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Pronounced: TALL-mud, Origin: Hebrew, the set of teachings and commentaries on the Torah that form the basis for Jewish law. Comprised of the Mishnah and the Gemara, it contains the opinions of thousands of rabbis from different periods in Jewish history.
- From Jewish Mysticism to Magic
Reprinted with permission from Magic & Superstition in the...
- Jewish Attitudes Toward Magic
An anti-magic current in Jewish thought continued in the...
- The Sephardic Diaspora After 1492
By the 16th century, Jewish life in Spain and Portugal–the...
- Miriam
Miriam, the daughter of Amram and Jochebed and the older...
- Star of David
After the Dreyfus Affair in the 19th century, the star was...
- Evil Eye in Judaism
With your help, My Jewish Learning can continue to provide...
- The Amulet
Perhaps the best-known Jewish amulet is the hamsa, a...
- Talmud
Talmud (literally, “study”) is the generic term for the...
- From Jewish Mysticism to Magic
The hamsa is a palm-shaped symbol historically used by both Jews and Muslims in Arab countries as an amulet to ward off evil forces, particularly the “evil eye.” The word is derived from the Arabic word for “five,” and depicts the five fingers of the human hand.
The Hamsa is widespread among Sephardic Jews, many of whom hail from Arabic lands. But it is also common among Muslims and Christians from those same lands. So can the Hamsa be considered a legitimately Jewish symbol, or is it something borrowed from non-Jewish neighbors, or even a holdover from idolatry which was once ubiquitous in those lands?
The hamsa is later seen in Jewish art as God's hand reaching down from heaven. Its use by Ashkenazi Jewish communities from this period is well-known, and evidence has also emerged of the hamsa being used by Jews from medieval Spain, often associated with "sympathetic magic". [15]
5 lis 2024 · The Hamsa is one of the oldest Jewish symbols; its imagery has been found on ancient Israelite tombs dating all the way back to the 8th century BCE! Over time it became a common Middle Eastern and North African motif, often used by Sephardic Jews and adopted by non-Jewish traditions as well.
The Hamsa, a symmetrical image of a palm with an eye in its center, is common to many cultures, including Judaism. There are those who question whether it is a legitimate Jewish symbol, and many people refrain from wearing the Hamsa or hanging it in their homes.
23 kwi 2019 · The Hamsa is an amulet shaped like a hand, thought to protect against the evil, popular in Jewish and Middle Eastern jewelry. Learn more about the symbol.
