A REVIEW of the Jewish Magic exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem:
How lucky charms still bring us a little magic
For all the Bible’s warning against superstition, you can still find Jews wearing amulets today.
By Mordechai Beck, June 17, 2010 (Jewish Chronicle)
Israel's representative at the recent Eurovision Song Contest, Harel Skaat, unashamedly flaunted a kemaye - a Hebrew amulet - on his bared chest during his performance. "I believe in all these superstitions," he confessed.
Skaat is not alone. Superstition and magic among Jews has a history stretching back to biblical times. It is said that the first amulet was the "sign" given by God to Cain to protect him from potential assassins.
A new exhibition, called "Angels and Demons", in Jerusalem's Bible Lands' Museum offers a panoramic view of this Jewish fascination with magic. It brings together written and graphic material from across the centuries and around the globe displaying what the classic book on the subject, Joshua Trachtenberg's Jewish Magic and Superstition, calls "a folk religion". Alongside legitimate Judaism another, subterranean belief system has persisted, attracting rabbis, scholars and laymen alike.
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And here's something interesting that I didn't know about:
Also on display is a young boy's shirt holding various charms in its pockets. It was found by the late Yigal Yadin in the same cave as the letters of Bar Kochba overlooking the Dead Sea. The fact that such a charmed vest would be used by this group of spiritual seekers back in the second century attests to the depth to which these customs had taken hold of the people.
Background
here.