Lectures, Classes, and Tutoring with Rokhl Kafrissen

Apotropaic (Anti-Demonic) Technologies in Yiddish   illustration by Rokhl Belief in the Evil Eye has been with us for 5000 years and is found all over the globe. Disease, sudden death, bad luck, sleeplessness, crop failure, and impotence have all been blamed on the power of a malevolent human gaze. Jewish belief in the Evil Eye ( ayin-hore ) appears in core rabbinic texts, as well as in Jewish folk cultures around the world.  If you’ve ever put a red ribbon around a crib, or uttered a  kinehore  ( keyn ayin-hore , Yiddish for “no evil eye”), you have drawn on a rich tradition of apotropaic (anti-demonic) magic that goes back thousands of years. But the history of the Evil Eye, and the Jewish defense against it, goes far beyond red ribbons and kinehores . Indeed, in many shtetls and towns, you could find Jewish men and women who specialized in exorcising the Evil Eye.  Where a specialist wasn’t available, ordinary mothers and fathers often had their own techniq...

I think we can all agree, the best Purim costume possible is tiny kids in paper crowns and coordinated tunics. (Please click over to Your Roots in Poland to enjoy more adorable pictures of kids in paper Purim crowns and such.) The custom of donning costumes and masks on Purim is relatively recent in Jewish history, starting in Europe in the late 15th century. In my mind, I imagined older Purim "masks" to be like bedazzled eye shields, the kind worn in movies with bored aristocrats attending decadent balls. Or maybe a Harlequin mask. What I wasn't expecting was this terror- This is from the Rothschild Foundation "Judaica Index". It's a  19th century papier-mache Purim mask from Moravia . I haven't had a good night's sleep since I saw it, and now you won't, either. I mean, it's just slightly less terrifying than the original Irish Jack o'lantern, made from Old World turnips: Turnip Jack O'Lantern - Image from the Carnegie Museum of Nat...