Ithaca College
Fall Semester 2004

 

Jewish Magic and Ritual Power
Professor Rebecca Lesses
Course Packet
Table of Contents

  1. John Middleton, “Theories of Magic,” Encyclopedia of Religion
  2. Selections from Bronislaw Malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1984).
  3. George Gmelch, “Baseball Magic,” in James Spradley, et al, eds., Conformity and Conflict (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2003)
  4. Marvin Meyer and Richard Smith, eds., Ancient Christian Magic (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994), pp. 1-6, 13-14.
  5. Biblical sources on magic, witchcraft, and divination
  6. Categories of magic in the Babylonian Talmud
  7. Amulets and Medical Remedies in the Babylonian Talmud
  8. Demons in the Babylonian Talmud
  9. Aramaic Incantation Bowl Texts
  10. Joseph Naveh and Shaul Shaked, “Magic and Jewish Liturgy,” in Magic Spells and Formulae: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1993)
  11. Rebecca Lesses, “Exe(o)rcising Power: Women as Sorceresses, Exorcists, and Demonesses in Babylonian Jewish Society of Late Antiquity,” JAAR 69 (2001).
  12. Hans Dieter Betz, “Introduction to the Greek Magical Papyri,” and selected texts, in The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago, 1986)
  13. Selections from Sepher ha-Razim, trans. by Michael A. Morgan (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983)
  14. Philip S. Alexander, “Sefer ha-Razim and the Problem of Black Magic in Early Judaism,” in Todd E. Klutz, ed., Magic in the Biblical World (London: T&T Clark, 2003).
  15. Peter Schäfer, “Jewish Magic Literature in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages,” Journal of Jewish Studies.
  16. Rebecca Lesses, “Introduction to the Hekhalot Literature and Other Ritual Literature of Late Antiquity”
  17. Rebecca Lesses, “Adjurations as Performance”
  18. Adjuration of the Sar Torah
  19. Chapter of Rabbi Nehuniah ben HaQanah
  20. Adjuration of the Prince of the Presence
  21. Steven M. Wasserstrom, “The Magical Texts in the Cairo Geniza,” in Joseph Blau and Stefan C. Reif, eds., Genizah research after ninety years (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
  22. Lawrence H. Schiffman and Michael D. Swartz, selections from Hebrew and Aramaic Incantation Texts from the Cairo Genizah.
  23. The Legend of Lilith
  24. Adjuration of Katviel from manuscript Sassoon 290
  25. Shalom Sabar, “Childbirth and Magic: Jewish Folklore and Material Culture,” in David Biale, ed., Cultures of the Jews (New York: Schocken, 2002)

This page maintained by: Rebecca Lesses
Last revised August 25, 2004