#practical kabbalism

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The legend of the Jew as sorcerer supreme was of Gentile making, fashioned after the latest pattern of the up-to-date thaumaturge, but like most ready-made fables it fitted the truth none too closely. For if Jews were not the malefic sorcerers that Christian animosity made them out to be, they still possessed an ancient and honorable tradition of magic which had been solicitously nourished until in the Middle Ages it reached its highest stage of development. Sheltered from Christian eyes by secrecy and the impenetrable wall of a strange tongue and an even stranger mystical vocabulary and method peculiar to itself, there flourished in Jewish circles a magic lore as extensive and potent as any known to the non-Jewish world, yet markedly different in character and technique.

Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion; The Truth Behind the Legend: Jewish Magic

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The Remedy Books

Beside their knowledge of religious history, religious law, and local oral traditions, the ba’alei shem relied heavily on the available medical literature. Their primary resources were the segulot ve-refu’ot remedy books, circulated in both manuscript and print. Remedy books came in a number of forms. There were “practical Kabbalah” guidebooks that borrowed liberally from popular Eastern European folk medicine beliefs and acquainted the Jewish reader with elements of Slavic superstitions, popular medicine, and healing practices. Hebrew and Yiddish translations of works by western European physicians also served as remedy books. While many remedy books were attributed to notable jewish physicians or ba’alei shem, anonymous volumes were just as common, which suggests the intriguing possibility that some may have been written by women. The Sefer ha-toladot, which focuses exclusively on midwifery, is one lacking attribution.

Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel, Ashkenazi Herbalism; Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews

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Several specific factors distinguished the Pale’s Ashkenazi feldshers [from the German feldscherer meaning field shearer. A military paramedic specializing in haircuts, barbering, and medical knowledge] from their non-Jewish counterparts. While all of Eastern Europe’s feldshers would have undergone similar on-the-job training, Jewish feldshers observed customs that made their healing methods distinct from those of other feldshers.

One of these differences lay in the simple act of shaving. Throughout the Pale, even as late as the twentieth century, shaving was prohibited for Jews. And Ashkenazi feldsher (or cyrulik [from the Polish cyrulicy. Cyruliks are civilian barber-surgeons]), with a practice that mainly served his co-religionists, would not be expected to provide this service. Thus, unlike the Christian barber-surgeon, who might specialize in the former rather than the latter part of the hyphenated profession, his Jewish counterpart would have concentrated almost exclusively on the healing aspects of the profession rather than the tasks of grooming.

Another difference lay in the Jewish feldsher’s community standing. Because sanctioned medical care in Ashkenazi communities in the Pale by the nineteenth century was generally provided by feldshers rather than trained physicians (the restrictions that barred most Jews from attending Russian universities, along with the draft, played a large role in this), their social standing was rather high for a paraprofessional trade. Feldshers were considered “folk physicians” by their communities, and Ashkenazi Jews affectionately referred to their community feldshers as rofe, or royfe, Hebrew for “doctor.” As they were so often “of the people,” their down-to-earth reputation created a strong and trusting bond between feldshers and their communities. Assuming they were able to choose between a trained physician and a feldsher when seeking care, Jewish patients were far more likely to confide in the latter, particularly when discussing their reliance on traditional healing. Because of their close and intimate ties to their communities (both as enforced through the restrictions of the Pale and the rooted hereditary lineage that shaped their practices), feldshers regularly interacted with other additional folk healers, knew their remedies, and often made extensive use of that knowledge. As a result, the feldsher’s medical repertoire was enriched by the variety of herbal and other traditional remedies they encountered.

A third difference that distinguished the Ashkenazi feldshers from their non-Jewish counterparts was their use of the remedy books, the segulot ve-refu’ot described earlier. These handbooks with their secret plant-based remedies were as important to the Jewish feldsher or cyrulik as they were for the ba’alei shem.

Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel, Ashkenazi Herbalism; Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews

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Opshprekherins in the Pale interviewed by the An-Sky teams were recorded reciting their charms, which they uttered in Yiddish or in the tongue of a neighboring culture. At times the charms could incorporate Christian words or beliefs. One medicine woman, Hinde di Tikern or Tukern (“woman administering ablutions to women”), who was recorded by Rechtman during the first An-Sky expedition, spoke to her interviewers in Ukrainian. Her whispered recitation was transliterated from the spoken Ukrainian to the Hebrew alphabet then later translated into and published in Yiddish. This is her charm, rendered here in English:

Evil eye, I exorcise you (cast you out), out of the neck, out of the forehead, out of the chest, out of the shoulders, out of the spine, out of the ankles, out of the fingers, out of the stomach, out of the back, out of the feet, out of the elbows, out of the knees, out of the whole body. Are you an evil eye, are you a pest, are you an annoyance, have you come by sight or by thought. Do you happen once, twice, or thrice? Did you come from far away, or from another time? Are you of the morning, are you of the evening? I cast you out . . . Did you come from the eye of a Prussian, of a [Rroma], of an Englishman, of a Jew? Or from a woman, or from a man. Or from a girl. Or from a boy. Or from a calf. I cast you out from bones, from blood, and from the whole body. You shall find no happiness there, you shall find no refuge there. You shall not feed on the white body. You shall not drink the red blood. You shall not break the yellow bones. I cast you out . . . send you far away, into the marshes, out onto the blue sea, into the stone fortress. There you shall find happiness, there you shall take refuge, there you shall feed on dust, and stones. Blessed be that desolation in the face of the lord, and of all the saints

Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel, Ashkenazi Herbalism; Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews

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The facile distinction between magic and so-called true mysticism, which we find in the writings of some modern scholars… with their abstract definition of the term mysticism, is quite irrelevant to the history and to the lives of many mystical thinkers. Granted that magic and mysticism represent fundamentally different categories, that does not disprove the fact that they are capable of meeting, developing and interacting in the same mind. History shows that particularly those schools of mysticism which are not purely pantheistic and show no tendency to blur the distinction between God and Nature, represent a blend of the mystical and the magical consciousness. That is true of many forms of Indian, Greek, Catholic and also of Jewish mysticism.

Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism; Seventh Lecture: Isaac Luria and his School

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In addition to their use of biblical sources for creating protective amulets, ba’alei shem also consulted special remedy books (generally referred to as segulot, “cures,” and refu’ot, “remedies”). These resources were an integral part of Ashkenazi medicine from the Middle Ages onward and were consulted by Jewish folk healers right up until the Second World War.

Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel, Ashkenazi Herbalism; Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews

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It [‘Practical Kabbalism’] simply means magic, though practiced by means which do not come under a religious band, as distinct from black magic, which uses demonic powers and probes into sinister regions.

Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism; Fourth Lecture: Abraham Abulafia and the Doctrine of Prophetic Kabbalism

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Like other shamanic healers, the ba’alei shem interceded into the spirit world, but with a particular Jewish emphasis rooted in the Kabbalah with its reliance on Jewish ritual and symbolic magic. A prescription for protection often included a handwritten personalized amulet, guaranteed to perform a wide range of functions. Each of these talismans was unique and had to incorporate four mandatory elements: the names of God and angels, relevant biblical passages or phrases attesting to God’s healing power, a meticulous detailing of the object’s various functions, and the name of the person it was meant for, along with their mother’s name.

Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel, Ashkenazi Herbalism; Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews