A Practical Guide to Jewish Magic, Monsters, and Mayhem

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About

According to Jewish tradition, the world around us is filled with demons, ghosts, giants and angels, and creatures of all types. But the Judaism I was raised with downplays and rationalizes them away, to the point where they’re just forgotten dusty metaphors. They won’t go away, though. It’s impossible to read the Torah, the Talmud or any of the commentaries without being constantly reminded of them. And they still have lessons to teach us, whether or not you believe in them or not.

For millenia, Jews have lived with these creatures and have had practical means for coping with them. Avoid the wilds. Wear iron when you travel between cities. Place jam on a plate and leave it to be found. In this blog, I’m hoping to piece together this legacy from original sources and contemporary scholars. And, hopefully, to learn more deeply what it means to be Jewish, to love Torah and to understand God. And to have a lot of fun fighting monsters. Or, at least, learning how.

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Author

Jack Zaientz

Artists

A Jewish Bestiary. Mark Podwal

Blogs and Tweets

@ThrowingSheyd
Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism
Rationalist Judaism

Contemporary Jewish Religious Writing

Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation. Aryeh Kaplan (Revised 1997)
The Death of Death: Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought. Neil Gillman (2000)

Modern Midrash Compilations

Legends of the Jews. Louis Ginzberg (1909)
Sefer Ha-Aggadah: The Book of Legends. Hayim Nahman Bialik & Yehoshua Hana Rawnitzki (1911)
Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, Howard Schwartz (2007)

Podcasts

Throwing Sheyd: Better Living through Jewish Demonology

Secondary / Academic Sources

A Remembrance of His Wonders Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz. David Shyovitz (2017)
Ascending Jacob's Ladder Jewish Views of Angels, Demons, and Evil Spirits. Ronald Isaacs (1998)
Between Worlds Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism. J. H. Chajes (2011)
Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism. Geoffrey Dennis (2016)
Jewish Magic and Superstition. Joshua Trachtenberg (1939)
Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah. Yuval Harari (2017)
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. Gershom Scholem. (1941)
Sacred Monsters. Natan Slifkin (2011)

Storytellers

Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends. "Aunt Naomi" (Gertrude Landa) [1919]

Traditional Jewish Sources

Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer (@Seferia)
Sefer Hasidim: The Book of the Pious (@Sefaria)
Sefer Yetzirah: Book of Creation (@Seferia)
Talmud tractates (@Seferia)
The Book of Enoch (1917 R.H. Charles translation, @Sacred-Texts)

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