4 texts
The most potent force in Jewish magic was not an herb, a stone, or a demon. It was a name. Joshua Trachtenberg demonstrated that the entire architecture of Jewish supernatural prac...
Amulets were everywhere in medieval Jewish life. Pregnant women wore them to prevent miscarriage. Children carried them against the evil eye. Men tucked inscribed parchments into t...
The boundary between medicine and magic barely existed in medieval Jewish life. Physicians recited psalms over patients. Rabbis prescribed amulets alongside herbal remedies. And th...
The rabbis spoke often of two invisible forces that shape every human encounter: the good eye and the evil eye. The Maase Buch (No. 196) preserves a tale that illustrates the diffe...
