Practical Jewish Folk Magic: An Ancient Path for a Postmodern World

By Jason Louis Feldstein

Chapter 1: A Crash Course on the Jewish Occult

Magic and the occult have been taboo in mainstream Judaism for

far too long. But it wasnt always this way back in the Middle Ages

and before, we practiced all sorts of magic openly. The Christian

population of Europe used to consider Jews to be powerful sorcerers,

and often they werent wrong. The rise of the Inquisition (and later, the

Enlightenment) meant that the rabbis felt they needed to tone down

the magical and mystical elements of the tradition in order to avoid

persecution and ridicule. That decision may have saved a great many

people from torture or execution.

The rabbis banned many magical practices and teachings

outright, but also encoded some into prayers that became part of the

weekly Friday night service. For an easy example of this, think of the

processional that most synagogues sing as the Torah is removed from

the ark. It starts, Lcha Adonai ha-Gedulah vha-Gevurah vha-Tiferet

vha-Netzach vha-Hod. If you have any familiarity with the Tree of

Life, youll instantly recognize those as the second through the sixth

sephirot, counting from the top of the Tree. (Gedulah is an alternate

name for Chesed.)

The Talmud also preserves a great many magical practices, since

it dates from long before the whitewashing of Judaism in Europe.

Various parts of the Talmud include information on popular

superstitions, stories about ghostly and demonic possession, and

lengthy discussion about which magical practices are legal and which

are forbidden. As in the bible, the Talmudic rabbis consider magic to

be forbidden, where magic is defined as the practices they dont like

(usually because they originally come from a non-Jewish source). When

Jews practice magic, the term miracle or practical kabbalah is used

instead of the term magic, since the latter implies that worship of

foreign gods might be involved. Rabbis have often frowned upon these

practical kabbalah as well, but could never stamp it out; in every

religion, theres a big difference between what the authorities preach

and what most people on the ground actually choose to do.

I happen to believe the reason the rabbis couldnt stamp out

practices like making amulets or invoking divine names is that they

were too effective. Amulets were big business in ancient times, so

much so that today we have examples of a wide variety of quality.

Some of the specimens are intricately carved into precious metals by

scribes who clearly were fluent in Hebrew. Others are so bad that the

instructions for making the amulet are carved onto the final product

itself. It seems unlikely to me that so many people could have made a

living as amulet-makers if their craft were no more than a placebo.

Certainly, in cases where the amulet was meant to help cure a disease,

the client would pursue medical attention also but its also true that
ancient medicine often did more harm than good. Amulets were

popular because they worked.

Many Jews today seem to think the information in this book is

dangerous and should be kept secret. I could not disagree more

emphatically. The magic of our ancestors is our birthright, a birthright

weve allowed the rabbinate to steal from us. Dont get me wrong,

rabbis are important but rabbi means teacher, not censor.

Mature adults should be able to decide for themselves what

information is too dangerous to study. This magic is ancient, it is

powerful, it is reasonably easy to use, and most importantly, it belongs

to every Jew who has ever lived. Its time we took it back for ourselves.

Its time to occupy Judaism. Its time for the return of Jewish folk magic.

The biggest obstacle Ive faced in researching this topic on my

own is theres no one book that covers it all. Thats why I decided I

needed to write one. While slogging through endless academic books

on amulets and incantation bowls looking for useful information can be

rewarding, its also very time consuming and I realize it isnt

everyones idea of fun. The only other comprehensive book on

practical Jewish magic that currently exists in English is Qabalistic

Magic by Salomo Baal Shem, which is more of a spellbook than an

actual system. I definitely recommend reading it, and its lists of the

magical uses for psalms and the most common Hebrew phrases on

ancient amulets alone make it worth owning. However, it also contains

a few too many Hermeticisms to be properly called a Jewish magic

book its more like heavliy Jewish-flavored ceremonial magic. Its also

more useful if you want to run rituals directly out of the book than if

you want to construct them yourself. This book aims to be the opposite

a purely Jewish, cohesive magical system that you can use for

whatever your goals might be.

There is, of course, every possibility that some people will misuse

the information in this book. To those people I say, On your own head

be it. Every major medieval grimoire, Jewish and otherwise, agrees

that horrible things will happen to an unrighteous person who uses this

type of magic. I imagine most rabbis would disagree with me, but if we

dont trust God to be able to sort out abuses of divine and angelic

names without our help, can we honestly say we have any faith at all?

Not likely.

If you happen to be an observant Jew or a rabbi, Id like to just

say a few further things for you in particular. While Im sure you can

detect an obvious anti-censorship bias on my part, I want you to know

that I did not write this book lightly. Outside the Orthodox world, young

Jews are leaving Judaism for Buddhism or other faiths that dont fear

mysticism like Reform and Conservative Judaism always have. And

while I support Jewish Renewals efforts at reviving meaningful ancient

practices such as drumming, meditation and Hebrew chanting, very

few Jews still seem to be aware of what they do. I invite you to read
this book in a certain way: setting aside your preconceptions about

magic / practical kabbalah. Please try to look instead toward the ways

in which this system could lead a person to a far deeper understanding

of (and appreciation for) the various Hebrew names for Hashem. And I

cant see how that could ever be a bad thing. This is all just a specific

form of prayer directed at producing a particular result, much like some

of the prayers in the standard Friday night service.

While Ive assembled this information what I hope is a new and

useful way, all of it is already published in English or Id never have

learned about it myself. And I want to emphasize to everyone,

regardless of observance level, that the compassionate and righteous

heart of a tzaddik (or more often, an aspiring tzaddik) is a prerequisite

for using this book for anything more than theory. Tikkun olam is the

goal, not personal wealth or power. So if you use it for selfish or

malicious reasons, either it will fail to work or you might live to regret

your mistake. Or you might not. Our god is a jealous god who does not

take kindly to would-be usurpers, and misuse of divine names would

definitely be playing God. So dont.

Basic assumptions of this book

I assume that most of my readers fall into one of two categories:

Jews who want to learn about Jewish magic, and non-Jewish magicians

who want to learn how Jews do things. Either way, I imagine you want
me to present things from a Jewish perspective, so thats what Im

doing. While I still also consider myself a chaos mage, since thats what

I learned first, any book on some other magical paradigm would have a

very different title without the word Jewish in it. So to help

differentiate this system from others you might already be familiar

with, Im going to list the assumptions this book makes about how

magic works. Whether you actually believe these things or not, it will

be helpful advantage to act as if you do whenever using the system

presented in later chapters.

Names have inherent power

This is the case with most ancient Near Eastern magic, like also

Egyptian magic for example, and this particular bit of wisdom survives

in encoded form to this very day. Sometimes you might see a crucifix

with the letters INRI on the top, right about Jesuss head. There are

two theories on what it means. The first is that its Latin for Iesus

Nazarenus, Rex Iudiae, or Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

However, Gnostics believe that it stands for Ipse nomen res ipsa,

which means The name of the thing is the thing itself. And

Catholicism likely got this information via Judaism.

Ancient Jewish magic, like Judaism itself, is very literary. When I

showed one of my amulets to my teacher Jason Miller via Facebook, he

was surprised how big it was and how many words were on it.

Traditional Jewish amulets arent wearable, theyre for the home, and

describing the effect you want in as much detail as possible is always

best. This is where the names come in choose the angels and names

of God that best fit your goal. For example, if youre trying to heal

someone, you might use Raphael (the archangel of healing) and the

divine name Adonai Rophe (God Heals). Often theres more than

one applicable divine or angelic name for your goal, and in that case I

suggest using them all. The ancient view is that more names always

equal more power, as long as theyre the right ones.

Ritual purity is important.

Because Jewish magic relies on divine favor, its important to

make sure youre in a state of ritual purity before doing any. Ritual

purity as an often-misunderstood concept in Judaism, so let me explain

a bit. In The Hebrew Goddess, Raphael Patai argues very convincingly

that the word we usually translate as profane or unholy actually

reflects a separate kind of holiness the holiness of the goddess

Asherah, who was very popular in ancient Israel. So popular that she

was regarded as Gods wife. But since God and Asherah represented

the masculine and feminine principle, respectively, it was impossible to

be holy in both their eyes at the same time. So whatever makes you
ritually pure for Asherah would make you ritually impure for God, and

vice versa. Ritual impurity isnt something bad or nasty, its just

something that naturally happens as a course of living our lives.

Using divine or angelic names while ritually impure is a bit like

stepping into Gods house and tracking mud all over the floor. If you do

it accidentally, God probably wont be upset - its still rude, so dont do

it. I wont presume to tell you which commandments you should keep,

since thats up to your own conscience. However, I think the ones that

are generally considered the big ones in Judaism are a good place to

start. These include the Ten Commandments and the laws about what

not to eat. While the Talmud is unusually strict about them, the actual

biblical commandments about food arent that hard to keep. Giving up

pork and shellfish can be difficult, but who really wants to eat a bird of

prey or a calf boiled in its mothers milk? Doesnt sound very

appetizing to me.

If a situation occurs where you do break a commandment that

youve committed to keeping, dont worry. As I said above, ritual

impurity isnt bad, its just something that happens. The Torah has

easy solutions: make a sacrifice and bathe in the mikveh. The second

part is easy find any free-flowing body of water, get naked and

immerse yourself completely, and say a particular blessing. If you dont

have access to a traditional Orthodox mikveh (which most major cities

do have) or a free-flowing body of water, I find that dissolving Dead

Sea salt in the bathtub and immersing myself there is also effective.

As for sacrifices, we know from the writings of the later prophets

that the sacrifice itself was never the important detail. The act was

what mattered, because it represented giving God something that you

will miss, and thus symbolically placing faith above your earthly,

material concerns. Which is where it should be anyway. A good modern

way to make a sacrifice is to give an amount of money that feels

somewhat uncomfortable for you to a charity you believe in. I

personally like Jerusalem Peace Makers, as I think peace in the Middle

East is one of the most important goals of our entire culture, but my

friend Sara prefers Heifer International since they give an animal to a

starving person (so the money actually goes to an animal sacrifice of

sorts). As long as your rationale makes sense to you, its definitely the

thought that counts here.

Intent is crucial.

As I said in the introduction (which most people will probably

have skipped), the only difference between a prophets miracles and a

sorcerers magic in the bible is who the person worships. The effects

are the same, but the intent is different. While its definitely possible to

serve other gods and YHVH in your life, you cant do both at the exact
same time. This type of belief system is usually called monolatry,

which might best be expressed by the sentence, Other gods are real,

but YHVH is the most powerful god. A close reading of the book of

Genesis reveals that the author(s) were monolators, not monotheists;

this is well accepted by both academics and at least some rabbis.

As long as you can work with other gods or spirits while still

realizing YHVH is supreme, you arent committing idolatry. Thinking

some other god is cooler may be a gray area, but if you find yourself in

that situation, offering worship to that god is a risk I dont recommend.

However, for what its worth, plenty of chaos magic and ceremonial

magic can integrate easily into a Jewish worldview with minor

modifications that will become intuitive once you know the Jewish

system better.

Belief matters, but isnt required.

While Maimonides thirteen articles of faith are reasonably

universal among most mainstream Jews, this is not a book about

mainstream Judaism. Nowhere in the bible does it say you have to

believe in God, only that you may have no other gods before God.

Being a Jewish atheist is perfectly acceptable as long as you keep the

commandments and dont try to destroy the faith of others. Most

Jewish atheists Ive met said they keep the commandments because
doing so gives them a sense of belonging and tribal identity. There is

even a whole movement of Judaism, the Humanistic movement, that

runs services in which God doesnt appear at all. Humanistic services

are more about learning how to become our best selves and repair the

world, which is certainly valuable, but my own personal view is that

religion has far more to offer than ethics alone. Still, the humanistic

approach is a valid one if it appeals to you. If youre familiar with

Christian terminology, good works are everything in ancient Judaism

faith is nice, but its gravy.

Torah is the word of God; Talmud is the word of man.

Interpreting Torah for yourself is a sacred duty.

Oddly enough, this teaching is more heretical than the idea that

magic is okay. The rabbinate has spent many centuries justifying its

existence by making decrees and pronouncements about how

binding the Oral Torah is. The problem is, their arguments dont

make sense. Oral law evolves because it isnt written down. Once you

do write it down, it ceases to oral and thus it also ceases to be law. Not

that the Talmud, mishnah, and other rabbinic works arent valuable

they surely are. But listen to Rabbi Nachman of Breslav when he said,

I will not be to my predecessors as a donkey, eternally hauling their

books. Critical thinking isnt reserved solely for rabbis, its a

fundamental human capability that we all should use. And the Zohar

teaches that whatever meaning you find in the Torah, God put it there

specifically for you to find. So dont just feel frre to interpret scripture

yourself, feel obligated to do so. If you dont read Hebrew, of course,

having access to multiple translations helps a lot with this.

Judaism favors debate over dogma.

In ancient times, the forebears of modern rabbinic Judaism were

called the Pharisees. They were far from the only Jewish sect, though.

The Sadducees were the hereditary priests who presided over the

Second Temple in Jerusalem, and admittedly as time went on they

became increasingly corrupt servants of Rome. Another lesser-known

sect was the Essenes, a celibate monastic order whose community at

Qumran was responsible for writing the Dead Sea Scrolls. Other related

groups with their own customs and beliefs included the Samaritans and

the Ethiopian Jews (known today as the Beta Israel). Jews of different

sects used to work, pray and debate together in the Temple, and our

ancestors considered it not only normal but desirable: diversity leads

to a better understanding of the world.

I mention this to illustrate the fact that the rabbinic monoculture

we have come to accept is in itself un-Jewish. Liberal Jews in the

Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal movements have too long

allowed the Orthodox to act as the de-facto keepers of tradition rather

than creating our own traditions and rediscovering new ones. Beyond

even the anti-Palestinian racism this has created in Israel, it has made

us unsure of ourselves as Jews. Make no mistake: Being a good Jew is

not in how many of the commandments you keep, but rather in your

reason for keeping them. And our tradition teaches that a Jew who

becomes even slightly more observant throughout his or her life, a

person called a baal teshuvah, is more holy to God than a person who

has kept all 613 commandments his or her entire life. Conscious and

mindful choice is worth more than all the rote memorization and hollow

performance in the world.

Now let me be clear: the Orthodox world has some wonderful

teachers, many of whom are true mystics whose joy and love are

palpable just being around them. But like any faith-based community,

it also has its share of believers who are more concerned with the

letter of the law than with its spirit. I believe it is our duty as liberal

Jews to remind them that Judaism is fundamentally about loving the

stranger, feeding the poor, healing the sick, and repairing the world.

More importantly, the story of Abraham tells us exactly how to go

about it.

Destroying idols is in our blood.

 A Jew and a Buddhist were walking in a Buddhist temple and

talking about idolatry. Idolatry is placing an object or a worldly

concern above the divine, said the Jew to the Buddhist. In response,

the Buddhist picked up a statue of the Buddha and smashed it on the

ground. Can you do that with your Torah? he asked with a smile.

If this story sounds similar to the tale of Abraham smashing his

fathers idols, thats by design. Modern statues of the Buddha arent

idols because modern people cant conceive of the idea that the entire

substance of a god could be contained within a physical object. This

idea is so obvious now to make disagreement silly. But it wasnt always

this way.

In ancient times, Torah tells us that some people actually

believed that their statues of household gods were the gods

themselves. And so Abraham made the ultimate point when smashing

his fathers idols: How can you worship a god this fragile? What kind of

god is so impotent as to prevent me from smashing him on the floor?

In his books, Gershon Winkler suggests that one meaning for the

word Hebrew is boundary-crosser. Likewise, its well known that

Israel means the one who wrestles with God. These two adjectives,

boundary-crosser and God-wrestler, describe and define us as Jews

throughout the ages. Whether in magic or in science, we have long

been known for our ingenuity and intelligence. But the last major

innovation in our religion the formation of the Reform movement

was over a century ago, and while it helped Jews to modernize and

evolve, it also removed from the tradition much of what gave it lasting

value.

Historians often say that the pendulum of history swings back

and forth between liberalism and conservatism. In religion, the two

sides of the pendulum are reason and magic. The old conceit that

reasonable people dont believe in all that superstitious nonsense is

beneath us. The old concern of Christians burning us as heretics or

witches is behind us. And the idea that any person could use holy

names or scripture to accomplish something bad or evil has never

made the slightest bit of sense. These sacred cows are assumptions

that keep us from fulfilling our destiny, and in that way they are their

own kind of idols. Now is the time to destroy them.

Non-canonical books are non-canonical because of fear.

-When in doubt, older is both cooler and more powerful.

-Jewish sources are more authentic, but non-Jews have great ideas too.

(Oath of the Abyss) new Jewish version promising God to assume

nothing is a coincidence until weve checked all possible connections

and run them past our reason.

-Innovation is essential. Creation is what makes us like God. Thats why

using your art in your magic makes it more powerful.

-The Jewish magician = the biblical prophet. Get over it now. Discuss

navie vs maggid vs baal shem.

-This tradition had to hide for centuries, but now its safe to come out

and play (compare with Santeria)

- God wants you to be happy and fulfilled

- Seek God and live. / All the rest is commentary

- Debate instead of dogma

- Always strive to be better, more awesome

- Nondualism and cognitive dissonance (ancient temple mysteries /

man and wife is one flesh)

- Destroy idols. (Idolatry = addiction / greed / sacred cows) Dalai

Lama / destroying Buddha statue

Destructive order / constructive disorder

What religion is for, from a mindfulness point of view

- Torah is not about rules. The rules are incidental. Their purpose is to

provoke mindfulness, tikkun olam, prophecy, and eventual self-

actualization in an ancient mind. This book is an attempt to do the

same for a modern mind.

- the devil is a Christian creation. While we have fallen angels and

demons, YHVH is supreme creator of both light and dark. Compare with

Hinduism / Zoroastrianism

Nephilim are sterile. Except Zuris line.

- Always speak your mind. Be a hero. Practice justice (tzedakah)

- Stay humble by being of service. (tzaddik)

- The greatest of these is love.

No hate speech / gossip

Magical tools

-Bible verses

-names

-ancestry / patriarchs / blood

-Shofar

-Dead sea salt

-Israeli soil

-Intentionality Oath of the Abyss, hitbodedut, Baruch Hashem,

tzaddik, messianic age, tikkun olam

Correspondences (elements, directions, animals, worlds, Tree of

Usefulness)

Spirits

Alphabets

Chapter 3: Amulets and Incantations

Historical background

How to construct an incantation

Basic ritual framework

Amulet making