The magical and mysterious world of Jewish incantations, spells and curses is revealed starting this this week May 5 in Israel at the upcoming exhibition Angels and Demons, Jewish Magic through the Ages.
This thought-provoking exhibition combines archaeology, folklore and superstition in an all encompassing display of amulets, khamsas, jewelry, manuscripts, books of spells and other mystifying objects.
More details here and Here
a bunch of bubameisas
No such thing as Jewish magic. If it’s magic it’s not Jewish. Period. This is a lame attraction for the pathetic, leftist, techno Hollywood make-believe “Kapballah” hipsters. How sad that it has hit Eretz Yisroel.
The urge to use Segulos could be very powerfull in times of distress, however it is against the spirit of Torah Judaisim.While a lot of these segulos have their origins in the Kaballah, some segulos look a lot like Pagan and Vooodo practices. From a Torah perspective, Teshuva and prayer are the most powerful “Segulos” one can use in these trying times. Not the easiest I agreee, but most effective.
All this mystical mumbo jumbo, new-age kaballah, “artifacts that have been “benched” by the rebbe, special zchus for davening at the kever of even the most arcane rebbe, and all these other bubba mesisas show how far we have drifted from core yiddeshe beliefs. We should return to the simple idea of each yid speaking directly and personally to the ebeshter. We don’t need intermediaries like catholics need the pope to be heard by hashem, nor do we need or ever obtain mazael by wasting all this money “buying” a baracha from a rebbe
What a fascinating exhibit, I must see it. It should be no secret that throughout the ages Jews believd in magic just like the goyim. Unfortunately, nowadays the frum world seems to be sinking deeper into the segulah quagmire. As A. J. Heschel famously remarked, “Nonsense is nonsense, but the history of nonsense is history.”
Segulos are of course total nonsense, but the history of it is fascinating.
Why is Michael Jackson viewing the exhibit? Now THATS magic.
“Narishkeit is Narishkeit, but the study of narishkeit – that’s chochma!”
I love how some frum guys are rejecting this part of Judaism as a “goyish” leftist mabo jombo.” Learn history of Judaism from non frum biased sources. The “Spirit of the Torah” was up to interpretations of different Jewish communities and groups that had their own unique beliefs, rituals and practices evolving over 3000 years. Don’t reject historical facts of ancient Jewish beliefs and practices because your rebbe thinks it’s pagan. Rabbinic Judaism that starting evolving maybe 500 years ago abandoned these ritualistic, superstitious practices but it doesn’t mean they were foreign to ancient Jewish communities.
I’m still not finished learning about the Jewish religion, that I should take time to learn about this other one.
And I’m quite sure that this exhibit also provides great detail of how our venerable sages painstakingly, and vehemently opposed to such foreign practices, thus causing them to almost completely cease from Judaism.
People coming to Eretz Yisroel for this crap, should just sit down for shwarma and leave.
The Rebbe zy”a writes in a printed letter about various segulos, including the one to read parshas ketoires from ksav ashuri. He says that although it is from kisvel arizal, it was related to that time and generation and not to our times. The Rebbe himself told people various segulos. A friend and I did some research into it and we found that almost every one was doing a mitzva or hiddur mitzva. For example, for easy pregnancy and childbirth he said to give tzedoka to RMBH. For a safe house, check your mezuzas every year. Lag B’omer 5727 he spoke of the segula of tefillin protecting a yid and causing our enemies to fear us. He never did red strings, chamsas, and buying overpriced water bottles. In one letter, he writes to stop looking for segulahs and do the “segulah” from Torah (BTW this week’s parsha)
Im be’chukoisai teleichu…. V’nasati gishmeichem and all the brochas that follow
The crazy thing is that there are still people performing exorcisms to remove dybbuks.
To #13 and #23 ,
Thank you for correcting me, it was indeed Lieberman who said that to either Heschel or Gershom Scholem. All giants in their respective fields.
To #15 , yes,segulos are nonsense. That includes Rav Yonasan Eibeschitz’s ( or anyone else’s) kemeyos and Rabbeinu Bachya’s stones. Also included are all the segulos , some of them quite bizarre, mentioned in the Sefer Chassidim. The list is long and depressing.
Many rabbinic religious leaders in many generations sincerely believed in these magical amulets and talisman practices, as did the goyim. But they were wrong and we need to correct it. It definitely was once a part of Judaism, and still is , but it must be fought vigorously. If we lose, Judaism will turn into a version of Harry Potter. Good story, but still fiction.
For # 21, if the Lubavitcher Rebbe said that tefillin is a seguloh, that is very unfortunate, misleading and dangerous. Indeed, certain scholars maintain that tefillin was nothing more than a superstitious protective amulet. Surely you don’t want to reduce the mitzvah of tefillin to a worthless piece of leather.
#25 – If the Rebbe used the word segulah for putting on Teffilin, then he meant it as putting on Teffilin as the right thing to do because HaShem commands it and for many people, the word segula means, in a way, like a bracha and to the person’s benefit. There are many tefilohs that many sages say are beneficial for certain problems people may have; that is not nonsense. What is nonsense is, that over the centuries, Jews being spread out through the world, took on many customs and ways of the non-Jewish world and it held up through the centuries. The Rambam and others, of course, are very againt any of these superstitions, which is against Torah. It’s plain common sense & as we know, Torah is perfect and Divine and everything else is pure nonsense.