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Chapter 27 - Magic

from Part III - Spiritual and Intellectual History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2021

By
Gideon Bohak
Edited by
Phillip I. Lieberman
Phillip I. Lieberman
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
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Summary

“Magic” is a notoriously difficult term whose exact meaning tends to change from one scholarly treatment to the next. For the purpose of the current survey, magic is the attempt to achieve concrete results in the real world through actions that seek to harness or influence supernatural forces. However, as much of Judaism easily falls under such a definition, in the following survey we shall focus especially on practices that remained outside the framework of “normative Judaism” as embedded in its standard halakhic codes and prayer books.

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The Cambridge History of Judaism , pp. 864 - 890
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

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Bohak, Gideon. Ancient Jewish Magic: A History (Cambridge, 2008).Google Scholar
Bohak, Gideon. “Prolegomena to the Study of the Jewish Magical Tradition,” Currents in Biblical Literature 8 (2009), 107–50.Google Scholar
Bohak, Gideon. “Towards a Catalogue of the Magical, Astrological, Divinatory and Alchemical Fragments from the Cambridge Genizah Collections,” in Outhwaite, Ben M. and Bhayro, Siam, eds., “From a Sacred Source”: Genizah Studies in Honour of Professor Stefan C. Reif (Leiden, 2010), 53–79.Google Scholar
Harari, Yuval. “Jewish Magic: An Annotated Overview” [Hebrew], El Prezente: Studies in Sephardic Culture 5 (2011), 13*–85*.Google Scholar
Harari, Yuval. Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah, trans. Stein, Batya (Detroit, 2017).Google Scholar
Leicht, Reimund. “Some Observations on the Diffusion of Jewish Magical Texts from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in Manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah and Ashkenaz,” in Shaked, Shaul, ed., Officina Magica: Essays on the Practice of Magic in Antiquity (Leiden, 2005), 213–31.Google Scholar
Naveh, Joseph, and Shaked, Shaul. Amulets and Magic Bowls: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem, 1985; third edition, 1998).Google Scholar
Naveh, Joseph, and Shaked, Shaul Magic Spells and Formulae: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem, 1993).Google Scholar
Schäfer, Peter, and Shaked, Shaul. Magische Texte aus der Kairoer Geniza (Tübingen, vol. 1, 1994; vol. 2, 1997; vol. 3, 1999).Google Scholar
Schiffman, Lawrence H., and Swartz, Michael D.. Hebrew and Aramaic Incantation Texts from the Cairo Geniza: Selected Texts from Taylor-Schechter Box K1 (Sheffield, 1992).Google Scholar
Shaked, Shaul. “Medieval Jewish Magic in Relation to Islam: Theoretical Attitudes and Genres,” in Hary, Benjamin, Hayes, John L., and Astren, Fred, eds., Judaism and Islam: Boundaries, Communication and Interaction (Essays in Honor of William M. Brinner) (Leiden, 2000), 97–109.Google Scholar
Vukosavović, Filip, ed. Angels and Demons: Jewish Magic through the Ages (Jerusalem, 2010).Google Scholar
Wasserstrom, Steven M. “The Unwritten Chapter: Notes Towards a Social and Religious History of Geniza Magic,” in Shaked, Shaul, ed., Officina Magica: Essays on the Practice of Magic in Antiquity (Leiden, 2005), 269–93.Google Scholar

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