jewishhenna:So in this post about the khamsa I had said that it was not traditionally used in the As
jewishhenna:So in this post about the khamsa I had said that it was not traditionally used in the Ashkenazi community… Well, I guess that’s not strictly true — there are exceptions to every rule!This amulet was made in the Ashkenazi community of the Old City of Jerusalem, in the early 20th century (the picture is from Beni Nahmias’ book on Jewish amulets). Note the protective imagery of the hand, eye, and fish, combined with the magic squares. The Old City of Jerusalem had Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, Temani, Bukhari, and other Jewish communities all living by side by side, so perhaps the (presumably Ashkenazi) amulet maker had seen other Jewish amulets with khamsas or had learnt about the khamsa from neighbours.This is a two-in-one protective amulet, combining an incantation for sexual stamina, in the centre (I can translate it if people are interested…), with a protection against plague at the top, attributed to the famed Hungarian rabbi and Kabbalist Moshe Teitelbaum (1759-1841). The bottom reads in Yiddish, “this [house] has already had pox, measles, and scarlet [fever],” to scare off any evil forces bringing these diseases by saying that they had already come. -- source link
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