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This printed amulet to protect a woman in childbirth features a central scene depicting Adam and Eve and several animals in the Garden of Eden, with a snake coiled around the forbidden “tree of…
Contributor:
Abraham Bar Jacob
Places:
Amsterdam, Dutch Republic (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Date:
ca. 1700
Subjects:
Categories:
Public Access
Text
To exorcise any spirit or any demon from a person [is] a kabbalistic power [ma‘aseh merkavah] with which King Solomon, peace be upon him, ruled all the demons. Fast for three consecutive days—Monday…
Contributor:
Unknown
Places:
Safed, Ottoman Empire (Safed, Israel)
Date:
17th Century
Subjects:
Categories:
Public Access
Text
To kill a foe: write these twelve names on deerskin or calfskin parchment on Monday evening at the third or fourth hour, or at those times at night. And this is what you shall write:He who gives forth…
Contributor:
Unknown
Date:
17th Century
Subjects:
Categories:
Public Access
Image
Printed amulet for an infant girl from Germany. It was (presumably) printed alongside its companion amulet for a male child (see “Amulet for a Newborn Boy”). However, the pair were separated. A woman…
Contributor:
Artist Unknown
Places:
Westheim, Holy Roman Empire (Westheim, Germany)
Date:
ca. 1750
Categories:
Public Access
Image
Printed birth amulet. The decorative borders are composed of printers’ devices and decorations that were used by printers in Fürth (Bavaria), so it is assumed that this amulet was printed in that city…
Contributor:
Artist Unknown
Places:
Fürth, Holy Roman Empire (Fürth, Germany)
Date:
ca. 1750
Subjects:
Categories:
Public Access
Text
An amulet for a person with the falling sickness [epilepsy—Ed.]. He should wear it [the amulet] around his neck, and he should fast and ritually immerse, and it should be written in the first hour at…
Contributor:
Unknown
Date:
16th or 17th Century
Subjects:
Categories:
Public Access
Text
Sensitive Content
Asenath the daughter of R. Samuel Adoni (Barazani) was a wise woman and a great Torah scholar. She studied the secrets of kabbalah and acquired a considerable reputation for performing miracles and…
Contributor:
Unknown
Places:
Ottoman Empire (Kurdistan, Iraq)
Date:
16th or 17th Century
Subjects:
Categories:
Public Access
Text
Amulets for the evil eye; tested. Write on either a kosher or deerskin parchment, on a day of [reading from] the Torah, before eating anything. And calculate in that hour which day it is and which…
Contributor:
Unknown
Date:
16th or 17th Century
Subjects:
Categories:
Public Access
Image
Traditionally, until increased access to doctors and hospitals was available after World War I, many East European Jews relied on folk medicine, which included amulets and magical cures. Books, like…
Contributor:
Unknown
Places:
Date:
ca. 1600
Subjects:
Categories:
Public Access
Image
This two-page spread from Elijah ben Moses Loanz’s Toledot Adam (The Generations of Adam) includes examples of some of the kabbalistic amulets and formulae for which he was famous.
Contributor:
Elijah Loanz
Places:
Wilhermsdorf, Holy Roman Empire (Wilhermsdorf, Germany)
Date:
1734