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.”
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.
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/)
In last week’s post about the Adne ha-Sadeh I talked briefly about necromancy, which is magic for speaking with the dead. The Torah is pretty clear, this is bad stuff. But the objection isn’t a rationalist one, the Torah is absolutely clear that necromantic magic works (1). Jews are just supposed to keep away from it.
There are other kinds of magic, though, that have thrived within the Jewish tradition. For the Jewish monster hunter, the place to start is with protective amulets. Amulets are written texts, sometimes cast or scribed in metal but more typically written on parchment, that include one of God’s names, or one or more angel names, or some permutation of these names, along with bits of psalms, prayers, halachic (legal) writings, and pleas for some specific form of assistance. (For a primer, see Trachtenberg‘s write up (2)).
Right now, there are a variety of amulets available from Jewish auction houses and from scribes around the world (3). This week, for example, the latest auction catalog from the Kedem Auction house in Jerusalem (4) was released. Lot 6 from the catalog is a Birkat Kohanim amulet from 18th or 19th century Italy, which is intended for the “Protection from Evil Eye and for a Mother and Her Newborn.” (5)
Birkat Kohanim Amulet – Italy, 18th/19th Century – Protection from Evil Eye and for a Mother and Her Newborn. From Kedem’s Auction Catalog 65 “Rare and Important Items, including items from the of collections of Prof. Shlomo Simonsohn and Uzi Agassi.” (5)
The Kedem auction house describes the amulet as follows
Amulet containing the verses of the Birkat Kohanim (PriestlyBlessing) “May God bless you and protect you…” and a 22 letter Holy Name, derived from the verses of the BirkatKohanim.
Kedem Auction Catalog 65 (5)
The Kedem auction catalog is worth a read. It justifies the validity of the amulet in critical two ways. First, it spends time explaining where in the Talmud Birkat Kohanim amulets were described. This is intended to show that an observant Jew can carry such an amulet. Second, it shows that the power of the amulet is “proven” by telling the story of a similar amulet. I put quotes on the word proven because it’s a loaded term in Jewish amulet lore. According to the Talmud (Shabbat 61 A) only amulets that are proven can be carried on Shabbat. There are specific rules for proving an amulet, which typically involve three demonstrations of the amulet’s power (6).
R. Kalfon Moshe HaKohen Rabbi of Djerba (Tunisia) once wrote the verses of Birkat Kohanim on a plain piece of paper, and gave it to his granddaughter as an amulet for an easy birth. The residents of Djerba regarded it as a proven amulet, and would use it as a segulah for easy birth and recovery….
Kedem’s Auction Catalog 65 (5)
This description of R. Kalfon writing the amulet talks about R. Kalfon creating a segulah. A segulah is a charm, the text that gets put on the amulet. A segulah can be used without putting it on parchment, though amulets are usually how they’re applied. Having a holy sage put the words on parchment gives it its power.
MONSTER HUNTER PRO TIPS
1. Having a connection to a holy sage who can scribe amulets is a practical necessity. If possible, a Jewish monster hunter should have amulets against demons, curses, and the evil eye. 2. Keep an amulet kit handy, in order to repair or improvise a new amulet if needed. Improvised amulets will work better if you’re taking your mitzvot (commandments) seriously and have some scribe training.
My personal amulet making kit, including kosher parchment, quills, Torah ink, and scraping tool. I am completely unqualified to use this kit, but maybe someday!
Amulets such as the Birkat Kohanim offered by Kedem aren’t that rare. They come up at auction regularly. The last few Kedem auctions have included amulets and the current auction from the Ishtar auction house has a lot of 45 of them being auctioned together. (I really really wish I could afford to bid on this!)
Large lot of approx. 45 amulets, mostly Jewish, written on paper, parchment and Gvil (leather sheet). Including amulets against the Evil Eye, curses, protection for pregnant women and the sick and more. Various sizes and conditions, overall good condition (stains, tears, wear and worming to some items). Ishtar Auction 76, Lot 105. December 5, 2019 (7)
These amulets are part of the family and religious life of Jewish communities around the world. This past spring, I was able to visit my daughter in Israel where she was studying for a semester (8). While there I visited the Israel Museum on a tour with the parents of some of the other students. At one point one of the parents, an American Jew of Persian descent and truly lovely person, got very excited and started pointing to one of the displays. Specifically, she was pointing to a metal amulet in a display on child birth. Her family had a very similar amulet and she had given birth to both of her children with the amulet on her chest. After her successful deliveries, the amulet was re-claimed by her mother who was ready to pass it along to other family members.
Replica of an 18th Century Persian Jewish amulet intended to ease childbirth. The inscription is taken from the Psalms and includes the name of Jochabed, the mother of Moses, Miriam, and Aaron. From the Israel Museum’s collection. The replica is available from the Judaica Web Store (9)
Jewish Monster Hunting 
