Strip away the medieval slander and a real tradition of Jewish magic emerges, one that Joshua Trachtenberg traced from the Bible through the Talmud and into the folk practices of medieval Ashkenazi Jews. The Torah itself bans certain forms of sorcery (Exodus 22:17), which tells us something important: the biblical authors believed magic was real and effective. They just believed Jews should not practice certain kinds of it.
The Talmud draws a crucial distinction. "Black" magic, using demons, manipulating nature through forbidden means, was prohibited. But "white" magic, invoking God's names, using sacred words for healing, wearing protective amulets, occupied a gray area that most rabbis tolerated or even endorsed. The Sefer Hasidim, composed in 13th-century Germany by Judah the Pious and his circle, is packed with magical practices: how to detect a witch, how to break a spell, how to use divine names for protection.
Medieval Jewish authorities wrestled endlessly with the boundaries. Eleazar of Worms, the great 13th-century mystic, recorded elaborate angel-summoning techniques and name-based magic in works like Sefer Raziel and Hochmat HaNefesh (the vital soul). The Ma'aseh Book, a popular collection of Jewish folk tales, included stories of magic rings that could transform a person into a werewolf. Even the legal codes acknowledged the reality of magical power, the question was never whether magic worked, but whether a given practice crossed the line into forbidden territory.
By the 17th century, some authorities tried to close the door entirely. David HaLevi declared flatly: "The Torah forbade only the magic of ancient times; nowadays there is no more magic in the world, but it is all vanity." But the folk tradition told a different story. Ordinary Jews continued to use amulets, recite protective psalms, and invoke angelic names well into the modern era, practices rooted in a magical worldview that the rabbis could regulate but never fully suppress.
vols., London 1918; T. W. Davies, Magic, Divination and Demonology Among
the Hebrews and Their Neighbors, London 1898; B. Jacob, Im Namen Gottes,
Berlin 1903; A. Jirku, Materialien zur Volksreligion Israels, Leipzig 1914; on
Talmudic magic see L. Blau, Das altjiidische Zauberwesen, Budapest 1898; D.
Joel, Der Aberglaube und die Stellung des Fudenthums zu demselben, Breslau
1881-3 (Part I devotes some space to the Biblical period); G. Brecher, Das Tran-
scendentale, Magie und magische Heilarten im Talmud, Vienna 1850. Very little
has been written on the magic of the Geonic period. See Joel’s book, Part II, and
J. A. Montgomery, Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur, Phila. 1913; J.
Wohlstein, Damonenbeschwérungen aus nachtalmudischer Zeit, Berlin 1894; M.
Gaster, The Sword of Moses, London 1896; Cyrus H. Gordon, “Aramaic Magical
Bowls in the Istanbul and Baghdad Museums,” Archiv Orientdlni, VI (Praha
1934), 319-34.
nim on Ex. 22:17; Moses Taku, Ozar Nehmad, III, 61; cf. Grimm, II, 546.
Gaster, Ma‘aseh Book, II, 576 ff., has a typical German folk-tale about a magic
ring that could be used to transform a person into a werwolf.—iyuni, 55a;
Ma‘aseh Book, II, 320 f.;—S. Has. B, 1166; Hochmat HaNefesh, 12d; cf. Grimm,
II, 898; Wuttke, 55;—S. Has. 1453; ciyuni, 26c; Hadar Zekenim on Ex. 8:12;
Da‘at Zekenim on Ex. 8:14; HaHayim, IV, 10. Cf. Lea, III, 510: “One precau-
tion, held indispensable by some experienced practitioners, was that the witch
on arrest was to be placed immediately in a basket and thus be carried to prison,
without allowing her feet to touch the earth, for if she were permitted to do so
she could slay her captors with lightning and escape’’; cf. also Grimm, II, 899,
III, 444, $310.
n. 3; Pa‘aneah Raza on Ex. 22:17-18, p. 69a; Hansen, 131; Lea, III, 405; Ziyuni,
7a, 49C; Nishmat Hayim, III, 23, 24.
83a; Toledot Adam veHavah, 28:1, p. 182b.
(Vienna 1894), 1-11, 37-48; FE, III, 465 ff.; HF, TX, 646 f.; Giid. I, 156 ff.; H.
Gross, “Zwei kabbalistische Traditionsketten des R. Eleasar aus Worms,” MGW,
XLIX (1905), 692-700.
g. Cf. Kammelhar, 3, 4, 42, 43-5; Ma‘aseh Book, II, 396 ff., 510 ff.; Scholem,
Kirjath Sepher, 1V (Jerusalem 1927), 317; Gaster, fewish Folk-Lore in the Mid-
dle Ages, 9 ff.; N. Brill (“Beitrage zur jiidischen Sagen- und Spruchkunde im
Mittelalter,” in fahrbiicher, IX [1889], 1-71) printed many legends from a six-
teenth-century manuscript about the wonders performed by Judah the Pious and
his disciples.
Toledot Adam veHavah, 17:5, p. 127b; cf. Lebush on Yore Deah 179: 15.
179:1.
274 JEWISH MAGIC AND SUPERSTITION
b. David HaLevi, middle seventeenth century): “The Torah forbade only the
magic of ancient times; nowadays there is no more ‘magic’ in the world, but it is all
vanity.”
Thorndike, index, s. v. “Occult Virtue.”
352.
179:16; Piske Recanati 563 (quoting Eliezer of Metz); Moses Taku, Ozar Neh-
mad, III, 82; Giid. I, 168 ff.
664:1; Lauterbach, HUCA, II (1925), 353 f.
Abba Mari of Lunel, Pressburg 1838, p. 29.
