205) A NEWLY MINTED CHAREIDI AMULET:

A new amulet for protection.

THE RISE AND RETURN OF THE AMULET:

INTRODUCTION:

Segulot or amulets - which are said to bring success, health and prosperity – is a fascinating topic. Not so much because of the nature of something apparently having magical powers and the ability to ward off evil spirits – but because of how much they have become part of mainstream Judaism today.

In this article, we will look at the popularisation, rise and normalization of the amulet in our times.

But first a little background:

RAMBAM AND RASHBA:

The question of the permissibility of amulet usage is strongly debated (posthumously) by Rambam (1135-1204) and Rashba[1] (1235-1310).

Rambam clearly does not believe in magic or demons and certainly does not permit activities which claim to affect or alleviate outcomes relating to such matters.

On the other hand, Rashba points out that the (Babylonian) Talmud is replete with such beliefs and therefore these practices are permitted.[2] Unlike Rambam, he makes a strong case for belief in phenomena for which we have no rational explanation.

But even in Rambam himself, there is a degree of tension in his own words:

In his Guide for the Perplexed, he writes:

"You must beware of joining the mistake of those who write amulets. Whatever you hear from them, or read in their works, especially about the names that they form by combination, is completely meaningless."[3]

Yet in his Mishneh Torah, he permits carrying a "tested amulet" on Shabbat, and adds: "What is a tested amulet? One that has cured three people."[4]

It is probable, though, that in the latter case Rambam was prepared to give a dispensation (as he often did) to the masses who believed in the healing power of amulets.

Here is another Rambam:

הלוחש על המכה וקורא פסוק מן התורה, וכן הקורא על התינוק שלא יבעת, והמניח ספר תורה או תפילין על הקטן בשביל שיישן - לא די להם שהם בכלל מנחשים וחוברים, אלא שהן בכלל הכופרים בתורה, שהן עושין דברי תורה רפואת גוף ואינן אלא רפואת נפשות, שנאמר (משלי ג כב): "ויהיו חיים לנפשך".אבל הבריא, שקרא פסוקין ומזמור מתהילים כדי שתגן עליו זכות קריאתן וינצל מצרות ומנזקים, הרי זה מותר.

“A person who whispers an incantation over a wound and then recites a verse from the Torah; who recites a verse over a child so that he will not become scared; or who places a Torah scroll or tefillin over a baby so that it will sleep, is considered to be a soothsayer or one who cast spells. Furthermore, such people are included among those who deny the Torah, because they relate to the words of Torah as if they are cures for the body, when, in fact, they are cures for the soul, as [Proverbs 3:22] states: ‘And they shall be life for your soul.’

It is, however, permitted for a healthy person to read verses [from the Bible] or chapters from Psalms so that the merit of reading them will protect him and save him from difficulties and injury.”[5]

Here Rambam appears to make the distinction between the general ‘merit’ of studying Torah verses as opposed to a more direct use of the verses as a form of ‘incantation’, which would not be permissible.

CURRENT AWARENESS OF JEWISH MAGIC IN THE ACADEMIC WORLD:

According to Dr Ishay Rosen-Zvi, we are currently experiencing an

“...awakening in the [secular][6] academic world to the topic of Jewish magic and the return thereof from the margins to the center. Until two decades ago, the predominant view was that rabbinic literature is anti-magical at its foundation, and that in its wake most canonical Jewish literature rejected magic...

In recent years a different view has gained momentum – that Jewish magic is not an external influence, but rather part and parcel of Jewish literature and culture, in all its varieties and through the generations...

...most of the sages also believed in the power of magic and some...like R. Hayim Vital, R. Yosef Karo, the Baal Shem Tov and others - even actually used it.

Today, there is wider recognition that magic was not a commoners’ phenomenon, but rather an elitist one, parts of which, like astrology, were considered a respected science demanding much study.”[7]

Accordingly, we see that the secular academic world has only just awoken to the fact that certain ‘magical’ considerations have always been a strong component to many aspects of rabbinic literature.

POPULARITY OF SEGULOT IN THE CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS WORLD:

According to R. Steven Pruzansky, a former Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America, and rabbi of one of the largest congregations in the United States:

“The most important contribution that Jewish mysticism has made, especially in recent times, has been the proliferation of segulot – magical amulets, incantations, entities, tchotchkes, vials of water, red strings, etc. – among the people of Israel.”

He continues, rather sarcastically but nevertheless accurately, to note:

“We have thus been able to ascertain with great clarity the varying levels of reverence for G-d, knowledge of Torah, commitment to Mitzvot, and common sense that exist among our people [by their various magical practices[8]].

We have seen how, at one end of the spectrum, Judaism has become almost unrecognizable in its metamorphosis from a religion of reason and rationality, into a series of scams and gimmicks that rob people of a true connection to Hashem.”

He goes on to contrast that with a list of twenty-two ‘genuine segulot’ which are taken from the Talmud and Torah. These include:

Segulah for recovery from illness — go to a doctor.[9]

Segulah for marriage — go out and find a suitable wife.[10]

Segulah for honest parnassah — learn a profession.[11]

Segulah to prevent drowning — learn how to swim.[12]

Segulah for pure faith — don't believe in segulot.[13]

Of course, these rational ‘segulot’ should not be considered typical of the Babylonian Talmud which more often than not goes in the opposite direction - even with 'recipes for seeing demons', such as this:

SEEING DEMONS: 

"Take the afterbirth of a black she-cat, the offspring of a black she-cat, the first-born of the first-born, let him roast it in fire and ground it in powder and let him put some in his eye and he will see them."  

"One who seeks to know that demons exist should place fine ashes around his bed, and in the morning the demons' footprints appear like chickens footprints in the ashes"

"Abba Binyamin says: If the eye was given permission to see, no creature would be able to withstand the abundance and ubiquity of the demons and continue to live unaffected by them." [14] 

THE RED STRING:

The practice of wearing a red string has become very popular. Its purpose is to ‘protect’ against the ‘evil eye’. Some may find it surprising that this common custom is the subject of Halachic debate with the Darchei Teshuva[15] actually forbidding it, while the Be’er Moshe[16] permits it.

Segulot and cures from Morocco 1930.

THE ‘KANIEVSKY AMULET’:

The following is a current extract from a publication, describing an amulet which is now available from R. Chaim Kanievsky - who thousands consider to be the greatest rabbi of our generation - and which has been ‘imbued with his special blessing’:

THE SEGULAH FOR STUTTERING:

When R. Kanievsky’s wife was still alive, he used to tell people who asked him for segulot: “For segulot you speak to the Rabbanit.”

This was her segula for stuttering:  

“When baking Challah ask G-d to open the inhibitions of his mouth. The Rabbanit said that a segulah against stuttering is to separate challot that got stuck together during baking over the stutterer’s head and ask G-d to open the inhibitions of his mouth.”[17]


For another post on 'magical' healing and protection within this community - and a comparison to African magic - see here.

ANALYSIS:

What follows from here on, is my own, personal and subjective view on the matter of segulot, and I would sincerely discourage those who do find them meaningful, from reading any further.

It is not my intention to upset anyone who believes in them – only to show that Judaism does present a strong alternative option to those who have difficulty in accepting their sanction, let alone their efficacy.

When a family like the Kanievskys, who are revered by so many, openly and actively promote the notion of segulot, it is no wonder that followers see this as normative Torah Judaism.

There is no doubt that such notions have always existed in Judaism and probably always will.

What is alarming though, is that a strong impression is created that Judaism has unanimously and without question, embraced the authenticity of the seguah tradition. This is fine for those who want to believe in such things – and they certainly do have many sources to rely upon.

There even appears to be a trend amongst non-religious Jews to adopt some of these segulot and thereby believe that they have become more observant.

However, for those with enquiring minds who find these practices to run counter to their intuitive thinking, it should be made known that just because contemporary Judaism has largely adopted popularist approaches and strategies, that does not eliminate a vast body of rational rabbinic opposition to what they would call nonsense and plain superstition.

These segulot, and now a new ‘cryptocurrency’, make G-d appear so very small, unsophisticated, easily manipulated and effortlessly outwitted by anyone looking for a better solution to the reality they find themselves in.

Some years ago I wrote an article All I Want...Are My Two Front Teeth where R. Kanievsky was quoted as saying that:

 “A non-Jew has 31 teeth while a Jew has 32…”[18] 

Highlight this against the wording of the advert for the new ‘Kanievsky amulet’, where “thousands stream to...probably the greatest living Talmudic scholar of our generation...who seek his blessing for...the success of a surgery...a healthy birth...”

Would it not be a safer option, in such instances, to go with a segulah for surgery from a source better versed in basic human anatomy?

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[1] Rabbi Shlomo ibn Aderet.

[2] See Shu”t haRashba Chelek Alef, Siman 413.

[3] Guide of the Perplexed, chapter 61.

[4] Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Shabbat 19:14.

[5] Hilchot Avodat Kochavim 11:12

[6] Parenthesis mine.

[7] Ancient Jewish Magic; a review by the Shalom Hartman Institute, of the book Early Jewish Magic by Yuval Harari.

[8] Parenthesis mine.

[9] Berachot 60a, Bava Kamma 46b

[10] Kiddushin 2b

[11] Kiddushin 30a

[12] Ibid.

[13] Devarim 18:13

[14] Berachot 6a.

[15] Yoreh Deah 179:21.

[16] 8:36.

[17] 10 Strategies and Segulot for Tranquility From Rabbanit Kanievsky OBM.

[18] Derech Sicha, p 227. Bnei Brak 5764 (2004).

133) THE MAGIC OF KIDDUSH LEVANA:

Kiddush Levana,- painting by Waclaw Koniuszko in the National Museum in Warsaw

INTRODUCTION:

The blessing for the New Moon is recited anytime between the third (or seventh) day of the month[1] until the fifteenth of the month. This is known as Kiddush Levana or Sanctification of the Moon. No one is quite sure how it got the name ‘Kiddush’ Levana, and Sefardim refer to it instead as Birchat haLevana.[2]

ORIGINS:

MISHNAIC TIMES (0-180CE):

The blessing of Kiddush Levana was first established in Mishnaic times around the first Century[3]:

“...R. Yochanan (a Tanna) said: Up to when (in the month) do we say the blessing over the new month? – Up to the time, the flaw of the moon is filled (i.e the moon is no longer a slither). Up to when is that? -R. Yehuda says up to seven days. (The Sages of) Nehardea say up to sixteen days.”

R. Yochanan also said that whoever sanctifies the news moon is likened to one who greets the Divine Presence.[4]

GEMARA PERIOD (180-500CE):

About two hundred years later during the Gemara period, Abaye (278-338) introduced the custom of standing, as a sign of respect, while reciting this blessing.[5]

During this time there was also some debate as to the actual wording of the blessing to be recited, and even as to whether or not a blessing should be recited in the first instance:

Rav Acha suggested one recites haTov ve’haMeitiv (on seeing the emergence of the new moon, as one does for all good events). Ravina asks whether we therefore also recite Dayan haEmet (as we do for a death) when the moon is waning, and Rav Acha agrees with him that we alternate with both blessings. But Ravina challenges that assertion and concludes that no blessings at all should be recited on either the waxing or waning of the moon as it is a repeated and common occurrence.

Then the Gemara quotes a  more elaborate and fuller version of the blessing of Kiddush Levana as per R. Yehudah:

“Blessed are You...who by His word created the heavens..and all their host. He gave them (the celestial bodies) a law and a time and they do not divert from their task. They (the heavenly bodies) are happy to perform the will of their master and they work truthfully (and accurately). And to the moon, He said that it should renew itself as a crown of beauty for those he carried from the womb (i.e. the Jewish nation) as they are destined to be renewed like it (the moon). Blessed are You who renews the months.”

-This version became a primary text which is still found in our siddurim today.

MASECHET SOFRIM (700’s):

A few hundred years later, Masechet Sofrim[6] added to the text and the ritual of Kiddush Levana was more formalised.

Masechet Sofrim belongs to a collection of about fifteen rabbinical works of ‘Mishnaic nature’ but which were actually written in post-Talmudic times. These texts are called ‘masechtot’ or treatises but they are more concise and practical than classical Talmudic literature, and often served almost like instructive manuals:

Masechet Sofrim carries a similar text as R. Yehuda, as quoted in above-mentioned Gemara, but adds that we should say Siman Tov and Shalom Aleichem three times and dance or jump three times while reciting; “Just as I jump (dance) towards you (the moon) but cannot reach you, so too should others (my enemies) not be able to harm me.”

16^th CENTURY KABBALISTS:

In the 16^th Century, the ritual was even more expanded upon and  Kiddush Levana took on the form we generally have today.

Pri Eitz Chaim of R. Chaim Vital 1542-1620

R. Chaim Vital writes, for example, that his teacher the Ari Zal used to shake the corners of his garment (talit katan) to cause the chitzonim (external energies) which were formed by the shrinking of the moon, to scatter.

INTERPRETATION:

OTZAR HACHAIM:

According to R. Ehrenreich in his Otzar haChaim[7], R. Moshe Isserless (also known as the Ramo), noticed that people started bowing during the ‘dance’ – and he had to request that they refrain from such practices because it resembled an idolatrous ritual.

R. Ehrenreich writes that; “In our siddurim, it states ‘so too should my enemies not affect me for evil’ without any (reference to a) dance.”

He continues that the jumping or dancing ritual is something foreign to Judaism and unparalleled in any of our other prayer services. Simply put, it resembles idolatry. He asks; “What made them keep this practice? –It is just an extremely old (dubious) custom which the people didn't want to nor were they able to desist from.”

He concludes that some heathen nations use the medium of dance as a form of magic to dispell demonic forces. This is why some texts read that; “(We jump and dance to symbolise that) our enemies cannot harm us (lehazikeini – an allusion to mazikin or evil spirits).”

So the dance becomes a form of magic and this custom is just a hametza’a - a fabrication or a figment of the imagination as Judaism does not subscribe to magic.

RAMBAM:

It’s interesting to see that in Rambam’s Guide for the Perplexed, he acknowledges that even the Torah was prepared to, in his view, temporarily incorporate pagan practices (such as the sacrifices) until such time as the nation would become more elevated and be weaned off such rituals.

Rambam wrote; “It was in accordance with the wisdom and the plan of G-d... that He did not command us to give up and to discontinue all these manners of service, for to obey such a commandment (to reject superstition) would have been contrary to the nature of man who generally cleaves to that to which he is accustomed.”[8] See KOTZK BLOG 68.

This may be the case too with some of the additions to the Kiddush Levana ceremony which the Otzar haChaim says the people just could not let go of. It also appears to be rooted in the ancient notion that the moon may disappear, due to satanic interference, never to return again.

SHALOM ALEICHEM AND MASHIACH?

TWO VERY DIFFERENT AND EXTREME VIEWS:

Taking this one step further, R. Israel Drazin writes[9] concerning another section of the ceremony where Shalom Aleichem is also repeated three times:

“However, once we recall the prior magical incantations and enactments in the ceremony (of Kiddush Levana), including the sympathetic magic of the dance, we can readily realize that the practitioner is acting out this rite to cause the appearance of the messiah (which is alluded to by reciting three times David Melech Yisrael[10] followed by Shalom Aleichem) by sympathetic magic.

The petitioner is not speaking to a fellow Jew (by saying Shalom Aleichem to him) but magically addressing the messiah, whom he hopes he is producing with his magic; the response he receives (Aleichem Shalom) is the response of the messiah that he has conjured.”

A more mundane explanation is offered by the Mateh Moshe[11] who simply explains that after cursing our enemies, we wish to make it clear that we mean no harm to our fellows and therefore we turn to them and say, Shalom Aleichem!

Also, some offer a benign explanation for repeating the phrases three times, suggesting that the moon is known by three names - yareach, levana and sahar – and counter that it has nothing to do with any kind of magic.

GAZING AT THE MOON:

According to the instructions in some siddurim, it says that that one should glance at the moon before reciting the blessing. 

According to Baal haChareidim[12], a Kabbalist from the time of the Ari Zal; “it is forbidden to gaze at a rainbow and similarly it is forbidden to gaze at the moon.”

Sefer Ta’amei haMinhagim[13] quoting Shevet haMusar, mentions that according to Kabbalah, gazing at the moon is just as bad as gazing at a rainbow. 

And according to R. Avraham the father of the Shla haKadosh, gazing at the moon is sin which requires teshuvah, or repentance.

These show how some Kabbalists have always had a fascinating relationship with the moon.

ANALYSIS:

Let us be very clear: The objections we quoted were against certain later insertions in the Kiddush Levana ceremony, and not to the institution as a whole. No one can argue that the essence of the original ceremony has the authority of the Tanaim from the Mishnaic period.

Most people do not have any issues whatsoever with Kiddush Levana in its present format, and they clearly have a strong tradition on which to rely. There is no reason, therefore, for anyone to change their customs.

However, academically speaking, it is interesting to note, that for some of the reasons we have outlined - Rambam (and even the relatively contemporary Hertz Authorised Daily Prayer Book) have no references to what they consider to be superstitious and magical allusions inserted within the Kiddush Levana ceremony!

I gave the essence of this article over as a shiur in my shul and an esteemed colleague from a well-known rabbinical family who are direct descendants of the Shla haKadosh mentioned to me that their ancestor must have been aware of these suggestions of idolatry and magic. 

This is because they have an oral tradition to just glance fleetingly at the moon and then turn aside while performing the rest of the ceremony so that it is clear that there is no insinuation of any nefarious moon practices.

In a similar vein, while researching this article, I came across an explanation as to why we conclude the Kiddush Levana by reciting  Aleinu. This is because the Aleinu prayer emphasises that we submit only to G-d and not to meaningless entities. Again this must have been a reaction to an apparent attempt at subverting the original intent of the Kiddush Levana ceremony.

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[1] According to Peninei Halacha, by R. Eliezer Melamed (Zemanim 1:8):

“The custom of Chassidim and Sefardim is not to recite the blessing before seven days in the month. The custom of Ashkenaz is to recite the blessing after three days. But in practice, we recite Kiddush Levana on Saturday night in order to say it with smart clothes. So, in practice, according to the custom of Ashkenaz and Morocco, we recite Kiddush Levana on the Saturday night after three full days from the time of the Molad (new moon). According to the custom of Sefardim and Chassidim, we recite Kiddush Levana on the Saturday night after the seventh of the month.”

[2] See Minhag Yisrael Torah, O.C. 426:1.

[3] Sanhedrin 41b. The Gemara quotes R. Yochanan who was a Tanna of the Mishnaic period.

[4] This may be because the first mitzvah given to the Jewish people was the commandment to sanctify the new moon. Although Kiddush Levana is not the official sanctification ceremony for Rosh Chodesh (-that was performed by the Sanhedrin), it clearly shows respect to that institution. And in a sense, it is greeting the Divine Presence as we collectively did when we fulfilled that first mitzvah as a nation. Another possible explanation is that since the Second Temple had been destroyed at the beginning of the Mishnaic period, a new opportunity to ‘welcome the Divine Presence’ would have been very appropriate.

[5] Sanhedrin 42b.

[6] Masechet Sofrim 20.

[7] Vol 7, p. 43. Published in 1935.

[8] Rambam, Guide for the Perplexed 3;32.

[9] See Maimonides, The Exceptional Mind.

[10] Furthermore, some texts add Kol Dodi (The voice of my beloved), which according to the Yalkut is an allusion to the Messiah. When the Messiah announces the month of the redemption, the people will respond with disbelief as they will say that there are too many hurdles in the way. To which the Messiah will respond that even so, he will arrive like a gazelle leaping over the mountains.

[11] Mateh Moshe 540.

[12] Chapter 45:5.

[13] Kuntres Acharon to 464:22.