Sometimes the best we can do in attributing a historical work is to indicate the period and place it was written, the first prayer book it may have been printed in, or the archival collection in which the manuscript was found. We invite the public to help to attribute all works to their original composers. If you know something not mentioned in the commentary offered, please leave a comment or contact us.
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(clear filter)Contributed by Unknown | Baruch Jean Thaler (translation) | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
This tkhine offers a formula for providing relief to a very ill person, and as such, should only be used as a supplement to recommendations provided by an expert physician or nurse. The source of the tkhine is Tkhine of a Highly Respected Woman, Budapest, 1896; and transcribed from The Merit of Our Mothers בזכות אמהות A Bilingual Anthology of Jewish Women’s Prayers, compiled by Tracy Guren Klirs, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1992. . . .
Contributed by Binyamin Benisch ben Yehudah Loeb ha-Kohen | Unknown | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Anonymous (translation) | ❧
A prayer for protection and blessing offered in the name of of Rebbi Yishmael from the Sefer Shem Tov Qatan. . . .
Contributed by Hermann Gollancz | Unknown | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
This is a version of the Invocation of Baraqon, a spell found in the Key of Solomon (Clavicula Solomonis) and its Hebrew translations (Mafteaḥ Shlomo). This particular variation is as found on the folios 70a-70b of a manuscript republished as ספר מפתח שלמה Sepher Maphteaḥ Shelomo (Book of the Key of Solomon): An exact facsimile of an original book of magic in Hebrew (1914) with a partial transcription translated into English by Rabbi Sir Hermann Gollancz. Claudia Rohrbacher-Stricker writes that Gollancz had located the manuscript in the collection of his father, Samuel H. Gollancz. The manuscript itself dated from around 1700 in Amsterdam, in a Sefardic script. Gershom Scholem was able to prove the Arabic origin of the Baraqon operation in “Some Sources of Jewish-Arabic Demonology,” Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 16 (1965), p. 6. . . .
Contributed by James Alan Montgomery (translation) | Richard Gottheil (transcription) | Unknown | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
An apotropaic ward for the protection of women in their pregnancy and of infant children against an attack from Lilith and her minions, containing the story witnessing her oath to the prophet, Eliyahu along with one variation of her many names. . . .
Contributed by Unknown | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧
The Tabula Smaragdina, or the Emerald Tablet, is a cryptic and compact work, part of the Technical Hermetica — a genre of mystical and magical texts of great popularity in the medieval and renaissance era. Traditionally attributed to the legendary figure Hermes Trismegistus, it is considered a foundational text for Near Eastern and European alchemy. It is the ultimate source of the popular occultist expression “as above, so below,” although that specific expression doesn’t appear in the original Arabic text as found in the ninth-century Secret of Creation. . . .
Contributed by Unknown | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧
One of many variants of this notorious work, the Sefer Toldot Yeshu is an irreverent retelling? a bitter deconstruction? a mocking parody? of the Christian narrative of the birth, life, and death of Jesus of Nazareth. Taking its general structure from the gospels, it coöpts and alters it to make the main character look like a petty, vindictive sorcerer, his disciples into either sectarian liars or loyal rabbinic plants, and his followers into easily duped fools. Toldot Yeshu was a very popular work in medieval times, and you can tell — this sort of a text was certainly written by someone whose primary relationship with Christians was fear. It’s the bitter invective of an oppressed people without power for themselves, the dirty laundry that two thousand years of murder leaves behind. It’s also, just, like unspeakably, hilariously crude. Have a garlicky Nittel, everyone! . . .
Contributed by Unknown | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
The origin story of Lilith as told in the Alphabet of ben Sira. . . .
Contributed by Moses Gaster | Unknown | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
A work of Jewish astrology and magic containing recipes specific to the angelic rulers of each day of the week. . . .
Contributed by Emily Kesselman (art & transcription) | Pablo A. Torijano (translation) | Unknown | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
A guide to the activities one might engage upon in every hour of the week corresponding with their ruling planet, numinous and cthonic power. . . .
Contributed by Unknown | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
A very old tale told for the protection of pregnant women and their infant children as found in amulets from late Antiquity. . . .
Contributed by Roy Kotansky (translation) | Unknown | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
Healing prayers written on a pair of amulets for the recovery of a woman named Arsinoë . . .
Contributed by Moses Gaster | Unknown | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧
The story of Toviah (Tobit) in Hebrew translation, in an abridged version arranged for public reading on the second day of Shavuot. . . .
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