Magic
Where others saw contradiction, the author of Ḥatam Sofer saw synthesis.
Forgotten Babylonian artifacts at the Hermitage.
The sages downplay the role of God and sin in human illness and health.
From medieval anti-Semitism to occult novels to a real-life Harry Potter character.
Babylonian Jews in talmudic times used the bowls to trap demons.
If his Jewish practice was thin, his attachments were not.
Silver bracelets, Greek inscriptions, and centuries-old Jewish folk beliefs.
Baḥya ben Asher, magic, science, and church bells.
Elisha ben Gad’s Tree of Knowledge.
Houdini’s was the prototypically self-made American tale. But even while turning himself into the world’s greatest breaker of constraints, he remained a proudly identified Jew.
By slaughtering roosters on an airplane.
A Large Volume of Virtues, Medicines, Amulets, and Fortunes.
Demons, The Sword of Moses, and Judaism.
The first written reference to the magical utterance was in a Roman text. Did it have earlier roots?