The season of the Jewitch: Meet the occultists who blend witchcraft and Jewish folklore – JTA News – Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Posted By admin on October 30, 2021
(JTA) Occult practices and totems are a mainstay of Halloween season, and sage bundles, altars and crystals are an increasingly trendy way to dabble in divination and witchcraft. But the spooky supernatural world also has a long history in Judaism, and modern Jewitches are encouraging the connection though their practices often slightly differ from their non-Jewish contemporaries.
I do not burn sage, said Zo Jacobi, who runs Jewitches, a popular blog and podcast that deep dives into ancient Jewish myths and folkloric practices. The sage-related ritual of smudging, an Indigenous ceremony popular among modern witches for cleansing a person or place of negative energy, is not a Jewish practice, she said. But Jews had crystals. Actually, they were called gems.
Jacobi and her peers are revitalizing ancient Jewish practices of witchcraft, which have been seeing something of a revival as of late. Far from having an uneasy relationship with magic practitioners, Judaism or at least Kabbalistic strands of it has long embraced them.
Jacobi, based in Los Angeles, studies those gems role in Jewish ritual, along with the connections between assorted other magical artifacts and Judaica. Eight shelves in her home are filled with books on Judaism as well as Jewish magic, witchcraft and folklore.
Her studies have revealed the historical ways that items like gems have been used in Jewish magical correspondences. Like healing crystals, gems are meant to protect and heal based on their properties, according to Midrash (Numbers Rabbah 2:7). For example, sapphire was thought to strengthen eyesight.
Its in a medieval text called the Sefer Ha-Gematriaot, Jacobi said. But even if we go to the Torah, we see crystals on the breastplates of the kohanim (high priests of Israel).
Many Jewish rituals today have their roots in warding off demons, ghosts and other mythological creatures. When we break glass at a wedding, scholars say, were not just remembering the destruction of the Temple; were also scaring off evil spirits that may want to hurt the bride and groom. Likewise, ancient Jews believed that the mezuzah protected them from messengers of evil a function parallel to that of an amulet, or good-luck charm.
The mezuzah is absolutely an amulet, said Rebekah Erev, a Jewish feminist artist, activist and kohenet (Hebrew priestexx, a gender-neutral term for priest or priestess) who uses the pronouns they/them and teaches online courses on Jewish magic. I consider it to be a reminder of the presence of spirit, of goddess, of shechinah [the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God]. Much of magic is about reminding ourselves that were all connected and that everything is alive and animate.
The moniker Jewitch itself can be seen as controversial within the group. Erev first heard the term while attending a 2014 Jewitch Collective retreat in the Bay Area.
I feel that any word that identifies someone as a witch is controversial in nature because of how society, including Jewish society, has demonized witches leading to violence and ostracizing, Erev said. To be a Jew and to be a witch has had serious repercussions throughout time. I hope the recent popularity of the term Jewitch will bring more acceptance and understanding of both identities and help to make our practices more widely accessible.
Priestexx Rebekah Erev calls the mezuzah an amulet. (Vito Valera)
I feel that any word that identifies someone as a witch is controversial in nature because of how society, including Jewish society, has demonized witches leading to violence and ostracizing, they said, even though they do consider both witchcraft and Judaism to be major tenets of their life.
Cooper Kaminsky, a Denver-based intuitive artist and healer, concurred that the portmanteau was revisionist to some, but added, Many, including myself, are empowered by identifying as a Jewitch.
Historically, as Judaic practices grew more patriarchal, women were exempt from studying the Talmud and Torah. They knew little Hebrew, so they created their own prayers in Yiddish, used herbal remedies and centered their religious practices around the earth.
Erev mirrors these customs by creating magical rituals, like meditating on cinnamon sticks during the month of Shvat, hearkening back to how cinnamon trees in Jerusalem scented the land during the harvest.
Theres a Kabbalistic idea of making oneself smaller for creation to emerge. Connecting with a cinnamon stick is a simple ritual. The cinnamon folds in, and the bark contracts in on itself, Erev said. Sometimes contracting inward can give us space to emerge and create.
They also do spellwork, creating spells for new love, pregnancy protection and social justice; on their blog, they shared an incantation designed to bring more awareness to Indigenous Land Back movements.
The goal of many Jewitch educators and practitioners, they say, is to shine a light on rituals that have been forgotten or buried for self-preservation. Jacobi believes that many folkloric practices died out following the 13th-18th centuries because, at the time, Jews were viewed as demonic witches.
Jewish communities did what they thought would protect them from literal certain death. Some of that came at the expense of some of these practices, Jacobi said. Instead of the supernatural reasons, they tried to give rational reasons for what they were doing. Ashkenazi Jews routinely tried to debate with their oppressors in the hopes that they could out-logic antisemitism.
This traumatic history, the Jewitches say, is often papered over or dismissed as myths and superstitions. Saying superstition is a way that we downplay our magic, Kaminsky said. We protect ourselves because, historically, a huge part of our oppression has been because were magical.
Almost all of our Jewish spells are for the sake of healing, says Cooper Kaminsky. (Colin Lloyd)
Kaminsky, who uses the pronouns they/them, does spiritual readings for clients that draw upon Kabbalah, Tarot and the Akashic records a reference library of everything that has ever happened, which spiritual mediums believe resides in another dimension. Kaminsky incorporates Jewish prayers into their spellwork, like reciting the Psalms of David when doing candle spells and the Bsheim Hashem as a magical invocation.
Kaminsky, who uses the pronouns they/them, grew up in a Conservative Jewish household and learned the basic concepts of Kabbalah in Jewish day school.
Kabbalah looks at Judaism through a cosmic, mystical lens that clicked for me a lot more than looking at a story from the Torah, Kaminsky said. As I read more Kabbalah, I started feeling more connected to my Judaism.
Various scholars and rabbis have linked Kabbalah to Tarot, a deck of cards originally used in the mid-15th century to play games that evolved to divinatory practices in the 18th century (though Jacobi, for one, refutes this idea, claiming the connection has never been proven). The Tarots Major Arcana the trump cards of the deck, which detail the evolution of ones soul usually make up 22 cards in any given pack, a meaningful Jewish number: the same as the number of letters in the aleph-bet, and the number of pathways on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
For their energy work, Kaminsky draws parallels between the chakras, energy points in the body discussed in Hinduism, and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
The Tree of Life is an energy network, they said. Theres the meridians of energy, and the chakras are like the middle pillar.
Mystical practices were a part of Jacobis upbringing. Her parents practiced Kabbalah, metaphysics, folklore and folk mythology. They have attended the same local Chabad since Jacobi was three years old.
Thanks to these experiences, Jacobi is comfortable living out of the (broom) closet a tongue-in-cheek term that some modern witches use to refer to openly practicing witchcraft. She grew up with astrology, used tarot cards on Shabbat and played with her mothers rose quartz crystal ball while her father led Havdalah prayers. The Jewitches blog and podcast are filled with mythological creatures with origins in Jewish beliefs, like dybbuks, werewolves, dragons and vampires.
Some creatures are unique to Jewish lore:the vampiric Alukah, a blood-sucking witch referred to in Proverbs 30, turned out to be Liliths daughter, while a Broxa originated as a bird from medieval Portugal that drank goats milk and sometimes human blood during the night.
Whenever there have been dire times throughout history, people have turned to mysticism; thats how Kabbalah emerged, Erev said. We need to look to our ancestors for guidance. There are a lot of tools in our human community for healing and re-dreaming and creating a world that is safe and generative for all beings.
Kaminsky thinks magic has the power to repair the world: Almost all of our Jewish spells are for the sake of healing. Tikkun olam, using our magic to repair the world, is beautiful.
Link:
- Ashkenazi Jews Are Not Khazars. Heres The Proof. - The Forward - December 31st, 2022
- Bones yielding insights about Ashkenazi DNA in a German town built atop ... - December 25th, 2022
- 9. Race, ethnicity, heritage and immigration among U.S. Jews - December 23rd, 2022
- Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry - Wikipedia - December 20th, 2022
- We Were The Lucky Ones: Robin Weigert, Lior Ashkenazi Join Cast ... - November 19th, 2022
- Y-chromosomal Aaron - Wikipedia - October 23rd, 2022
- Wanted for work in Israel: pimps and Ashkenazi cooks - Haaretz - October 23rd, 2022
- Ashkenazi Jewish Heritage and Genetic Risk | OncoLink - October 17th, 2022
- Israeli needle-free alternative to amnio can detect thousands of mutations - The Times of Israel - October 17th, 2022
- Jamaican Organizations and B'nai Brith to Work Together to Highlight Little-Known Chapter of the Holocaust - bnaibrith.ca - October 17th, 2022
- Work remains on Tay-Sachs and other Ashkenazi genetic disorders J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - September 19th, 2022
- Canada's oldest Ashkenazi congregation just recovered a 100-year-old time capsule on their milestone anniversary weekend - The Canadian Jewish News - September 19th, 2022
- How to Celebrate Rosh Hashanah With the Help of London Restaurants This Year - Eater London - September 19th, 2022
- Pope criticised over running 'supermarket of religions' - TVP World - September 19th, 2022
- Want to know more about breast cancer and genetics? This Q&A will have all the answers - HerCanberra - September 19th, 2022
- They have their secret. Now I have a secret too: The story behind SumiLicious, the only Scarborough restaurant to receive a Michelin award - Toronto... - September 19th, 2022
- Trip notebook: Papal critics, an ambassador for Italian and sitting on the same level - Crux Now - September 19th, 2022
- Netanyahu poised to lead most rightwing government in Israeli history - Mondoweiss - September 19th, 2022
- Recap: Recent Advances in the Treatment of Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer - Cancer Network - September 19th, 2022
- $55 million gift to Penn is aimed at stopping breast cancer before it starts - The Philadelphia Inquirer - September 16th, 2022
- The Pope Addresses The Heart Of The Belt & Road Initiative In Kazakhstan - Silk Road Briefing - September 16th, 2022
- Who will / should win the Ophirs? - Blog - The Film Experience - September 16th, 2022
- Lox block: UWS congregation takes beloved salmon off the menu, citing environmental concerns - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - September 11th, 2022
- Meet the Rabbi Who Ended 1300 Years of Ritual Humiliation - aish.com - Aish.com - September 11th, 2022
- Playing with Fragments - The Jewish Standard - September 11th, 2022
- All the Rosh Hashanah Gifts You Need - Kveller.com - September 11th, 2022
- A tour of what it means to be Christian in multicultural Kazakhstan - Travel Tomorrow - September 11th, 2022
- This Rosh Hashanah, fill up on symbolic dips, bites and small plates J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - September 8th, 2022
- This Missouri bagel shop went viral for its Talmud-inspired effort to feed the needy - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - September 8th, 2022
- Missouri bagel shop goes viral for effort to feed the needy J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - September 8th, 2022
- Radiocarbon dating only works halfway we may have the solution - PiPa News - September 8th, 2022
- Congress of World and Traditional Religions Leaders to be held at Palace of Independence - inform.kz/en - September 8th, 2022
- Israeli Terror Victim Teens Gifted Tefillin and Shabbat Candlesticks on Canadian Trip - Lubavitch.com - September 6th, 2022
- Taking inspiration from the Talmud to feed the needy - Australian Jewish News - September 6th, 2022
- New book explores the insane career of Syrian Jewish hustler Crazy Eddie Antar - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - August 25th, 2022
- UK man who survived concentration camp as baby finally learns his familys identity - The Times of Israel - August 25th, 2022
- Japanese American National Museum premieres cancer-battling directors film on pains of WWII incarceration camps - Yahoo News - August 25th, 2022
- Licorice Pizza to Galaxy Quest: the seven best films to watch on TV this week - The Guardian - August 20th, 2022
- Fascinating Details of Judean Shepherd's Life 6000 Years Ago Revealed by New Tech - Ancient Origins - August 20th, 2022
- The Pletzel of Paris and The Bread That Shares Its Name - aish.com - Aish.com - August 18th, 2022
- Archaeologists discover mosaic with inscription to Peter that may point to location of his home - The Christian Post - August 18th, 2022
- Wolfgang Petersen another celebrity to succumb to pancreatic cancer - Calgary Herald - August 18th, 2022
- A Cry in the Wilderness: How Jewish Organizations Can Help With Jewish Genetic Diseases - Jewish Journal - August 12th, 2022
- Azerbaijan's Minister of Youth and Sports meets with Chief Rabbi of Ashkenazi Jewish community in country - AZERTAC News - August 12th, 2022
- Czerny as the new Lustiger, the 'Jewish cardinal' and papal contender - Crux Now - August 12th, 2022
- Honoring the Jews of Jamaica | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com - Algemeiner - August 12th, 2022
- Anne Frank, Arab-Jewish relations, karaoke in focus at upcoming Israeli film awards - The Times of Israel - August 12th, 2022
- Metas new chatbot is already parroting users prejudice and misinformation - Popular Science - August 12th, 2022
- Meet the Jews of color exploring what it means to be Black, Asian, Latino and Jewish - Forward - August 12th, 2022
- Jewish wilderness wedding featured animal-skin ketubah, harvest altar J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - August 12th, 2022
- Ashkenazi Jewish Panel: What It May Reveal About Your Genes - July 23rd, 2022
- At SFJFF opening night, we're all just happy to be back at the Castro J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - July 23rd, 2022
- Verimatrix and Harmonic Partner to Enable Streaming Content Protection at SaaS Speed - StreetInsider.com - July 23rd, 2022
- Russian cuisine has evolved in light of scarcity and isolation - KCRW - July 23rd, 2022
- Tina Sacks on racial inequality in health and feeling 'Jewish enough' - The Jewish News of Northern California - July 23rd, 2022
- Who serves the best kosher pizza in NYC? We found out - Forward - July 23rd, 2022
- Fight Over Fear: Ayesha Khan on the importance of mammograms in fighting breast cancer - FOX 5 DC - July 14th, 2022
- I was named after my uncle who was shot and killed. His Hebrew name is a privilege I dont bear lightly - Forward - July 14th, 2022
- Groups Launched to Help Jewish Couples with IVF Face Uncertain Landscape After Roe Reversal - Jewish Exponent - July 14th, 2022
- Tipping Point: Israel on the Brink The Brooklyn Rail - Brooklyn Rail - July 14th, 2022
- World Premiere of ASHKENAZI SEANCE to be Presented at The Brick This Month - Broadway World - July 10th, 2022
- Lentils Make the Best Fake Minced Meat - Lifehacker - July 10th, 2022
- Liberal Pakistani Writer And Nuclear Scientist Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy: 'European Jews Fleeing Hitler Were Far Less Welcome Than Muslims Are In Today's... - July 10th, 2022
- Book Appreciation: AB Yehoshua's "Mr Mani" -- A Great Work of Fiction - artsfuse.org - July 10th, 2022
- The secret Plymouth graveyard unearthed behind this door with the aid of Google and a box of old keys - Plymouth Live - July 10th, 2022
- Bustle's Guide To Abortion Care - Bustle - June 26th, 2022
- Op-Ed: A notebook with family recipes reminds me of Ukraines strength - Los Angeles Times - June 26th, 2022
- Hey Pandas, Who Has An Unusual Ethnic Background That Has Everyone Wondering What You're Mixed With? - Bored Panda - June 26th, 2022
- Pompe Diseases Enzyme Replacement Therapy (ERT) Market is predicted to increase at a high 7% CAGR ov - PharmiWeb.com - June 26th, 2022
- A Rare Tanach And The Ladino Renaissance - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 17th, 2022
- I Never Met My Jewish Father. Converting to Judaism Helped Me Forgive Him. Kveller - Kveller.com - June 17th, 2022
- Failing to Silence the Jewish Fiddle - Jewish Journal - June 17th, 2022
- The ADL, Progressives and White Nationalists - City Watch - June 17th, 2022
- Verimatrix Threat Defense Technology Wins 2022 Global Infosec Award - TechDecisions - June 17th, 2022
- Obituary Bernard Allan Lublin - The Henrico Citizen - Henrico Citizen - June 17th, 2022
- Mayo Clinic Q and A: What is the benefit of visiting a genetic counselor? - Times-West Virginian - June 17th, 2022
- A lesbian Orthodox horror movie and other Jewish highlights of the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - June 8th, 2022
- Have You Ever Heard of the Farhud? - Jewish Journal - June 8th, 2022
- Eating Your Way Through The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem - aish.com - Aish - June 8th, 2022
- Why cold summer soups are actually really Jewish - St. Louis Jewish Light - June 8th, 2022
Comments