick up swords (or whatever weapon comes to hand) to fight when necessary. And some of those swords are miraculous. Here are the stories of four of them from the Biblical (and just post-Biblical) period. In future blog posts I’ll pick up the story of swords in later Jewish magic and the story of angel with swords.
Methuselah’s Demon Sword
Those first generations, between Adam and Noah, were constantly beleaguered by demons. According to one Jewish tradition (2) Adam, in his despair after Cain’s murder of Abel, was estranged from Eve for 130 years. Eventually they reconciled and had Seth, but during the time of the estrangement Adam was seduced by Lilith (3) and fathered myriad shedim (demons) and lilin (succubi, daughters of Lilith) (4). These shedim naturally made a nuisance of themselves, causing all sorts of trouble for humanity both attacking them physically and corrupting them morally. Eventually God had enough. Methuselah, son of Enoch (5) and a descendant of Seth, was the tzaddik (righteous man) of his generation. God gave him a magic sword, inscribed with one of God’s names (6), and Methuselah used it to kill 900,000 shedim. Eventually one of the lead demons begged Methuselah for mercy. Methuselah spared the remaining shedim, who then hid away from humanity in the wastelands, mountains, and oceans.
[eventually] The Holy Blessed One gave over the Wicked Ones to Methuselah the righteous, who wrote the explicit name of God upon his sword and slew900,000 in a single moment, until Agrimas [demon king], the first born of the First Man [Adam], came to him. So he stood before Methuselah and he appealed to him to receive him. And he (Agrimas) wrote and gave to him the names of the shedim and lilin and [in turn] they (the sheidim) gave them (humans) iron to restrain [spirits] and they gave their letters in protection, so the remnant (the surviving spirits) concealed themselves in the remotest mountains and in the depths of the ocean Margoliot, Malachei Elyon 204, Geoff Dennis translation (7)
Ilan Young’s “Ancient Israelite warrior with a khopesh sword” (8)
Eventually, Methuselah’s sword was handed down to Noah, to Shem, and then Abraham, who used it during the giant wars. (9) Abraham then passed it down to Isaac, Esau, and Jacob. It’s not clear what happened to sword after Jacob owned it. (10)
Some later commentary portrays Methuselah’s sword as a spiritual weapon, not a pointy-stabby thing (11). Which makes sense. Even with a magic sword, killing 900,000 demons would be a bit of a project. So maybe it was more of a spiritual range weapon. Calling it a spiritual sword also links it with the Sword of Moses magic spellbook tradition, where the spells are thought of as the “sword of the tongue.” (12)
Also, when we talk about Methuselah’s sword, we need to remember that Methuselah lived in the early Bronze age. There were no long steel swords. The sword would likely have been a long bronze dagger or an early variation on the sickle-shaped khopesh sword, which evolved from axes around 2500 BCE. (13, and see Ilan Young’s illustration above). The website BiblicalArtifacts.com hasan example of Bronze Age sword, but note that it’s only 18 inches long. Definitely dagger or short sword territory. The BiblicalArtifact’s sword is currently for sale, if you’ve got an extra $1,500 kicking around.
The Glittering Sword of Kenaz
In the Torah, Kenaz was a minor character, the younger brother of Caleb (who was one of the 12 spies sent by Moses into Canaan). In the book Biblical Antiquities (14) attributed to Pseudo-Philo (15), however, Kenaz was much more important, portrayed as the first judge of Israel after Joshua and the wielder of a magic sword. This popular version of Kenaz integrated fragments of other biblical stories (16) and served as a basis for later storytelling including Gerald Friedlander and George Hood’s lovely 1920 “The Jewish Fairy Book” (17).
The Sword of Kenaz, illustrated by George W. Hood in Gerald Friedlander’s “The Jewish Fairy Book”
According to Pseudo-Philo, Kenaz used his glittering sword during a battle with the Amorites. Despite leading previously successful battles, Kenaz was insulted by his soldiers who thought that he was sending them off to battle while he stayed behind in safety. To show his soldiers that this wasn’t true, Kenaz arranged an early attack on the Amorites by just a small group of his most loyal soldiers and himself. He told his soldiers that he would attack the enemy himself and only to come to his aid if he blew his horn. As Friedlander tells it…
At sunset Kenaz left his tent and went away at the head of his three hundred horsemen. In his hand he held his magic sword. All who saw it trembled like a leaf when moved by the wind. …Away he went. It was almost night and he turned his heart and thoughts to God, praying: “O Lord! God of our fathers! I beseech Thee, do a miracle now. Let me, Thy servant, be chosen to defeat the enemy. With Thy help one man can defeat a million. … Let it come to pass when I draw my sword that it shall glitter and send forth sparks in the eyes of the Amorites who refuse to worship Thee as the only true God.
The spirit of the Lord was like armor around his body. Without fear he went into the camp of the enemy and began to smite them. As soon as they saw his sword they trembled and fell on their faces to the ground. To help him God sent two invisible angels who went before him. One, named Gethel, smote the Amorites with blindness so that they began to kill one another, thinking that they were smiting their enemies. The other angel Zernel bare up the arms of Kenaz, for his strength was beginning to fail him. He smote forty-five thousand men and they themselves smote about the same number among themselves. From, “The Magic Sword of Kenaz” in “The Jewish Fairy Book” (16)
Much like Methuselah’s sword, Kenaz’ sword channeled God’s power to kill a large number of foes and to protect him from harm. Kenaz’ sword, though, was only used to kill humans, not demons. It also had one other property that only showed itself at the end of battle. The sword wouldn’t let Kenaz put it down. Kenaz, in his desperation to let go of the blade, asked an escaping Amorite how to get the sword to release him. The Amorite told Kenaz that he would need to kill one of his own soldiers and cover his hand in blood. Kenaz took the advice, but killed the Amorite instead, figuring that the sword wanted blood but didn’t care whose. Kenaz was right.
Whew. Pretty dark.
It’s not clear where Kenaz’ sword came from, but it was famous enough that the Amorites had heard of it. But it was also new enough to Kenaz that he didn’t know all it’s properties. So… was it Methsuleah’s sword, handed down for 1000 years and given to Kenaz when he became a judge? Or is it a new sword with new powers taken from one nation that the Joshua had conquered? Pseudo-Philo didn’t say. (Also, despite what George Hood’s lovely illustration shows, it was much too early for it to be an iron long sword.)
MONSTER HUNTER PRO TIPS
1. Don’t have Methuselah’s sword handy? Make one. It’s just a pointy sharp amulet. Ok, so your average amulet maker wont have the kavanah (mystical intention) that God has, but hey…are you really going to fight 900,000 demons at once?
2. Getting new glittering magic items is exciting. Make sure you know how to use them.
There is none like it–King David’s Sword
David, who would become king of Israel after Saul, is legendary for slaying Goliath, the Philistine giant. David, the shepherd, is young and handsome, fighting in the name of God. Goliath is large and hulking, the pride of the pagan Philistine army. David wears no armor and doesn’t carry a sword. Goliath is heavily armed and armored. The fight is over almost before it begins….David picks up five stones and uses a sling to thwack one into Goliath’s forehead just under his great bronze helmet. Goliath falls dead. David then grabs Goliath’s heavy sword and beheads him with it. (18)
David Slays Goliath, Gustave Dore (19)
According to Midrash Golyat (20), Goliath’s sword has miraculous powers but it’s not clear what those powers are. It’s possible that they have to do with changing the size or weight of the blade to match the size of the owner. Rashi notes that the much smaller David was only able to try on King Saul’s armor because it miraculously shrank to fit him. (21, 22) It’s possible that the powers could have increased the sword’s strength. There is a similar legend that the five pebbles “came to David of their own accord, and when he touched them, they all turned into one pebble. The five pebbles stood for God, the three Patriarchs, and Aaron.” (23) Or maybe something else entirely.
One thing is for certain, the sword was highly prized. Ahimelech the priest stored the sword in the temple with the priests ephod. This is a rather singular place to stash it. The ephod was a garment of the high priest and was associated with divination. The ephod was worn under the priest’s breastplate, which held the Urim and Thummim divination stones (24). Storing Goliath’s sword with the ephod puts it in holy and powerful company.
The priest [Ahimelech] said, “There is the sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you slew in the valley of Elah; it is over there, wrapped in a cloth, behind the ephod. If you want to take that one, take it, for there is none here but that one.” David replied, “There is none like it; give it to me.” I Samuel 21.9 (25)
I mentioned above that Abraham carried Methuselah’s sword in the first giant wars. David carried Goliath’s sword into the third giant war (26) where David and his men fought the last four remaining giants from the last giant city. (Moses and Joshua fought in the second giant wars, with Moses legendarily killing the giant Og, King of Bashan. (27))
Again war broke out between the Philistines and Israel, and David and the men with him went down and fought the Philistines; David grew weary, and Ishbi-benob tried to kill David.—He was a descendant of the Raphah; his bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels and he wore new armor. 2 Samuel 21:15 (28)
After David’s reign, there is no more mention of Goliath’s sword.
Sword of Judith
Ok, I have to fess up. I’m not aware of any Jewish tradition suggesting that Judith’s sword is miraculous (29). Which makes this an anti-climactic end to a blog post on Jewish magic swords. I think it’s warranted, though. In Judaism, the Book of Judith is Chanukkah’s answer to Purim’s story of Esther. It’s a late, non-canonical, story of a Jewish heroine taking decisive action to fend off cruel and lascivious kings, overturn harsh edicts, and save her people. And, like Megillat Esther, it’s a story where God’s actions are more implied than stated. Unlike Esther, however, it all centers around a sword.
Here’s a short version of the story from the medieval text Kol Bo (30)
Women are obligated to light Hanukkah candles, for they too were included in the miracle. This means that the enemies came to destroy everyone, men, women, and children, and there are those who say that the great miracle occurred through a woman. Her name was Judith, as the story goes, and she was the daughter of Yochanan, the high priest. She was extremely beautiful, and the Greek king wanted her to lay with him. She fed him a dish of cheese to make him thirsty, so that he would drink a great deal and became drunk, and recline and fall asleep. And it happened just that way, and once he was asleep, she took his sword and cut off his head. She brought his head to Jerusalem, and when the armies saw that their leader had been killed, they fled. For this reason, we have the custom of eating a cheese dish on Hanukkah.
There’s a lot more to the story, but that’s gist of it. What I find striking is how much the story echos the story of David and Goliath (31, 32). Underdog hero(ine) wants to avoid a war, wins against all odds, and chops the bad guy’s head off…with the enemies magic sword? Which got me thinking. A devout, brave, and wily Judith gets the advantage of King Holofernes, grabs his sword, and … maybe God was in the downstroke and not just in the inspiration. Maybe it wasn’t a magic sword when she picked it up….but maybe it was when she put it down.
Hanukkah menorah depicting Judith holding King Holofernes head and sword, Italy, 19th century, The Jewish Museum, NY. (33)
Notes and References
(1)Mishna Shabbat 63a:3-5 (Sefira.org), commenting on Isaiah 2:4. Rabbi David Krishef of Congregation Ahavas Israel has a great Sefaria source sheet on “The Use of Weapons in Jewish Sources.” (2) Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Eiruvin 18b (Sefaria.org). “Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar said: All those years during which Adam was ostracized for the sin involving the Tree of Knowledge, he bore spirits, demons, and female demons, as it is stated: “And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth” (Genesis 5:3). By inference, until now, the age of one hundred thirty, he did not bear after his image, but rather bore other creatures.” (3) Ok. This gets wild. According to the Jewish tradition, Lilith was Adam’s first wife and Eve was his second. Lilith rejected Adam because Adam refused to see her as an equal, ran away, got chased down by three angels, claimed that she was now a child-murdering demon and cut a deal that she would not be forced to return to Adam in exchange for not-murdering Adam’s descendants if they hung amulets with the names of angels in the baby’s rooms. The most famous version of this is written in the Alphabet of Ben Sirah (Jewish Women’s Archive) and it is still an active tradition in parts of the traditional Jewish community. You can buy anti-Lilith segulah (charms/amulets) at some traditional Jewish bookstores including Eichlers. In some liberal Jewish communities, Lilith has become a feminist icon, celebrated for her insistence on equality (hence the founding of Lilith magazine.) (4) This is just one of many Jewish traditions on the origins of demons, two other major ones being that they were created by God on the eve of the first Shabbat and that they are the evil spirits of the Nephilim, half-breed giant children of angels and human women. (5) Enoch is a major character in Second Temple Jewish writings, tied to an entirely different story about the origins of demons. Check out the Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees and academic writings from by Andri Orlov, Annette Y. Reed’s “Demons, Angels, and Writing in Ancient Judaism”, and Loren Stuckenbruck‘ “The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts” (6) The sword is an amulet and part of the long tradition of Jewish amulets with a name of God or the name of an angel (7) Rabbi Geoff Dennis is the author of The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism, and the Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism blog. (8) Ilan Young’s “Ancient Israelite warrior with a khopesh sword” Used with permission. Check out his online gallery and Redbubble shop (9) Yes. The Giant Wars. From Genesis 14 “Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim at Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim at Ham, the Emim at Shaveh-kiriathaim, and the Horites in their hill country of Seir as far as Elparan, which is by the wilderness…. A fugitive brought the news to Abram the Hebrew, who was dwelling at the terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, kinsman of Eshkol and Aner, these being Abram’s allies. When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he mustered his retainers, born into his household, numbering three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as Dan” Rephaim, Zuzim and Emim are all tribes of giants, descendants of the Nephalim. The fugitive that runs to Abram is Og, giant king of Bashan. (10) Louis Ginzberg, in “Legends of the Jews” notes “Yalkut David on Genesis 12.1 who cites Sifte Kohen as the authority for the statement that Abraham came in possession of this sword, with which he conquered the kings, and further that Esau thus received it, as heirloom, from Isaac since he was the first born. This sword passed to Jacob when he purchased the birth-right.”) (11)The Chabad.com article on Methuselah makes this point, quoting Midrash Agada, Genesis 5:25. Yalkut Re’uveni, s.v. Bechorah, 2: “Hence his name Metushelach, a conglomerate of Met-Ushelach, meaning “death and dispatch,” a reference to his ability to vanquish the forces of evil.” However, the Arizal (Sha’ar HaPesukim, Parashat Bereishit) points to the verse in Chronicles II (23:10), “וְאִ֣ישׁ שִׁלְח֣וֹ בְיָד֗וֹ” – “Each man with his weapons (“shilcho”) at the ready,” to interpret “Metu-shelach” as a name associated with the possession of a (spiritual) sword of sorts.” (12) The Sword of Moses is a collection of spells that is at 13th or 14th century CE, but could be as early as 4th century C.E. See Yuval Harari’s “The Sword of Moses (Harba de-Moshe): A New Translation and Introduction” or the older Moses Gaster translation. (13) For more on the Khopesh, see Wikipedia (14) Biblical Antiquities was written (probably) between the first and second century CE, shortly before the destruction of the Jersulaem and the Temple in CE. The website Sacred Text has a translation. The story of Kenaz and the sword are in chapter 26. (15) Just to be clear, “Pseudo-Philo” isn’t really a name. The book author is unknown. At one point the author was thought to be Philo of Alexandria but it was later pretty solidly decided that it wasn’t. Hence the cool kids started the author “Pseudo-Philo” because “that unknown writer that’s kinda like Philo but isn’t” is kinda wordy. (16) Nathaniel Vette’s paper “Kenaz: A figure created out of the scriptures?” from provides a nice overview of how Pseudo-Philo’s version of Kenaz is built on fragments of other Jewish writings. Not just proof-texts, but bits of narrative. (17) Archive.org has a lovely scan of the illustrated 1920 edition of “The Jewish Fairy Book.” The scanned images are large, though, so reading the Wikisource text version is easier. (18) David beheading Goliath with his own sword. I Samuel 21.17 at Sefaria.org (19)“David Slays Goliath” by Gustave Dore. (Wikimedia.com. Public domain) (20) The claim that Midrash Golyat says the sword is magical was made by Jewish Encyclopedia. (21) Rashi on I Samuel 17:38 from Sefaria.org “They [Saul’s armor] changed and became David’s size, since he had been anointed with the anointing oil, although they belonged to Saul who was taller than all of the other people, from his shoulder and upward. And when Saul noted this, he cast an [evil eye] toward him, and David realized it.” (22) Is David short or tall and why it matters? Avinoam Sharon wrote a detailed discussion of the theological implications of David’s height in “Height Theology: The Theological use of Lexical Ambiguity in the David and Goliath Story” (23)Louis Ginzberg, Legends of Jews. (24) Rashi describes the Urim and Thummim, (Sefaria.org) saying “This was an inscription of the Proper Name of God which was placed between the folds (i. e. the two pieces forming the front and back) of the breast-plate through which it (the breast-plate) made its statements clear (lit., illuminated its words; מאיר from אור, light, this being an allusion to the אורים) and its promises true (מתמם from the root תמם, an allusion to תמים) (Yoma 73b). In the second Temple there was certainly the breast-plate (although other objects employed in the Temple Service were missing) for it was impossible that the High Priest should have lacked a garment, but that Divine Name was not within it. It was on account of the inscription which constituted the Urim and Thummim and which enabled it to give decisions that it was called “judgment”, as it is said, “And he shall enquire for him by the judgment of the Urim” (Numbers 27:21). (25) David collecting the sword of Goliath from Ahimelech the priest I Samuel 21.10 at Sefaria.org (26) For a good scholarly essay on David’s wars, including the battles with the giants, see Moshe Garsiel’s “David’s Elite Warriors and Their Exploits in the Books of Samuel and Chronicles” (Academia.edu) (27) Moses fighting with Og, King of Bashan is one of my favorite pieces of Jewish lore. For a good run down on it see the “They might Be Giants” the ParshaNut D’var Torah for Parshat Dvarim. If you happen to have JSTOR access an even better overview is written up in “The Story of a Giant Story: The Winding Way of Og King of Bashan in the Jewish Haggadic Tradition” by Admiel Kosman. (JSTOR) (28)The Raphah were related to the Rephaim, a race of giants. This was David’s last battle and possibly last battle of Goliath’s sword. After this David was considered to valuable to the nation to be allowed to fight. See 2 Samuel 21:15 (Sefaria.org) (29) And I really tried. For example, Deborah Levine Gera’s wonderful article “Shorter Medieval Hebrew Tales of Judith” summarizes a wide variety of Jewish midrash about Judith. Not one magic sword. Rats. (30) Judith, Chanukkah, and Cheese in Kol Bo (Sefaria.org). For the full version, see ST-Talka.org’s Book of Judith translation. (31) FWIW, I noticed this myself but pretty much everyone makes this connection. It’s a well documented part of Judith lore and art. For example, “Stories in Art: Comparing David & Goliath and Judith & Holofernes” notes that “Paintings of David illustrate his heroism and bravery, and paintings of Judith should show the same traits. Instead, paintings of Judith often depict her as weak, passive and barely able to wield a sword, while emphasizing her beauty and sexuality.” (32) The story of Judith is also very similar to the story of Jael, in Judges 4:18 (Sefaria.org). Jael kills a cruel king Sisera who fell asleep in her tent with a tent peg and a mallet. For more on Jael, see the Jewish Women’s Archive article. (33) The image of the menorah with Judith holding a sword comes from Deborah Levine Gera’s article “Judith: Chanukkah Heroine?” in the TheTorah.com. Reproductions a different Judith menorah are available on Ebay right now, if you’ve got a some cash to burn.
Here’s a fun version of the Serah bat Asher story I wrote up and read at a friend’s “Harry Potter” themed passover seder last year. Thought I’d share it.
We are a people of history, of memory, of continuity. We teach. And we remember.
When Moses readied the Hebrews to leave, after the final terrible plagues and after the Angel of Death had passed over their doors, there was still one last task. A promise that needed to be kept. A promise far older than the pharaoh who was even now readying his chariots and soldiers. A promise demanded by Joseph, son of Jacob the patriarch, at the very beginning of the Hebrews sojourn in Egypt. Joseph had his brothers and their children promise that someday, when they would finally leave Egypt and travel to the promised land, they would take Joseph with them.
But it is 400 years later and Moses, who was raised in Pharaoh’s house, did not know where the bones of Joseph were buried. Nor did the elders of the Hebrews. The burial had been in secret. So they went to Serah bat Asher and Serah knew. Serah knew because she was Serah the immortal, who had been there 400 years earlier. Serah was the adopted daughter of Asher, who was Jacob’s son and Joseph’s brother. Serah had been Jacob’s favorite, studying at her grandfather’s knee and learning all the old lore. She not only learned about the one God but the deep secrets of how God made the universe, and how the universe could be remade, all that Jacob had learned from Shem and Ever, the son and grandson of Noah. For her devout diligence, God had blessed her with learning and understanding.
And then Jacob blessed her with immortality. After Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt, Jacob had broken. He mourned and grieved for Joseph, with a face wet with tears that never dried. When, years later, the brothers learned that Joseph, with God’s help, still lived and flourished in Egypt, they rushed to tell Jacob. But they feared the news might be too much of a shock, that it might kill their father. So they begged Serah to tell him, to find a way to ease the news. And Serah knew how. She took her harp and sat next to Jacob as he prayed, as she always did. She played and sang all the prayers of Jacob’s heart. As Jacob was filled with prayer and was closest to God, she sang new words to him. She sang of Joseph being alive and healthy and that Jacob would see him soon. Jacob finished his prayers, weeping now in joy, and blessed Serah, saying “My daughter, may death never prevail against you forever, for you have revived my spirit.” The blessing of a patriarch is a powerful thing.
Death never did prevail against her. So she was there when the Jacob and the brothers went down to Egypt. She was there when Joseph made the brothers promise to take him with them when they left Egypt. And she was there, years later, watching quietly from the tall grasses, when the Egyptian wizards sunk Joseph’s body in a hidden spot in the Nile river, in a metal coffin, covered with sigils and signs, such that it would never rise again. Because the Egyptian wizards knew that the Hebrews would never abandon Joseph and would never leave if they could not find his bones.
That is why, 400 years later when Moses came to her, she was able to lead him to where Joseph’s metal coffin had been sunk. She stood with Moses, as Moses, in God’s name and using the names of God that Serah had learned, said “Joseph, Joseph, the time has arrived about which the Holy One, Blessed be He, took an oath saying that I (God) will redeem you. And the time for fulfillment of the oath that you administered to the Jewish people that they will bury you in Eretz Yisrael has arrived. If you show yourself, it is good, but if not, we are clear from your oath.” Immediately, the casket of Joseph floated to the top of the water.
Serah, the immoral, had learned great secrets and had shared them with her people and sustained them.
When God divided the Red Sea, Serah bat Asher crossed the dry sea bed with Moses and Miriam and the rest of the Hebrews, marveling at the miracle.
Serah was with them at Sinai, when Moses came down from the mountain with the tablets of the commandments, as well as gifts given by angels including Moses’ sword, his great book of spells. Serah was with them when Moses fought and destroyed the giant Og, King of Bashan, who had lived since before Noah and had tried to throw down a mountain on Moses and the Hebrews (but the spell book and the giant are stories for a different night). And Serah was with them when, at last, they entered Eretz Yisrael with two arks, the holy ark with God’s commandments that was venerated by the people and a second ark, that was shielded from the people, an ark that carried Joseph’s bones finally fulfilling the old promise.
And so it was two thousand years later, when Serah lived in Eretz Yisrael, in the Galilee, in the north, that she stood outside the schoolhouse of Rabbi Yohannan and listened.
Rabbi Yohanan was [once] sitting and expounding about how the waters became like a wall for Israel [at the time they miraculously passed through the Sea which had split open before them to permit their Exodus from Egypt]. Rabbi Yohanan explained that the waters looked “like a lattice.” However, just at that moment, Serah bat Asher looked in and said: “I was there and they (the waters) were not like that but rather like lighted windows.”
It is now 2000 years after that, more than 4000 years after Serah bat Asher was born. Some believe that she still lives, still sharing her memories and helping us remember who we have been and who we are. Others believe that she moved to Persia and, during the fire at the great synagogue of Esfahan, ascended directly to heaven to again study with Jacob and to intercede with God when her people needed healing and help. Either way, Serah the immortal never died, and tonight is a night to remember Serah and to thank God for memory and wisdom and to thank our parents and teachers and friends and Rabbi’s and everyone we learn from.
I opened my last post saying, “We grow, love, and die in the flash of a firefly on a summer evening. But not Serah bat Asher. She lives forever.” But maybe that’s not right. Let’s try again….
We grow, love, and die in the time it takes for a snowflake to fall. But not Serah bat Asher. She’s still falling …. with no soft snowbank to catch her.
Just falling.
Serah in Exile
What did Jacob mean when he blessed her saying “may death never prevail against thee forever?” Did that mean that she would live an immortal, physical, life on Earth, as I suggested in my two prior posts? Maybe. But that isn’t what happened to either Enoch or Elijah, the other two most noteworthy immortal humans in the Jewish tradition. Both of them ascended from a mortal life on Earth to become part of the heavenly court (1). There is a tradition, in the Mizrahi Jewish community, that says Serah ascended as well. Falling up, to the heavenly court to again study with Joseph and Jacob (2).
For Serah, though, there was no miraculous whirlwind to carry her away (1), there was just a fire. She burned, trapped with other Jews of Esfahan, as the old synagogue collapsed. It was the 12th century CE and she had been living Esfahan, Persia (now Iran), since the the 9th century CE (3). She’d been moving back and forth between Israel and Persia since Israel was the Kingdom of Judah, before the Babylonian exile (in the 500’s BCE). When the smoke cleared and the stones cooled other bodies remained to be mourned but Serah was gone. She had been taken, alive, to paradise.
When the synagogue was rebuilt it became known as the Synagogue of Serah bat Asher. According to Mark Bergman, “In the Jewish cemetery of Isfahan, there was to be found, at least until the end of the 19th century, a gravestone marking the final resting place of “Serah the daughter of Asher the son of our Patriarch Jacob” who died in the year equivalent to 1133 CE. The gravesite of Serah bat Asher marked by a small mausoleum known as heder Serah, “Serah’s Room,” remained for centuries one of the most well known pilgrimage sites for the Jews of Persia (4).”
View of Serah bat Asher cemetery at Pir Bakran (formerly Linjan) near Esfahan, Iran. (5) The shrine for Serah bat Asher at the Jewish cemetery in Esfahan, Iran. From the “Salmiya: Glimpses of the Middle East” blog. (6)
Serah the Healer
Serah’s ascension was just a transition. She was still the same immortal protector she’d been. The same daughter of Asher and granddaughter of Jacob she had always been. She just now had a balcony view and new roles and powers. In particular, she would become known as a healer and as a teacher of mystical knowledge to women (2). Her shrine was a place of healing, similar to the matriarch Rachel’s Tomb, near Bethlehem. (7) In its collection, the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA) that was recorded in 1978 by the Darshan (“Preacher”) Mulah Shmuel Shammai from Yazd, Persia (Iran) (4). While the story is probably more poetic than ethnographic, it shows how Serah was revered and the role she played. I’ve abridged the story a bit.
Once there was in Esfahan a boy name named Hayyim who lost his sight. When the physicians gave up hope of curing him, Hayyim was told by his neighbors to go and prostrate himself at the gravestone of Serah bat Asher and there to lift up his hands in supplication to the Heavenly Healer.
Here the storyteller explains as follows:
In the Iranian Exile the Jews are accustomed to prostrate themselves at the gravestone of Serah, as the custom here in Israel is to prostrate oneself at the tomb of our Matriarch Rachel in Bet Lehem. Like the tomb of Rachel, so too the tomb of Serah is located in a “room” (i.e., a mausoleum). This room has wondrous doorposts. It is well-known that only people who are of good character and deeds may enter; but anyone else—the entrance to the room shrinks before him and prevents him from entering.
Young Hayyim prayed and fasted so that he would be found worthy to enter the room and in the evening he went to the room of Serah in Esfahan and the doorposts of the entrance open wide before him. He entered and spread out his hands before the Heavenly Healer. He cried with a broken heart and offered his petition: “O Heavenly Healer, return to me by the merit of this righteous woman the light of my eyes. But if you say: I have promulgated an irrevocable decision and I cannot repeal it, then be it known to you that my soul longs for Torah. Give me, then, my father and my king, the light of Torah. Give me wisdom to understand Your teaching.”
When Hayyim had finished his prayer, he fell asleep. At midnight, while dreaming, there appeared to him a woman, whose face was like the face of an angel of God. She said to him: I am Serah bat Asher. I have joined in your prayer. Behold I bring you good tidings that God has had mercy on you and has granted your second petition.
Hayyim was happy that his prayer had been answered and awoke from his dream much encouraged. As time went on, Hayyim learned Torah. He knew it and the Siddur and the Mahzor by heart. As Hayyim grew, his dream was fulfilled. He immersed himself in the depths of Torah. He became a much sought after Hazan (“Cantor”), a well-known preacher and a famous Mulah. Behold, he is none other than the Mulah, Hayyim Rushan (“the Blind” in Iranian) from Isfahan. May his merit protect us!”
Israel Folktale Archives (IFA) number 11999. Marc Bergman, translation. (e)
So did Jacob’s blessing of immortality include spiritual ascension or is it strictly physical and Serah still walks the Earth? The answer, as is often the case in Judaism, is both…depending on which sources you’re focusing on. The two different traditions of Serah’s immortality mirror, I think, two different ideas in Judaism about what happens after we die. Judaism is very clear that something happens to us after we die. But the details are fuzzy, there are traditions that talk specifically about restoration of the body in Israel and other traditions that talk of spiritual rebirth at the side of God. I’ll get to them in later blog posts, because a Jewish monster hunter needs to be ready to deal with ghosts, both tethered and wandering, dybbuk possession, both ghost and demon), and other ways the after-death experience can come back and interfere the living we protect.
MONSTER HUNTER PRO TIPS
1. Be ready to ask for help. Healing, and other kinds of power, come from God, but we have a history of asking angels, sages, prophets, and ancestors for a little support. Hey…Moses and Abraham both talked God out of scary decrees in the past. It’s worth a try.
Notes and References (1) I will write about Enoch and Elijah’s ascensions in later blog posts. Each have a large volume of lore around them, far too much to get into here. (2) According to the Zohar, after her ascension Serah took up a new role as the teacher of Torah and mystical wisdom to women. From Zohar,“(I)n another chamber, there is Serah bat Asher, and many myriads and thousands of women with her. Three times a day, the announcement comes: The likeness of Yosef the tzadik is coming! With joy she goes out, to that curtained area which is dedicated to her, and observes the light of the likeness of Yosef. With joy she bows before it, saying, “Happy was that day, when I gave the tidings before my grandfather [that you were still alive]!” Then she returns to the rest of the women, and they delve into the praises of the Ruler of the world, and praise the Name. How many places and joys each and every one of them has! Then they return and delve into the precepts of Torah, along with their meanings.”Zohar 3:167a:5 (3) http://archive.diarna.org/site/detail/public/774/ and Schwartz Tree of Souls (4) Marc Bergman’s “Serah Bat Asher: Biblical Origins, Ancient Aggadah and Contemporary Folklore” (5) Image by Kipala.Wikimedia Commons. The image is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. (6) The shrine for Serah bat Asher at the Jewish cemetery in Pir Bakrah, in the province of Isfahan, Iran. The picture is from the “Salmiya: Glimpses of the Middle East” blog post titled “Pir Bakran” and is reused on the website “Diarna: The Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life” page about the Serah bat Asher shrine. The blog post has lots of other pictures and a description of the author, Muller’s, visit to the Pir Bakran Jewish and Sufi cemetery’s and the Serah bat Asher shrine. (7) Rachels Tomb is one of the holiest sites in Judaism has a long tradition of being a place of healing. Wikepedia has a nice write up on the Tomb.
We grow, love, and die in the flash of a firefly on a summer evening. But not Serah bat Asher. She lives forever. As I described in my last post, “Serah bat Asher: Immortal Secret Keeper,” Serah had lived for two thousand years by the time she leaned into Rabbi Yohannan’s window to tell him that the Red Sea looked like lighted glass. By 2020, she’s nearing 4000. That’s about 130 generations of Jews for whom she’s looked out. Give or take. While the Jewish tradition doesn’t chronicle all of her adventures, there are a few more to share. Which is great, because each one has something deep to teach us.
Serah bat Asher, Werewolf Hunter!
The Tanach, in II Samuel, tells of Serah saving a city during the reign of King David and of her hunting werewolves! Sheba ben Bichri, a “scoundrel” of the tribe of Benjamin, was leading a rebellion against King David. David sends his army, lead by Joab, to smack down the rebellion. First, Joab applies some pre-game stabbiness to another of David’s generals (1). Then he and his troops catch up with Sheba, who’s hiding with his troops in city of Abel of Beth-maacah. Which is a great hideout for a scoundrel. It’s up on a hill, strong walls, lots of locals to use as human shields. Perfect! To support the kingdom of Israel, and to stop the conflict before Joab tears down the city walls and applies more stabbiness to the city’s inhabitants, an unnamed “clever woman” comes out of city and demands to speak to Joab. First she convinces him that attacking is a bad move (why destroy one of David’s cities? David might want it later). Then she convinces the people of the city to decapitate Sheba and throw his head over the wall (2). While the Tanach doesn’t identify the woman, Rashi does. The clever woman was, of course, Serah who “completed the faithful of Israel. (3).”
A scoundrel named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjaminite, happened to be there. He sounded the horn and proclaimed: “We have no portion in David, No share in Jesse’s son! Every man to his tent, O Israel!” … And David (the king) said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bichri will cause us more trouble than Absalom. So take your lord’s servants and pursue him, before he finds fortified towns and eludes us.”….
[E]verybody continued to follow Joab in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri. [Sheba] had passed through all the tribes of Israel up to Abel of Beth-maacah; and all the Beerites assembled and followed him inside. [Joab’s men] came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maacah; they threw up a siegemound against the city and it stood against the rampart. All the troops with Joab were engaged in battering the wall, when a clever woman shouted from the city, “Listen! Listen! Tell Joab to come over here so I can talk to him.”
He approached her, and the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” “Yes,” he answered; and she said to him, “Listen to what your handmaid has to say.” “I’m listening,” he replied.
And she continued, “In olden times people used to say, ‘Let them inquire of Abel,’ and that was the end of the matter. I am one of those who seek the welfare of the faithful in Israel. But you seek to bring death upon a mother city in Israel! Why should you destroy the LORD’s possession?”
Joab replied, “Far be it, far be it from me to destroy or to ruin! Not at all! But a certain man from the hill country of Ephraim, named Sheba son of Bichri, has rebelled against King David. Just hand him alone over to us, and I will withdraw from the city.”
The woman assured Joab, “His head shall be thrown over the wall to you.”
The woman came to all the people with her clever plan; and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it down to Joab. He then sounded the horn; all the men dispersed to their homes, and Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.
II Samuel 20:1 to 20:23 (4)
So, using her wisdom and long memory to save a city of thousands from being destroyed is pretty great. But I promised werewolves…where are the werewolves‽ As I keep saying in my posts, Jewish monster hunters have to read the texts carefully. And remember that reading Torah is about making associations. This story already has Rashi associating an unnamed person, the clever woman, with Serah, a well known woman. So I’m adding my own midrash to the Serah story that fills in the family drama and generational associations. Here goes…
Jan Cossiers – Júpiter y Licaón. 17th Century. (5)
Sheba ben Bichri wasn’t just any rebel. He was a Benjaminite. In my prior post, Benjamin is a Predatory Wolf, I talked about Serah’s grandfather Jacob blessing her uncle Benjamin as being a “predatory wolf” e.g. a werewolf. The Jewish tradition has always understood Jacob’s blessing to be as much focused on Benjamin’s descendants as on Benjamin himself. So if Benjamin was a werewolf, then some of Benjamin’s descendants are too. And Serah would know that. She was there when Benjamin was blessed. She would have recognized Sheba for what he was as soon as he entered the city. And she rallied the town to hunt him down and throw his head over the wall.
Monster Hunter Pro Tips
1. Werewolves are vulnerable to decapitation. Particularly when in human form. 2. Stay vigilant. While we have no shortage of external foes, the enemy is also us. 3. Be a leader. Serah didn’t save her city by picking up a sword and going it alone. She rallied her town and taught them how to fight.
I love the idea of Serah as an eternal counterbalance to Benjamin’s curse. Monster hunter counterbalancing threat, all within the family. And it is a family thing. Serah is an Asherite, the daughter of Benjamin’s brother Asher. Asher had the opposite blessing from Benjamin, to receive royal rewards (6), and was known for his single-minded virtue (7). This single-mindedness for good, inherited from her father, is Serah’s third blessing, after God blessing her with wisdom and Jacob blessing her with immortality.
So Serah, as I see it, is a perfect example of a Jewish monster hunter, using deep Torah and mystical knowledge to protect Jews from the werewolves, and other threats, in our own communities. She’s not a warrior, the way Abraham was. She’s not a combat mage, the way Moses was (8). None of her blessings gave her that kind of fire power. She’s more Willow than Buffy (9). As a vigilant keeper of our memory, though, she’s what we need.
Abel of Beth-Maachah, near Metula, Israel. View of the tower, with its northeastern corner of large boulders and the layers of small stones, looking southwest. Tel Abel Beth Maacah Excavations. (10)
It’s worth noting that not everyone in the Jewish tradition agrees with my applause for Serah’s handling of the Sheba situation. As early as the 2nd Century CE, the rabbi’s who wrote the Tosefta debated the ethics of sacrificing a single person to save a group. In Tosefta Terumot 7.23, the rabbi’s are split (11). They seem to decide that in this case it was justified because Sheba was a criminal who was endangering in the city, that handing him over (or handing over his head) avoided the group being punished for his crime, and that Joab was a Jew. In other cases, particularly when the threat comes from outside, however it’s better to let the group die as a group, before sacrificing the individual. We’re not to be complicit in the crime.
Stay tuned for next post, when we hear about “Serah in Exile or The Death of Serah?“
Notes and References (1) David gave his generals Joab and Amasa a set amount of time to gather their troops. Amasa was late…so Joab stabbed him to death on the street and commandeered his troops. As one does. II Samuel 20 @ Sefaria. (2) According to the midrash (Genesis Rabba 94:9), Serah convinces the people of the city using the following strategy. “The woman immediately came to all the people with her clever plan. ‘Do you not know David’s reputation?’ she urged them, ‘Which kingdom has successfully resisted him?’ ‘What does he demand?’ they asked her. ‘A thousand men,’ she replied, ‘and is it not better [to sacrifice] a thousand men than to have your city destroyed?’ ‘Let everyone give according to his means,’ they proposed. ‘Perhaps he would be willing to compromise,’ she suggested. She then pretended to go and appease him, and returned with the number reduced from a thousand to five hundred, then to one hundred, to ten, and finally to one, a stranger there, and who was he? – Sheba the son of Bichri. They promptly cut off his head [and threw it down to Joab]” The translation comes from Moshe Reiss’ essay “Serah bat Asher in Rabbinic Literature.” (3) Rashi’s full commentary on this passage was “I am [from the people of the city] that are loyal and trustworthy to Yisroel. I am from the people of the city that are loyal and trustworthy to Yisroel and to the king. An Aggadic Midrash [states:] this was Serah, the daughter of Asher. I faithfully rewarded those who faithful [to God]: Through me, the location of Yosef’s coffin was revealed to Moshe. I told Yakov that Yosef was alive.” (4) A slightly trimmed version of II Samuel 20 (Sefaria.org). (5) Ok, Jan Cossiers painting Júpiter y Licaón is a scene from Greek mythology…. but you get the idea. Public Domain Image from Wikipedia Commons. I really need an art budget. (6) See Genesis 49:20 (Sefaria.org) (7) In The Testament of Asher the Tenth Son of Jacob and Zilpah, one of the Apocryphal books, Asher is quoted as saying. “All these things, therefore, I proved in my life, and I wandered not from the truth of the Lord, and I searched out the commandments of the Most High, walking according to all my strength with singleness of face unto that which is good.” Testament of Asher @ Sefaria.org. The Testaments of Asher comes from The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, which is a bit of a muddy text. The text we have took its final form around the 2nd century CE and mixes Jewish and Christian thoughts. I’m citing this text because it’s a good example, but the sentiment shows up elsewhere. (8) Yes. Abraham was a warrior and Moses was a mage. The tradition is pretty specific on both points. Abraham being a warrior is straight Tanach. See Genesis 14 (Sefaria.org) Not even Talmud. Same with Moses’s magic. Remember the whole rods to serpents and 12 plagues incidents? Oh, and his brass serpent? Yeah, that’s all at God’s direction so if we’re being Dungeons and Dragons technical, that makes him a cleric, not a mage. But my previous post about Serah, where Moses raised Joseph’s coffin from the Nile, is a good example of mage power. Abraham and Moses’s being badasses will come up over and over again. I’ll write both soon when I write about Og the giant. (9) In case you don’t get the reference, I’m talking about characters from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Which is a fantastic contemporary monster hunting TV show (and a meditation on what it’s like to be a teenager in America). It is absolutely not based on Jewish lore, but it does have Jewish characters including Willow, one of Buffy’s “Scooby gang” sidekicks. Willow is often the brains of the team. Buffy has the punch and the willpower, but Willow has the smarts and the lore. The show also happens to have a Jewish werewolf named Daniel “Oz” Osborne. Oz isn’t a Benjamite, though, he became a werewolf the ouch way.
(10) Tel Abel beth Maachah. Near Metula, Israel. The picture is a view of the tower, with its northeastern corner of large boulders and the layers of small stones, looking southwest. Photo by Tel Abel Beth Maacah Excavations. Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons license. CC-BY-SA-4.0 (11) Tosefta Terumot 7.23 (Sefaria.org). Sefaria community translation. “A group of [Jews] to whom gentiles say, “Give us one of you and we shall kill him, and if not, behold, we will kill all of them”; they should let themselves be killed and not deliver them one soul from Israel. But if they designated [the person] to them – for example, Sheva ben Bichri – they should give him to them and not let themselves be killed. Rabbi Yehuda said, “When do these words apply? In a case when he is [inside and they are] outside [a fortified city]; but in a case when he is inside and they are inside, since he will be killed and the [other Jews] will be killed, they should give him to them and not let themselves all be killed. And so did it state (II Samuel 20:22), ‘And the woman come to all of the people in her wisdom, etc.’ – she said to them, ‘Since he will be killed and you will be killed, give him to them and do not kill all of you.’” Rabbi Shimon says, “So did she say [to them], ‘Anyone who rebels against the monarchy [of the House of David] is liable to [receive] the death penalty.’”
According to the Jewish tradition, there are three righteous people who never died. Or maybe it’s seven (1). Or nine (2). It depends on the source. But all the sources I know of agree on the first three. They are Enoch, who walked with God (3); the prophet Elijah, who ascended to heaven in a whirlwind (4); and Serah, blessed by God with wisdom and by her grandfather Jacob with eternal life. Jewish monster hunters should be on the lookout for Serah. Throughout her life she has been a wise protector and keeper of our forgotten knowledge. (And as I’ll write about next week, a werewolf hunter!) Wouldn’t it be something, to sit with her for an hour and learn from her stories? Or to offer her our company and aid?
Serah’s stories are high adventure! Grab some popcorn and let’s go!
Ephraim Moses Lillian’s “The Song of Life” (5) While, as far as I know, not intended to be a representation of Serah, I think this image captures her perfectly.
Serah bat Asher & The Gift of Wisdom
Serah was the adopted daughter of Asher and the granddaughter of Jacob, the Patriarch. She was first mentioned in the Torah in the list of Jacob’s household that moved to Egypt, under the protection of Joseph (6). This mention, to careful readers such as Rabbi’s and Jewish monster hunters, is striking. While there is a long list of Jacob’s grandsons, she is the only granddaughter named. So why was she so important? Because, along with Joseph, she was one of two spiritual heirs of Jacob. Serah’s uncles (and two cousins) might have been founders of the 12 tribes, but they were mostly jerks. Eight of them sold her (ninth) uncle Joseph into slavery, right? And, as I mentioned in my previous blog post, her 10th uncle, Benjamin, was a werewolf! Nice family, right? Well, according to the Sefer Yasher, Serah was special from the start.
And after the death of Asher’s wife he went and took Hadurah for a wife, and brought her to the land of Canaan. And Serah her daughter he brought also with them, and she was three years old; and the damsel was brought up in Jacob’s house. And the damsel was of comely appearance, and she went in the holy ways of the children of Jacob, and the Lord gave her wisdom and understanding.
Sefer HaYasher, Bereshit, Vayeshev. (7)
Serah, according to the Sefer HaYasher, is a prophet blessed by God with wisdom, similar to her uncle Joseph. It was Serah who told Jacob that Joseph was still alive. This was a big deal. Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son. When, years earlier, Serah’s jerk uncles claimed (falsely) that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal, it almost killed Jacob (8). Now, Serah’s uncles have gone to Egypt, humbled by drought and begging for food, and come back with incredible news. Joseph is alive, has forgiven them, is a high ranking officer under Pharaoh, and wants them to move to Egypt under his protection. But Jacob’s an old man now. How could they tell Jacob without shocking and possibly killing him? They asked Serah to do it.
Serah knew her grandfather well. She had studied with him and was devoted to him (9). She chose just the right moment. Jacob stood in prayer, strengthened by his devotion to God, and Serah joined him joyfully, playing her harp and singing (10). As the Midrash HaGadol tells it….
[The brothers said:]If we tell him right away, “Joseph is alive!” perhaps he will have a stroke [lit., his soul will fly away]. What did they do? They said to Serah, daughter of Asher, “Tell our father Jacob that Joseph is alive, and he is in Egypt.” What did she do? She waited till he was standing in prayer, and then said in a tone of wonder, “Joseph is in Egypt/ There have been born on his knees/ Menasseh and Ephraim” [three rhyming lines]. His heart failed, while he was standing in prayer. When he finished his prayer, he saw the wagons: immediately the spirit of Jacob came back to life.
Midrash HaGadol on Genesis 45:26. Translated by Avivah Zornberg (11)
Imagine the power of the moment. Jacob is caught up in his prayers and hears a beloved voice telling him what he always wanted to hear but would never have believed. His broken spirit flies away and returns whole. Joseph is alive. Jacob will live and in gratitude he blesses Serah. And, as I’ve discussed before, the blessing of a patriarch is an immensely powerful thing. Jacob says….
My daughter, may death never prevail against thee forever, for thou hast revived my spirit, only repeat thou this song once more before me, for thou hast caused me gladness with thy words.
Sefer HaYashar, Book of Genesis, Vayigash (10)
Serah has been blessed to live forever.
Ok. A quick digression. This first part of Serah’s story connects with how we Jews got to Egypt. In the second part, Serah’s story connects with how we leave. Then the third part connects with how we remember the Exodus.These connections, and the parallels between Serah’s immortality and that of the prophet Elijah’s, makes Serah’s story great to tell at a seder table.If that sounds like fun, you might check out “Serach at the Seder” by Yitzhak Buxbaum (12). He did a lovely job writing a haggadah supplement. Or make your own that fits your seder.
Yitzhak Buxbaum’s “Serach at the Seder: A Haggadah Supplement.” (12)
Serah bat Asher, Keeper of Secrets
Jacob’s descendants are crying out in slavery. 400 years has passed from the time that Serah accompanied her tribe to Egypt and a new pharaoh has forgotten Joseph. But Serah still lives. She still remembers the her youth, the high country side, the smells of cooking and animals, the singing at night, and the prayers, as well as Jacob and all she learned from him. Then Moses comes and demands, in the name of God, that Pharaoh release the Hebrews and, just as boldly, demands that the Hebrews be ready to follow him out of Egypt. The Hebrews were confused and scared. Had God finally remembered them? Would Moses demands be met? Or would Moses’s demands bring down additional suffering? The terrible days of Pharaoh’s army murdering newborn Hebrew boys was not that many years ago and still hung over them. Follow Moses? Or reject him? How would they decided? Again, the tribe turned Serah. The Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer tells the story….
When Moses and Aaron came to the elders of Israel and performed the signs in their sight, the elders of Israel went to Serah, the daughter of Asher, and they said to her: A certain man has come, and he has performed signs in our sight. She said to them: There is no reality in the signs. They said to her: He said “God will surely visit you.” She said to them: He is the man who will redeem Israel in the future from Egypt, for thus did I hear, “I have surely visited you” (Exodus 3:16). Forthwith the people believed in their God and in His messenger, as it is said, “And the people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel” (Exodus 4:31)
A slightly simplified version of Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer 48:17 (13)
Serah had learned deep lessons of Torah from Jacob, who learned them from Isaac who learned them from Abraham and from the school Shem and Ever (9). She recognized Moses’ language for what it was, the prophesied words of God. In so doing, she connected the current generation of Hebrews to the teachings of her teachers and to their own history…and gave them courage and faith.
Finally Pharaoh gave the word that the Hebrews were free and the Hebrews scrambled to ready themselves. But there was still a major task to be done before they could follow Moses out of Egypt. The bones of Joseph had to be found. Joseph, Serah’s uncle who had brought Serah and the tribe to Egypt, had made them swear that they would not leave him behind when they would finally leave Egypt (14). And even with the chariots of Pharaoh readying themselves to give chase, the promise had to be kept.
Moses, who grew up in the home and temples of Pharaoh, did not know where Joseph had been buried. The elders of the Hebrews did not know either. The priests of Egypt, who knew of the promise, had buried Joseph in secret to keep Joseph’s holy body for themselves and to keep the Hebrews from ever leaving. But Serah knew. She’d stood and watched as her uncle’s metal casket was dropped into the same stretch of the Nile river that would later carry Moses’ wicker basket, and even later run with blood.
The Gemara asks: And from where did Moses our teacher know where Joseph was buried? The Sages said: Serah, the daughter of Asher, remained from that generation that initially descended to Egypt with Jacob. Moses went to her and said to her: Do you know anything about where Joseph is buried? She said to him: The Egyptians fashioned a metal casket for him and set it in the Nile River as an augury so that its water would be blessed. Moses went and stood on the bank of the Nile. He said to Joseph: Joseph, Joseph, the time has arrived about which the Holy One, Blessed be He, took an oath saying that I (God) will redeem you. And the time for fulfillment of the oath that you administered to the Jewish people that they will bury you in Eretz Yisrael has arrived. If you show yourself, it is good, but if not, we are clear from your oath. Immediately, the casket of Joseph floated to the top of the water.
Sotah 13a (15)
Ok. There’s a lot going on here. Metal caskets (think big amulet), Egyptian magic spells, omens of thefuture, talking to the dead. Moses is channeling a lot of God’s power. A big part of the Jewish magic tradition centers on Moses. Too much to get into here, but I’ll write lots about it later.
Moses and Serah collected Joseph’s casket and, with the Hebrews, carried it out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. Later, describing the long journey to the promised land, the book of Numbers provides a careful accounting of the Hebrews that survived a plague. Again, the count and the names are those of men (elders and warriors). And again, Serah daughter Asher, granddaughter of Jacob, is counted and named. Even then, she stood watch over us, sharing her wisdom and teaching, joining Miriam in song.
(44) Descendants of Asher by their clans: Of Imnah, the clan of the Imnites; of Ishvi, the clan of the Ishvites; of Beriah, the clan of the Beriites. (45) Of the descendants of Beriah: Of Heber, the clan of the Heberites; of Malchiel, the clan of the Malchielites.— (46) The name of Asher’s daughter was Serah.— (47) These are the clans of Asher’s descendants; persons enrolled: 53,400.
Numbers 26:44-47 (16)
MONSTER HUNTER PRO TIPS
1. Make for yourself a mentor, acquire for yourself a friend(17). Serah studied with Jacob. We won’t be so fortunate, but maybe we can study and befriend Serah. And, if not, there are lots of teachers and sources.
2. Be on the lookout for the immortals and other long lived folks. There are many in the tradition.Honor them and support them, as we do all our elders.
2. Blessings are powerful things. While we don’t live in the days of the patriarch’s, there have been other tzadik’s (holy people) who could change the world with a blessing. Maybe there still are.
4.Be wary of other magic.Moses used God’s power to talk to Joseph and raise his bones…but it wasn’t Jewish magic that sank Joseph in the first place.
Serah bat Asher, Teacher of the Sages
Two thousand years later, Serah was still standing watch over us, still sharing her wisdom and still singing. Somewhere around 200 CE, Serah was living in the north of Roman ruled Israel, near Galilee. It was a time of persecution (as most times seem to be). The second Temple had long since fallen and the teachings of the Pharisees had not yet been written down as the Mishna. These teachings were still taught orally, from teacher to student. Serah didn’t study with the teachers, she’d been taught by well Jacob two and half millenia ago. But she did listen in, from time to time, to understand what was being taught. And, occasionally, to make corrections.
Rabbi Yohanan was once sitting and expounding about how the waters became like a wall for Israel [at the time they miraculously passed through the Sea which had split open before them to permit their Exodus from Egypt (see Exodus 14:29, “and the waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left”). Rabbi Yohanan explained that the waters looked “like a lattice.” However, just at that moment, Serah bat Asher looked in and said: “I was there and they (the waters) were not like that but rather like lighted windows”
From Pesikta de-Rav Kahana (10:117), Marc Bergman translation (18)
The Providence Lithograph Company [Public domain] (19)
Next week, I’ll continue the story of Serah, with The Exile of Serah and Serah bat Asher, Werewolf Hunter!
Ok. One last digression. I’m a long time music head. I used to write the blog Teruah: Jewish Music. Alicia Jo Rabins is one of my favorite Jewish songwritersand teachers. She’s recorded 3 album’s under the title Girls in Troublethat are both wonderful musicand masterful feminist midrash. As Rabin’s describes it, Girls in Trouble is a “indie-folk song cycle about the complicated lives of women in Torah.”Here’s her take on Serah, called “Tell Me.”
Tell Me(20)
The waters parted but it wasn’t like they said, no iron wall came down to hold them. Has there been a loneliness like mine, touching all the hidden walls of time?
Notes and References (1) According to Tractate Kallah Rabbati 3:25 “Seven people entered Gan Eden alive, namely: Serach, as it says, I am one of those who seek the welfare of the faithful in Israel. I am the one who completed the number of those who entered Gan Eden” (Hebrew). I’m borrowing this translation from Mark Solomon’s Sefaria sheet “Serach bat Asher – The Transmitter of Secrets” I’ve reached out to Solomon to see if it’s his translation and will update this when I know. https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/132068?lang=bi (2) According to Tractate Derekh Eretz Zuta 1:18, “Nine people entered Gan Eden alive, namely: Enoch son of Jared, Elijah, the Messiah, Eliezer the servant of Abraham, Hiram king of Tyre and Eved-Melech the Ethiopian, Jabez the [grand]son of Judah (see I Chronicles 4:9-10), Batya the daughter of Pharaoh, and Serach bat Asher, and some say also Rabbi Joshua ben Levi.” I’ll write about all nine, eventually. I’m borrowing this translation from Mark Solomon’s Sefaria sheet “Serach bat Asher – The Transmitter of Secrets”https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/132068?lang=bi (3) Enoch is described as walking with, being taken by taken, by God in Genesis 5:23 and 5:24. https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.5?lang=en&aliyot=0 (4) Elijah ascends via whirlwind in II Kings, Chapter 2, verse 1. https://www.sefaria.org/II_Kings.2?lang=en. No…he did not land on the Witch of the West. You’re thinking of Dorothy. (5) “Song of Life” from New Art of an Ancient People: The Work of Ephraim Moses Lillian by M. S. Levussove. I’m crazy about Lillian’s work. I color adjusted it a bit from a scanned original printing available at https://archive.org/details/newartanancient00levugoog/page/n18. (6) Serah’s first mention in Genesis 46.17 https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.46.16?lang=en&with=all&lang2=en (7) Sefer ha-Yasher is a Hebrew Midrash on early biblical history. This english is from the Edward B.M. Browne, New York, 1876 English translation. https://www.sefaria.org/Sefer_HaYashar_(midrash)%2C_Book_of_Genesis%2C_Vayeshev?ven=Sefer_ha-Yashar,__trans._Edward_B.M._Browne,_New_York,_1876&lang=bi (8) Genesis 37:35 says of Jacob that All his sons and daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, saying, “No, I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol.”Thus his father bewailed him.https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.37?lang=en&aliyot=0 (9) According the Jewish tradition, there was already a great deal to study by the time of Jacob and Serah, including the Sefer HaMalaach Raziel (Book of the Angel of God’s Secret) written by Adam and the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation) written by Abraham, as well as pre-flood Torah and mystical teachings passed down to Jacob’s father Isaac when Isaac studied in the yeshiva (school) of Shem, son of Noah, and Ever, Shem’s grandson. (10) Sefer HaYasher. Book of Genesis, Vayigash. Browne translation. https://www.sefaria.org/Sefer_HaYashar_(midrash)%2C_Book_of_Genesis%2C_Vayigash.9?ven=Sefer_ha-Yashar,__trans._Edward_B.M._Browne,_New_York,_1876&lang=bi (11) Midrash HaGadol, Genesis 45:26, translated by Translated by Avivah Zornberg in her book Genesis, the Beginning of Desire. See her website http://www.avivahzornberg.com/. I found this reference and translation in Moshe Reiss’ excellent essay “Serah bat Asher in Rabbinic Literature.” https://jbqnew.jewishbible.org/assets/Uploads/421/JBQ_421_8_reissserach.pdf (12) Serach at the Seder: A Haggadah Supplement. Yitzhak Buxbaum. You can get a copy from him via website. http://www.jewishspirit.com/Serach/Serach.html. Or you can build your own Serah Bat Asher haggadah supplement that works for you and your seder. (13) The Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer tells this story in the context of a fascinating discussion on the role of the letters of the Torah in redemption. Here’s an abbreviated version of it. See Sefaria for the whole text. Rabbi Eliezer said: The five letters of the Torah, which alone of all the letters in the Torah are of double (shape), all appertain to the mystery of the Redemption…..With “Pê” “Pê” Israel was redeemed from Egypt, as it is said, “I have surely visited you, (Paḳôd Paḳadti) and (seen) that which is done to you in Egypt, and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt” (Ex. iii. 16, 17)….These letters were delivered only to our father Abraham. Our father Abraham delivered them to Isaac, and Isaac (delivered them) to Jacob, and Jacob delivered the mystery of the Redemption to Joseph, as it is said, “But God will surely visit (Paḳôd yiphḳôd) you” (Gen. 1. 24). … Asher, the son of Jacob, delivered the mystery of the Redemption to Serah his daughter. https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_DeRabbi_Eliezer.48.17?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en (14) Exodus 13:19. And Moses took with him the bones of Joseph, who had exacted an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will be sure to take notice of you: then you shall carry up my bones from here with you.”https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.13.19?lang=en&with=all&lang2=en (15) Sotah 13. https://www.sefaria.org/Sotah.13a.14?ven=William_Davidson_Edition_-_English&lang=bi (16) Numbers 26.46. https://www.sefaria.org/Numbers.26.46?lang=en&with=all&lang2=en (17) “Make for yourself a mentor, acquire for yourself a friend” is one of the most famous teachings in Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of our Fathers. https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_Avot.1.6?ven=Open_Mishnah&lang=en&with=all&lang2=en (18) Pesikta de-Rav Kahana. Aggadic Midrash written between c.400 – c.700 CE. Translated by Marc Bergman in his outstanding essay “Serah Bat Asher: Biblical Origins, Ancient Aggadah and Contemporary Folklore” https://judaic.arizona.edu/sites/judaic.arizona.edu/files/files-event/Bregman.pdf. Hebrew source available at https://www.sefaria.org/Pesikta_D’Rav_Kahanna?lang=en (19) the Providence Lithograph Company [Public domain] https://commons.wikimedia.org (20) “Tell Me” Alicia Jo Rabins. From the Girls in Trouble album Half You Half Me. https://aliciajo.com/. The Tell Me video was recorded live at the Living Room in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 2015. Alicia Jo Rabins, vocals, violin and loop pedal; Aaron Hartman, bass.
Last time, I wrote about Jewish magic amulets. There’s a lot of amulet lore to work through and I’m going to come back to it over and over again. There are a lot of practical tips that Jewish monster hunters need to know. But right now, I want to make an important point. Jewish magic isn’t just about about amulets or segulah (charms) written by the rabbis….who are highly trained, high status, and male (yeah…I went there)(1). Jewish magic is also a wide range of segulah, amulets, and ritual practices passed down and innovated by the women of the community (and non-rabbi men of the community). These practices sometimes get picked up and made cannon in the main rabbinic texts, but are often only available through family or communal traditions or the few decent folklore ethnographies out there. Understanding these practices is important for the apprentice Jewish monster hunter. This kind of magic is not only as demanding in terms of Jewish knowledge and faith, but is also highly tuned to local dangers, customs, and resources. And let’s face it, most of us aren’t rabbis and, like our foremothers and forefathers, need to work with what we’ve got to defend ourselves, our families, and our towns.
Jewish Henna for Lalla ‘Aisha, Fes. The eye motif, connected with the hand, is a power protection from the evil eye. (From Noam Sienna’s amazing Jewish henna blog “Eskol Hakofer”)(2)
The Evil Eye
The evil eye, or ayin hara in Hebrew, is a great place to dig in to this. The evil eye is a critical element of Jewish magical lore, causing disease, injury, insanity, death and mayhem. Cases of the evil eye were documented across all the major Jewish ethnic groups (e.g. Ashkenazi, Mizrachi, and Sephardic). It’s so serious that, Rav, one of the sages of the Talmud, is described as having looked at a graveyard and lamented the great cost of the evil eye:
Ninety-nine [have died] through an evil eye, and one through natural causes
Fundamentally, the evil eye is weaponized jealousy. Frustration. Envy. Anger. Hate. That burning feeling we get when we want something that someone else has so badly that we’d take it away from them just so no one could have it. All that terrible emotion that we hold inside gets channelled through the evil eye, giving it power.
While that much is generally agreed on, there is some disagreement in the Jewish sources as to what exactly the evil eye is.
Some think of it as an evil omen, a spell of sorts that has the power to bring misfortune upon a person. Others think of it as a type of poison that the eye directs at things that it sees, casting them in an evil light. Yet others see it as a silent wish and prayer to Hashem (God) to pass judgment on a person or situation to judge them more strictly.
So, according to the Torah Learning Project, it’s some kind of personal magic or possibly an unworthy prayer. In other sources, including the Sefer Hasidim, the evil eye is described as a sheydim (demon) or evil angel called upon to take revenge (5). In each of these traditions, though, it is initiated by anger or jealousy, often employed unwittingly often by otherwise good people in their weakest moments. (I have them. Not proud.) The Polish Jewish ethnographer Regina Lilienthal, in her amazing 1900 study of Ashkenazi beliefs on the Evil Eye, observed that:
It is very difficult to take precautions and guard against the evil eye, people claim, because everyone has a moment during the day when he or she can set the evil eye on others. Even pious persons can do such a bad thing unknowingly and even against their will, that is, in a totally mechanical and unwitting fashion. Sometimes parents cast the evil eye on their children. This is why every person must resolve, early in the morning, that during the day he or she will not cast an evil glance on any person.
Regina Lilienthal, The Evil Eye. 1900 (6)
Because the evil eye is fueled by jealousy, it is particularly dangerous around a community’s most life affirming moments, particularly birth and marriage. This isn’t surprising, right? Those moments are joyful specifically because someone has just gotten something wonderful, that maybe you don’t have and you want. This understanding about the connection between joy and jealousy has deeply influenced Judaism. There’s a long list of practices ranging from deflecting questions that might indicate your current joy (e.g. answering “how are you” with “Baruch Hashem (Praise God)” instead of answering (7) to deep spiritual and ethical practices. The Mussar (ethical) literature, for example, talks deeply about ways to over come timtum ha’leva (a “stopped-up heart.”) in order to avoid jealousy (8).
But we’ll stay focused. Aside from humility, there is a long list of practical techniques for avoiding the evil eye. Way too many to cover in this post. Right now, I’m going to focus on four techniques;
The shir ha’amalot amulet, an Ashkenazi and Sephardic technique for protecting children
The hamsa, a Sephardic and Mizrahi amulet for general evil eye protection
Henna tattoos, a Mizrahi technique for protecting the bride
And, in case the first three fail, a Sephardi healing ritual
The first technique is theshir ha’amalotamulet. A shir ha’amalot is a parchment with the text of Psalm 121, which emphasizes God’s protection. It opens saying, “My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot give way; your guardian will not slumber; See, the guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps!” (9). While the use of these amulets was once wide spread in both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities, today only the Chabad Hassidic community still encourages their use. Chabad recommends that not only should they be used in the home, but they should also be placed in hospital rooms to reclaim the birthing room as Jewish space as well as to invoke divine protection (10). That means you can buy one online as Mikvah.org (11) or print one out from the Chabad site (12). It’s good to have a couple in your gear box. I do.
As Shir Ha’amalot card with Psalm 121, for protecting baby’s from the evil eye. They are often hung in hospital delivery rooms or baby’s nurseries. This one is available for purchase online from Mikva.Org (11)
The second technique is the hamsa amulet. A hamsa is a visual symbol of an open hand with a stylized eye in the palm. Hamsa is Arabic for five, which references the five fingers on a hand. With related gestures and verbal charms, it’s a common symbol of protection in Jewish and Islamic cultures, predating both, and has been integral to both Jewish Mizrahi and Sephardic cultures. Noam Sienna, in his essay Five in Your Eye: The Khamsa Image among Moroccan Jewry (13) gathered a number of ethnographic examples of how the hamsa was used to ward off the evil eye. According to Sienna, Moroccan and Tunisian Jews in the late 1880’s used hamsas made of silver, iron, coral, and blue stones with additional symbols of fish, salamanders, and birds. The use of the hamsa amulet was often accompanied by gestures or spoken charms. For example, Sienna notes a member of the Tunisian Jewish community, “when his children’s pictures or horses are praised, the Tunisian Jew extends his five fingers, or pronounces the number ‘five;’ he tries by this means to prevent the praise doing damage.” Other, similar, protective statements included “hamsa fi ‘ainek [five in your eye],”“hamsa ‘ala ‘ainek [five on your eye],”“hamsa ukhmissa [five and little five]”, or “hmames [the fives].”While these utterances, matched with the gesture of raising the hand, and the specifics of hamsa construction were specific to that community at that time, the practice can be adapted to any local area or community. Proper usage, though, also requires a keen sense of the moment the protection is needed.
Moroccan Hamsa Door Knocker. (14)
The third technique is henna tattoos, used by Mizrahi Jews as well as Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, and others. Henna is a natural orange-red or purple dye, made from the leaves of the henna plant. It is used throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia as the basis for body art that fades over time, but cannot be washed off. Applying henna tattoos is a common preparation for Mizrahi celebrations, including weddings and births. While henna tattoos can take on a wide variety of different cultural roles, one of the prominent ones is protection from the evil eye. Henna tattoos that protect against the evil eye can use hamsa symbols (see the Sienna’s Lalla ‘Aisha photo, above), eyes symbols, or a variety of other symbols.
But henna is not just a pigment. It’s a core part of the magic itself. Noam Sienna (yeah, same ethnographer who wrote the Hamsa essay), explains:
Much of henna’s importance came from the beliefs associated with the plant itself, which transmitted what is known in Hebrew as berakha, Arabic baraka — blessedness. This quality is essential not only in ensuring happiness and success but also in warding off negative forces and energies, variously understood as demons (Hebrew shedim, Arabic jnun) or the Evil Eye (Hebrew ‘ayin ha-ra‘). This protective quality is understood to be inherent in the plant material itself, as it is in other substances (for example: iron, the rue plant, the number five, or the colours blue and red).
An elderly Moroccan woman I interviewed explained that her father, a doctor and rabbinic scholar, taught her that “each plant has the name of an angel, an angel that tells it the job it has to do in the world. The angel of the henna plant is Mevi-Mazal [Bringer of Luck]. That is the job of the henna plant: to bring luck. That is why it was put in the world.”
Noam Sienna, Making Meaning Skin Deep: The Changing Valence of Henna in Jewish Culture (15)
I’ll write more about the role of protective angels in Jewish magic in later posts. For now, focusing on the henna tattoos, the practical implications are clear. First, as with the shir ha’amalot and hamsa amulets, it’s important to understand that events that bring joy bring envy and need protection. Second, Jewish amulets can take different forms, whether parchment, metal, or, in the case of henna tattoos, our own skin. Third, and finally, these amulets are beautiful, raising up the joyful moments they’re part of, even as they protect them.
MONSTER HUNTER PRO TIPS
1. Stay wary. The monsters are us. We buried the 99 in the graveyard, not demons, giants, or vampires. 2. Stay humble. Don’t draw attention to your actions. Jewish monster hunters are not big game hunters. We serve. We do not display trophies or brag at the bar. 3. Stay connected. Not just to the patriarch rabbis (1) who can create the amulets, but to the matriarchs who hold the community together. There is power, knowledge, and resources there. 4. Stay stocked. Keep your gearbox filled with a wide range of components that can be matched to local traditions, as needed. Learn how to use them and make them beautiful.
The fourth, and final, technique that I’ll cover in this post is healing rituals. Even with the best protective measures, the evil eye can still strike. How would you know? One description of the symptoms caused by the evil eye are “broken sleep, or loss of sleep, headache, constant yawning, buzzing in the ears, any kind of digestive pain or derangement, fever, depression, and general weakness. Even death may result.” (16) This list of symptoms comes from Derya Agis’ essay “Beliefs of American Sephardic Women Related to the Evil Eye,” which is based on her interviews with and readings of autobiographies of, women who are either immigrants from the former Ottoman Empire or descendants or relatives of immigrants. According to Agis’ sources,healing these effects involved prayer and rituals that were generally performed by women. Agis’ essay includes a number of wonderful descriptions, including this one:
Cloves and lead for a Sephardic evil eye healing ritual. With materials from my gear box
Esther C from New York depicts the following cure against the pernicious effects of the evil eye: the performer of the ritual gathers fifteen cloves, divides them into groups of five by saying, “let the evil eye, all the evil talk go into the depths of the sea, five for the sea, five for the land, five for the people, let no badness affect X…”; this ritual is repeated three times; the performer of the ritual takes each group of cloves in her/his hand, and passes the cloves all over the body of the affected person fifteen times in total. Afterwards, the performer of the ritual gets an aluminum plate, and burns these cloves with a match.
In addition to cloves, lead is also used in rituals performed against the evil eye.
Derya Agis. Beliefs of American Sephardic Women Related to the Evil Eye (16)
Agis provides a variety of examples of evil eye healing rituals and others histories and ethnographies provide even more, including applying salt, breathing aromatic herbs, heating and popping black seeds, and melting bits of rubber or gum. Each of these methods uses local ingredients, but linked to common themes, such as purity (salt) or redirection (popping seeds) (17). One of my personal favorite redirection methods is smashing a glass at a wedding. At the moment the wedding couple is most joyful and most vulnerable, they smash a glass to inject a moment of surprise and whoosh…the evil eye is distracted and passes them by. (18)
A quick postscript: If you happen to live near Minneapolis, MN you can get Noam Sienna to do custom Jewish henna for you. Check out his shopat http://www.hennabysienna.com/. Also, in addition to his ethnographic work, Sienna also recently publishedA Rainbow Thread, an Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the 1st Century to 1969 which “collects for the first time more than a hundred sources on the intersection of Jewish and queer identities.” I haven’t read it yet, but it looks awesome. You can get more info at http://noamsienna.com/a-rainbow-thread/)
Jewish Monster Hunting 
