Magic and the Shema

SHEMA Magic AND THE A GROUNDBREAKING MUSEUM EXHIBITION REVEALS THE CONNECTION

BY GLORIA AVERBUCH

AIt began with a remarkable discovery. Nancy Benovitz was working alone in The Israel Museum in Jerusalem late one evening in 2014. She was studying a silver armband that was part of a bequest made by the late Prof. Dan Barag to the Museum in 2010. Benovitz, currently the museum’s Senior Editor of English Publications in Archaeology, has worked at the Israel Museum since 1988 and holds a master’s degree in classical archaeology with an emphasis on reading ancient Greek inscriptions. She was attempting to decipher the Greek script on the armband — a particular challenge as the words are written with no spaces, no punctuation, and include misspellings.

Assuming this was a Christian amulet, as were most of the items she had been working as part of the bequest, she noticed the words “with all” repeated several times, as well as the word “love.” “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might,” she repeated to herself. “Suddenly I understood that I was looking at Deuteronomy 6:5 — the second verse of the Shema,” says Benovitz. “My heart was pounding; it was so surprising and so exciting.” Painstakingly, she continued to decipher the armband’s inscription, ultimately revealing that it contains most of the Shema and the first verse of Psalm 91, and that it was not a Christian amulet, but rather a Jewish one.

Manuscript of Practical Kabbalah open to a magical recipe for the treatment of epilepsy, which incorporates the Shema. Ukraine, ca. 1740. Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Elie Posner

Benovitz had made a thrilling discovery and one that would give birth to the wider topic of the presence and function of the Shema in Jewish magic.

Hear O Israel: The Magic of the Shema, the first exhibition of its kind anywhere, debuted in August 2021, and was curated by Benovitz and her longtime colleague at the Israel Museum, Dudi Mevorah, Senior Curator of Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Archaeology.

Of the 90 objects in the exhibition, the earliest are tefillin from Qumran — the oldest in the world — dating from the 1st century BCE to 1st century CE. The latest items are from the present day and were produced by a practitioner of Practical Kabbalah in Hod HaSharon, Israel. The ancient items are in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, but those from medieval times onward are in Hebrew. One book on display, Wisdom of Solomon, is an 18th century Hebrew translation of a book of Christian magic written in Latin in the 15th century. Almost all the items on display in the exhibition are from the Israel Museum’s collections of Archaeology and Judaica, as well as from local private and public collections, including The National Library of Israel and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

The exhibition is comprised of a preamble, four sections, and a film.

Amulet/pendant with the Shema. Israel, 20th century. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Elie Posner

The preamble provides a basic explanation of the Shema – its origins in the Torah, and how it came together as a liturgical unit sometime in the Second Temple period.

The first section, Hidden and Revealed, is devoted to amulets and “magic bowls” incorporating the Shema. Some of the amulets take the form of jewelry, and thus the magical words and images inscribed on them are visible, or “revealed.” Other amulets are written on parchment, paper, or metal, and are rolled and inserted into containers or pouches. The curators have dubbed these “hidden” amulets.

The second section, The Shema in Books of Jewish Magic, displays collections of magic recipes, some of which incorporate the Shema.

The third section, Betwixt and Between, discusses the connection between the Shema and liminal occasions,

such as childbirth, the circumcision ceremony (brit milah), the moment before sleep, and the moment before death.

The final section, Between Religion and Magic: Tefillin and Mezuzot, raises the question of the connection between these important Jewish ritual items and the “hidden” amulets in the exhibition. All share the same basic design concept consisting of powerful, sacred words written on scrolls which are rolled and inserted into containers.

Why the Shema?

“Why is the Shema on this armband?” was the original question that guided Benovitz.

The Shema is a biblical text that has been revered and maintained at the core of Jewish life for over 2,000 years. Although it is not the way we normally think of it, the Shema is also connected to magic, as it has been used for the purpose of protection, health, and success. It can be found on and inside amulets from ancient through modern times.

In fact, the Shema is one of the deepest and most profound aspects of the ancient as well as the more recent history of the Jewish people. Examples include three early 20th-century pendants featuring the Shema prayer that were excavated at the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland in late January 2021, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. Six similar amulets are part of the Israel Museum exhibition.

Amulets and Magic Bowls with the Shema

The earliest known amulet with the words of the Shema dates back to the 3rd century. Inscribed on thin gold foil, it was found rolled inside a tiny silver capsule in the grave of an 18-month-old child in Halbturn, Austria. “Hidden amulets” like these, mainly inscribed on parchment and paper, continue to be produced today. The Shema is also inscribed on ancient amuletic pendants, bracelets, and rings, worn, seen, and admired like all jewelry. The curators call these “revealed amulets.”

Although not technically amulets, also on display are earthenware incantation, or magic bowls which functioned like “demon traps.” These were a popular practice among Jews and non-Jews of Babylonia (present day Iraq). The bowls, many of which were written for specific clients, AMIT’s Co-Chair of the are inscribed with magic Israel Executive Board, spells intended to remedy Tamar Benovitz, and the clients’ problems. The AMIT’s President, Jewish bowls quote from the Mishnah, Jewish prayers, and Audrey Axelrod the Bible, and quite a few Trachtman, giving others incorporate the Shema. AMIT friends and It appears that after they were donors a private tour created, they were then buried upside down in and around of the Israel Museum’s the homes of those inhabitants “Magic of the Shema” they were meant to protect. exhibition.

The Bedtime Shema in a miniature illuminated manuscript. Moravia (?), Austrian Empire, 18th century. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Elie Posner

Magical Instruction Books

Instruction manuals are literally recipe books that provide direction on performing rituals and producing amulets addressing a wide variety of human situations and problems. The recipes in these manuals were collected and copied over the generations. The books on display in the exhibition, including manuscripts dating back to the 18th century, are open to pages that incorporate the Shema.

Between Religion and Magic: Tefillin and Mezuzot

Jewish law (halakhah) prescribes the wearing of tefillin and the affixing of mezuzot to doorposts. These important Jewish ritual items are directly tied to the Shema. The words of the Shema, on which the laws are based, are inscribed on the parchments inside them. Thus, in terms of their basic form, tefillin and mezuzot are reminiscent of “hidden amulets,” such as those on view in the exhibition. Moreover, both tefillin and mezuzot have been associated with protection since Talmudic times and even before. In fact, phylacterion (phylactery), the word also used for tefillin, is the same word for amulet in Greek. Yet, while there are similarities between amulets and tefillin and mezuzot, there are also differences (e.g., amulets are optional, but tefillin and mezuzot are required by Jewish law). “This issue leads to the broader question of the fuzzy relationship between religion and magic,” says Benovitz.

An Enlightening Experience

In addition to serving the general Israeli public, the exhibition has generated significant interest from academia, including higher educational institutions such as Israeli universities. In an effort to further serve young visitors, the Museum has just completed an additional exhibition audio guide for children.

“It has been absolutely thrilling for me to see the visitors’ reactions and receive their feedback,” says Nancy of the exhibition. And while she acknowledges that sometimes the word “magic” throws people off, she contends that, “Magic has been a part of Jewish culture from the very beginning.”

Amulet/pendant with the Shema. Yemen, 19th century. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Elie Posner

Amulet/pendant inscribed with the Shema, Psalm 91:1 and Proverbs 18:10 in Hebrew. Israel, 6th–7th century. Extended loan from the René and Susanne Braginsky Collection, Zurich Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Elie Posner

Amulet/armband inscribed with the first two paragraphs of the Shema and Psalm 91(90):1 in Greek. Egypt or Israel, 6th –7th century. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem: Bequest of Dan Barag, Jerusalem Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / Elie Posner

HEAR O ISRAEL: THE MAGIC OF THE SHEMA THE ISRAEL MUSEUM, JERUSALEM

August 20, 2021 — April 23, 2022 Listen to the audio guide, see photos and a brief film, available for the time being: https://www.imj.org.il/en, click on EXHIBITIONS BUILDING Bridges -13-