On Jewish Folklore

Raphael Patai

• Publisher: Wayne State University Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780814344200
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Jewish History
• Index: History

On Jewish Folklore spans a half-century of scholarly inquiry by the noted anthropologist and biblical scholar Raphael Patai. He essays collected in this volume, some of which are presented for the first time in English translation, provide a rich harvest of Jewish customs and traditional beliefs, gathered from all over the world and from ancient to modern times. Among the subjects Dr. Patai investigated and recorded are the history and oral traditions of the now-vanished Marrano community of Meshhed, Iran; cultural change among the so-called Jewish Indians of Mexico; beliefs and customs in connection with birth, the rainbow, and the color blue; Jewish variants of the widespread custom of earth-eating; and the remarkable parallels between the rituals connected with enthroning a new king as described in the Bible and as practiced among certain African tribes.

V. From the Four Corners

21. Jewish Birth Customs

I. Introduction

The use of charms and amulets in various Jewish communities is, in most cases, based on the same general principles of magic which are found among many peoples all over the world. When saying “based on principles of magic,” I do not mean that the folk, whether Jewish or gentile, which used or still uses certain charms and amulets had or has a conscious knowledge of the principles which underlie the almost infinite variety of magical acts performed and substances utilized. The folk mind which believes in the efficacy of magic is aware only of the specific effect attributed by tradition to the act performed. The common element to which the various magical acts conform had to be discovered by students of folk culture, who collected data on magical beliefs and practices from many peoples, classified and categorized them, and found that they can be explained by a relatively small number of common principles. It was the “magicologist,” as he can be called, who established that in most cases there was a basic similarity between the magical act performed (or the magical object used) and the desired end, as well as in the beliefs upon which the practices were based.

In one type of magical acts this similarity is external and formal. The children in one of the New Hebrides, for example, use stones which are similar in their shape to a certain fruit in order to ensure the growth of that fruit. In another type of magic the similarity lies in the function. The libation of some liquid (water, wine, beer, blood) causes rainfall; the opening of a door or of a lock brings about the opening of the womb of the woman who has difficulty in delivery; the locking of a lock or the burying of a bone in the earth causes sterility. Sir James George Frazer termed this type of magic “sympathetic” or “homeopathic.”

Next to the principle of similarity, magic uses the principle of the persistence of contact. If a bonfire is lit at midwinter in order to give the sun strength to overcome the cold and renew its warmth, this is a magical act based on the principle of similarity. But if a hair or a nail clipping of a person is burned with the intention of causing him to die in fire, then the principle of persistence of contact is added to that of similarity, and we are dealing with “contagious” magic (another Frazerian term), which is based on the belief that, even though actual physical contact between the person and the hair has long been severed, the magical contact between them persists. Consequently, whatever is done to part of the person’s body will also happen to him.

When dealing with magical acts, the question arises: what is the relationship between efforts to achieve a goal by using practical ways and means and obtaining the desired end by magical methods? To put it differently: under what conditions will man turn to magic in order to achieve his desire? In very general terms this question can be answered by referring to Bronislaw Malinowski’s well-known observation that the proclivity to magic arises when practical methods prove insufficient to obtain the desired end. The greater the uncertainty concerning the occurrence of the hoped-for event, the greater the inclination to resort to magic; the more evident it is that practical measures alone cannot consistently bring it about, the greater the use of magic. Malinowski gained this important insight while working among the Trobriand Islanders who did not use magic in lagoon fishing, in which an adequate catch and the safety of the fishermen was a matter of course, but did employ ample magic in open-sea fishing, where the catch was uncertain and the danger great.

An equally good example for the correlation of magic and uncertainty can be found in agricultural activities. Even the most primitive cultivators know that, in order to produce crops, they have to plough or otherwise prepare the soil, to sow or to plant, and to carry out a series of concrete and practical steps. But a good harvest depends not only on these routine measures, but also on factors over which man has no control, such as the time and amount of rainfall, the absence or presence of blight, locusts, and so on. No amount of agricultural know-how and experience can influence these factors. Here, then, a wide field opens for magical acts whose purpose is to exercise control precisely over these in practice uncontrollable factors, and to eliminate thereby the uncertainty and apprehension concerning the success of the crops. Therefore, magical fertility rites observed at certain phases of the growth cycle play an important role among agricultural peoples.

The situation was very similar with regard to human birth. The birth of a child has always been a dangerous thing. Despite all the practical precautions, despite the services of experienced midwives, it often happened that the child, the mother, or both died. This was a danger which practical measures, as far as they were known to “the folk,” could not eliminate. Therefore, recourse was had to magical means to ensure successful delivery. However, nowhere was magic alone relied on. The traditions of every people contain much folk wisdom based on the experience of generations, and many of the steps taken to insure successful delivery belong to this category. Often, in fact, it is not easy to distinguish between the practical and the magical aspects of a given measure. Occasionally the two are combined, and a recommended procedure is both magical and practical.

The present study deals with Jewish folk traditions centering on childbirth. The material is organized chronologically, following the life of the woman from the time she hopes to or does become pregnant to the weeks after delivery. Section II deals with charms against barrenness, section III with charms against miscarriage. Then follows, in section IV, a treatment of the charms which have the opposite purpose, namely, to prevent conception and birth. Section V discusses charms against difficulties in labor. Section VI presents the widespread practice of delivery on the earth, or ground, or floor, section VII the laying of the newborn child on the earth. Section VIII discusses the comparison or parallel between the fruit of the womb and the fruit of the earth, which is drawn in many places...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• I. Introductory and Programmatic
• II. Biblical and Talmudic
• III. The Marranos of Meshhed
• IV. Sephardim and Oriental Jews
• V. From the Four Corners
• VI. On the Peripheries
• Index