8; Nishmat Hayim, III, 21; Moses of Tachau lent his support to this Maimoni- dean position in his anti-Maimonidean polemic (Ozar Nehmad, III, 82), and severely criticized “those men to whom the spirit of Torah is foreign, who busy themselves with astrology and believe in it and make it their creed, and thereby bring harm to others.” See 7£, II, 243 ff. and Ef, III, 578 ff., for a general sur- vey of the rabbinic material. The use of the word mazal, “star,” “‘constellation,” to signify “luck” may be seen in the Talmud; in the Middle Ages it was more frequent. ‘‘We call good fortune, good mazal, and the reverse, bad mazal... in German it is Glick and in Italian ventura” (Levita, Tishbi, s. v. mazal). This usage of the word did not displace its astrological sense in the vernacular until modern times.

‘Der Tierkreis in der Tradition und im Synagogenritus,” MGW7, LIX (1915), 241-67; L. Low, Gesammelte Schriften, II, 115-31; F£, II, 241-5; A. Marx, “The Correspondence between the Rabbis of Southern France and Maimonides about Astrology,” HUCA, III (1926), 311-58; A. Z. Schwarz, “Iggeret R.

g12 JEWISH MAGIC AND SUPERSTITION

Abraham b. Hiya HaNassi,” Ad. Schwarz Festschrift, Berlin 1917, 23 ff. (Hebrew section); “Beraita de Mazalot,” Ozar Midrashim, ed. S. A. Wertheimer, Jerusalem 1913, pp. I-7 (Introd.) and 1-28 (from which Raziel seems to have borrowed extensively); Abraham b. Hiya HaNassi, Megillat HaMegaleh, ed. Julius Gutt- man, Berlin 1924; Raphael Levy, The Astrological Works of Abraham ibn Ezra, Paris 1927; Bischoff, 124 ff.; see also pp. 69 f., 208 above. Some of the more important references are: Shab. 156a-b and Rashi, M.K. 28a; Teshubot Ha- Geonim (ed. Harkavy) 206 ff.; S. Has. 989, 1447, 1453, 1516; Eleazar of Worms, Commentary on S. Yezirah, 14¢; Nizgahon, 145; HaHayim, I, 3, III, 6, IV, 10; Isserles, Yore Deah, 179:2; Nehmad veNa‘im, §298, 303, which enumerates the cities and countries governed by each Zodiacal sign. See also Thorndike I, 306, 353 f., II, 6, 42, 183, etc. According to one view, God “appointed” a star for each man before even the earth was created; Raziel, 21a; Eleazar of Worms, op. cit., rb; Kammelhar, 41. As was pointed out in the chapter on angelology, the stars were personalized by associating angels with them, so that each planet had its own archangel, and each man “an angel of his star.’? See the references there cited, and also Rashi, Meg. 3a; Hochmat HaNefesh, 8c, 16d; Pa‘aneah Raza on Ex. 13:3, p. 73b; Yom Tob Miihlhausen, HaEshkol (ed. Judah Kauf- man), 145.

Commentary on Sefer Yezirah, 12a; Montgomery, 97-8; Thorndike, II, goo.

143;—Thorndike, IV, 413 f.; Leket Yosher, II, 17-18; Giid. III, 128-9; cf. Neh- mad veNa‘im, §295, 297.

20c ff.; Hochmat HaNefesh, 17b; Rokeah, 353; HaHayim, V, 6; Iggeret Ha- Tiyul, 8a, ga-b; Or Hadash, 15; Grunwald, M7V, XIX (1906), 109-10; Giid. I, 154; Thorndike, I, 113, 679, II, 582 ff., etc.; Wuttke, 58 ff.; cf. Nehmad veNa‘im, §8, 98, 107, 301.

Eleazar of Worms, Commentary, 12a; MG7V, VIII (1901), 114; ms. S. Gema- triaot, 84b; cf. Wuttke, 63; Griinbaum, Ges. Auf., 227; Thorndike, III, 103 ff.

Weil, 74b; Tyrnau, Minhagim, 28a; Mateh Moshe, 965; foseph Omez, $739, p. 165; Lebush on Yore Deah, 116:5;—Rabiah, I, 348-9; Raben, 371; Ber Heteb on Yore Deah 116:6;—Yore Deah 179:2 and the comment of Lebush; Foseph Omez, 349; Eleazar of Worms, Commentary, 21d; a 16th century ms. (N. Brill, Jahrbiicher, 1X [1889], 5) accounts for the prejudice against beginning under- takings on Monday and Wednesday on the ground that bed (the two Hebrew consonants which designate these days) in Persian signifies “bad,” but this ex- planation is far-fetched; cf. Ginzberg, Legends, V, 39, n. 109. Parallels to this Monday-Wednesday superstition may be found in German belief (see Berliner, Aus dem Leben, 90-1): “Montags Anfang hat keinen guten Fortgang”’; “Was man Montags beginnt wird nicht Wochenalt”; Grimm, III, 463, $821; see also Thorndike, I, 672 ff.; Grim, II, 953 ff.; Wuttke, 88; Steinschneider, Ueber die Volkslitteratur, 15-16.

Schabuothfeste sich der Eheschliesung zu enthalten,” Fiid. Ztschr. f. Wiss. u. Leben, VII (Breslau 1869), 81-96; I. Lévi, “Le mariage en Mai,” Mélusine, VII (1895), 105 ff., VIII (1896), 93 f.; Abrahams, fewish Life in the Middle Ages, 184; Giid. I, 276, n. 1;—Rokeah, 355; Tyrnau, Minhagim, 14b; Mateh Moshe, 686-8; Orah Hayim 493:1-4; Leket Yosher, I, 97-8.

NOTES 313

179:23 Isserles, Eben Ha‘Ezer, 64:3; foseph Omez, 349; ‘Emek Beracha, II, 52, p. 62a;—S. Has. B 59; Semak, 136; Griinbaum, Fiidischdeutsche Chrest., 260; joseph Omez, 348;—Testament of Judah, §56, 57; B’er Heteb on Orah Hayim 260:1; cf. Abrahams, op. cit., 185; Berliner, op. cit., 91; Digot, III, 184; Grimm, Il, 595; Wuttke, 57-8.

man dem Vollmonde drei Verbeugungen macht, bekommt man etwas geschenkt”; Kizgur Shelah, 136; JE, XII, 618; Lipez, 130 (cf. S. Has. B 97); Ta‘ame Ha- Minhagim, I, 55a, 8432; Thorndike, IV, 282. II (1912), 122-6 and Ginzberg, “Arba‘ Tekufot,” ibid., III (1913), 184-6, for a survey of the Jewish material; Teshubot HaGeonim (ed. Musafia) §14; Joel, II, 24-5; HaManhig, Hil. Seudah, 818; cf. Wuttke, 63 f., 78 f., 301, also 85: “Am Georgi-Tage, 23 Apr., soll niemand Brunnenwasser trinken, dann 6ffnet sich die Erde und lasst ihr Gift aus”; Grimm, II, 590, III, 454: ‘Bei Sonnen- finsterniss decke man alle Brunnen, das Wasser wird sonst giftig.” Griinbaum, op. cit., 144, mentions a Coptic belief that on Midsummer Day or near it, the archangel Michael discharges a drop into the Nile which makes its water un- drinkable. There is also a remark that during Nisan (the month in which the Spring Equinox occurs) a poisonous, jelly-like substance falls on vegetation (HaPardes, 23a).

wald, MGV, V (1900), 84 ff.; J7V, I (1923), 217; Schudt, II, 29:13, p. 108; Giid. I, 206; Wuttke, 104. In Northern Italy the peasants went out into the fields on Midsummer Day to seek “‘the oil of St. John,” which had wonderful proper- ties, on oak leaves. Briick, 45 ff., suggests that the Jewish belief may be con- nected with the Phoenician Adonis rites, celebrated during the midsummer season at a river near the Syrian Byblos, when the river ran red with the blood of the dying god.

Mordecai, Pes. §894, pp. 20d-21a; Maharil, 6b; Leket Yosher, 1, 70; Responsa of Israel Bruna, $36, p. 16b; Isserles, Yore Deah, 116:5; Orah Hayim 455:13;— Hagahot Maimuniot, Hil. Pes., 458:9; Tyrnau, Minhagim, 8a; Shibbole Ha- Leket, 211, p. 171. An attempt was made to explain the use of iron on the ground that Ex. 7:19, speaking of the first plague, predicts that all the streams and all water stored ‘in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone” will turn to blood, omit- ting metal receptacles; another, Kabbalistic, explanation was that the consonants of the Hebrew word for iron, barzel, are the initials of Jacob’s wives, Bilhah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Leah, and that these ladies protect the water against the spirits (Isserlein’s supercommentary to Rashi, Ex. 7:19; Briick, 41-2). Ziyunt, 42a, has the note that “in many places they call the Tekufah ‘Wasserkalb’ ”; Giidemann’s suggestion (III, 130) that this ailment, dropsy (“‘Wassersucht, ahd. auch wazarchalp”) may have been traced to the Tekufah is borne out by Schudt (IV, 2, p..270): “so jemand in solchen Augenblick [of the Tekufah] auch nur das gerinste von Wasser trincke, so bekomt er Wassersucht und andere Kranck- heiten.”

Pitron Halomot, I, 8:1; Thorndike, IV, 134 and index, s. v. “Astrological Medi- cine.”

B14 JEWISH MAGIC AND SUPERSTITION