What’s Your Charm? Prayer, Talisman or a Knock on Wood

If you know someone who is afraid of Friday the 13th or who knocks on wood, then you know that superstitions, no matter how irrational,  still exist today.  Many of today’s superstitions have a root in the magical thinking of ancient peoples.  Sometimes we continue to practice such forms of “magic” without even knowing the source of these practices.  For example, magicians all over the world utter the phrase “abracadabra” before performing a trick without being aware of it’s 3rd century C.E. origin probably related to the Aramaic Abra k’dabra- “I create as I speak”.

Just as other cultures have done, the Jewish people, over the years, have incorporated magical practices into their daily culture whether they are aware of the original meaning of a practice or not. For example, the Ashkenazi practice of not naming a baby after a living relative, wearing a red ribbon bracelet to ward off evil, and hanging a khamsa (a hand shaped amulet common throughout the Middle East and North Africa) to protect from the evil eye are all examples of practices that have their roots in magic.

“Angels and Demons: Jewish Magic Through the Ages” is a new exhibit at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem that explores the origins of magic in Judaism from the First Temple period and its development through present day.  The exhibit displays such artifacts as the earliest known depiction of a khamsa on a pendant (late-Roman, Byzantine period) and a ring showing a scorpion (Byzantine period), a creature that at the time was believed to attack the evil eye and offer protection against a scorpion’s sting.

While Biblical laws explicitly forbid Jews from practicing black magic (Exodus 22:17, Deuteronomy 18:10), magic used for good  is permitted both in the Bible and later rabbinical writings.

More information is available on artdaily.org.

Para información en español, haz clic aquí.

Photos of some of the artifacts on display are available on the website of the Bible Lands Museum.

Photo courtesy of Nate Dallion on flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

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