Relying upon hitherto unexamined Slavic and Judaic sources, I will examine the intersection of magic and medicine among Jews and Poles in the seventeenth and early eighteenth-century East Europe. I will explore the imaginary world and also the praxis of the early modern Jewish shamans, exorcists and itinerant healers, known as ba’alei shem (Masters of the Holy Name), who practiced Jewish mysticism, called Kabbalah; manipulated divine and angelic names to effect healing; and combined these practices with popular medicine obtained from recently accessible Polish-language handbooks on the medicinal arts. Although the early modern interaction between the high-browed Jewish and Christian mystics and mystical minded philosophers in Europe has been explored lately, no serious study has yet been undertaken of Polish (and in broader sense, Slavic) shared belt of culture in the realm of Jewish magical practices, least of all with regard to popular medicine.
Lecture
Between Magic and Medicine: practical Kabbalists in early modern Poland
Prof. Dr. Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern