In honor of Tu B’Shvat, the New Year of Trees, and because so many people have been asking, I am compiling a list of some of my favorite resources for Jewish Plant Magic. At times, trying to find wisdom on this has felt like an old folktale journey into the forest: it’s dark, I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m finding my way by breadcrumbs and clues left for me on the path. As in any good folktale about someone lost in the woods, there have been guides and helpers along the way to point me in the right direction. I’m deeply grateful to Rabbi Jill Hammer and Kohenet Ketzirah Lesser in particular for their wisdom and work, literally holding a lantern in the forest to guide me and gifting me with keys to open the gates to these realms (this really happened- a story for another time!)
This journey has also felt blessed by my ancestors- both of blood and of spirit. Do you know that feeling when you’ve been doing something all your life and then you read about it in a book and it suddenly feels like your cells and neurons are sparked into flame? Or like you just received a major chiropractic adjustment from the universe and your bones feel in the right place and also full of the stories of the ones who came before and the illusion of time sort of falls away? Or something like that? Well something like that happened to me as I read about my deep ancestors grinding roots to make medicine, burning plants to purify themselves before entering the Temple, whispering incantations and pinning sprigs of rue on their clothes. And there was something else that I woefully hadn’t experienced much in my Jewish education: I saw myself in the text. As someone who has had a complicated relationship with hmmmm, how do I even put it? patriarchal religion that felt dry and oppressive and inaccessible perhaps, finding my way back to my root tradition, Judaism, through magic, earth, and the sacred practices of those who didn’t write the books has been life giving.
How do we know what we know if they didn’t write books and so much was lost through assimilation/sexism/racism/anti-semitism? We know in part because the men in power who did write the books recorded what was prohibited- the “folk practices” women and non-binary folks could be killed for doing. (In case you forgot why sometimes it feels irrationally terrifying to engage with magic, remember your ancestors may have died for it and you’re carrying those stories in your bones and heart. I.e. things like “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” – Exodus 22:18 “A person who pronounces a magical formula over a wound loses his share in the world to come” Sanhedrin (10:1)) In the Talmud and other ancient texts, there are bits and pieces and threads and seeds that, through our own kind of archeology, we can breathe and dream and dance back into life. We can live it.
Because these practices were condemned over and over again in different texts, we understand that Biblical law was not completely successful in eradicating magic and healing practices; and we know that these knot-tiers, root-workers, amulet -makers and circle-casters were just getting craftier and craftier at hiding their work and folding their magic into daily practices, like muttering prayers into the challah. Sweep the floor, stir the pot, toss some salt, hang some garlic- witchcraft or just good housekeeping? I learned that in the Middle Ages, Jews often cast spells into salt and wrote prayers on paper that they baked into cakes or soaked in wine and drank. Sephardic healing traditions (which mirrors so many practices in Curanderismo) include things like placing herbal infused wine, water or honey in a glass out in the night air for three nights and drinking it to release espanto (fright- the cause of many illnesses) and placing a gold covered sprig of rue on an almond and eating it for protection and healing after birth. (I promise to write much more on Sephardic healing- my mother’s side is Sephardic and I am particularly alive with the gorgeous and everyday magic of this lineage.) There are also so many ways plants hold us and heal us through the year, things that we are already doing, that we might choose to re-engage with as practices of plant magic : eating parsley, shaking the lulav in four directions (so witchy), dipping apples in honey, beating the ground with willow branches, even drinking wine.
One of my very favorite quotes I found is from the Apocrypha, Book of Enoch (9:7) “The angels taught the daughters of men incantations, exorcisms, the cutting of roots, and revealed to them healing plants.” To me, this reads as an exciting invitation, though in the text, obviously this was not written with praise and permission, but condemnation. I love this quote because it speaks to a very different kind of pedagogy: knowledge acquired through direct transmission, specifically to “the daughters of men” (which we know means anyone who wasn’t supposed to be doing this/wasn’t gender conforming) – people who are identified by who they belong to and who are clearly transgressing by hanging out with and learning from angels. It also suggests that this knowledge is always/still available to us; that even though it can feel like the witchy wisdom and practices of our ancestors have been lost or purposely hidden from us, we can access this knowledge by connecting with “angels.” Who are these angels who reveal and teach this stuff (and can I follow them on instagram and take a workshop?) I don’t know, but in my dreams sometimes they are the trees and flowers themselves, generously sharing their magic and beauty everywhere we look. (Here’s a song I wrote inspired by this quote!)
There is so much more to share, and so much to learn! This is just a start- I am looking forward to writing more about some specific plants and practices I’ve been working with in the future. AND I’m also excited to share that Ellie Lobovits and I will be offering another Jewish Plant Magic intensive in 2019- more details coming soon!
Below are some books, articles, and websites. If you have resources to share, please email me! As much as possible, I’m linking to non-Amazon sites, with the hopes that we can take our business elsewhere. Some of these books are out of print, but I’ve found them in libraries!
Divination, Magic, and Healing : A book of Jewish Folklore
by Ronald Isaacs
This book has so many good bits in it on Jewish folk magic- Jewish astrology, divination, magic, spells, amulets, plant and stone medicine, and dream work. Much of the chapter on remedies comes from the Talmud and specifically Reb Abaye, whose mother was clearly a witch and a healer. A lot of them begin with the phrase, “Abaye said: My mother told me….” for example:
“Remedy for a fever: Abbaye said : My mother told me that the remedy for a fever on the first day is to drink a small pitcher of water. If the fever persists for two days, let blood; if three days, to eat red meat broiled over coals and drink diluted wine. For continued fever, a person should get a black hen, tear it lengthwise and crosswise, shave the middle of their head, put the hen on his(sic) head, and leave it there til it sticks fast. Then he should go down to the river, stand in the water up to his neck until he is faint, then take a dip and come up.”
And they say Jews don’t practice magic.
By Joshua Trachtenberg
Kind of dense, but lots of good source material on amulets, incantations, remedies, divination, and dreams.
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols
By Ellen Frankel and Betsy Platkin Teutsch
Not explicitly about magic, but if you look up trees or plants or stones, you can learn about their significance in the Torah and Talmud.
By James Duke
This one is out of print now, but is a good resource on the plants mentioned in the Bible. Not explicitly jewish, but more written from a historical botanist lens.
If you search, there are actually quite a number of books on the plants of the bible. This is the one I have but I have seen a bunch listed, so maybe you’ll stumble upon others you like more! Let me know what you find and like!
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism
By Geoffrey Dennis
Another encyclopedia that’s fun to look through for ancient significance of plants and stones.
Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women: Sweetening the Spirit, Healing the Sick
By Isaac Jack Levy and Rosemary Levy Zumwalt
I love this book so much but sadly it is out of print. It’s sort of anthropological in nature- full of beautiful interviews with Sephardim, mostly women, sharing wisdom and stories about Sephardic healing traditions. Much more to say on this…maybe it’s own piece!
Tree Psalms
By Jill Hammer
I think Jill Hammer was a tree in a past life, or maybe a sacred arborist? I love her writing so much and it’s so clear she is in love with trees (they love her back) and is able to channel tree spirits. This sweet book honors a different plant (mostly trees) for each day of Shvat with a psalm and then explores the significance of the plant. It is difficult to find (I think they carry it in the bookstore at Isabella Freedman– you could try calling them?) but you can read some of her tree psalms here: http://telshemesh.org/shevat/fifteen_psalms_for_the_trees.html
Herbal Rituals
By Judith Berger
This is an oldie but goodie- it was one of my very first herb books that I found at the Scarlet Sage Herb Store in San Francisco in the 90’s. It had a great impact on me and I am so grateful it is one of the ways I entered the world of plant medicine and magic. While not explicitly Jewish, Berger was raised Orthodox in Brooklyn and shares a lot of personal anecdotes about the ways she connected with plants as a child, and then ways she related them to Jewish holidays and traditions. It is such an intimate and lovely book, organized by month, with suggestions for practices that feel accessible and embodied, focused on cultivating relationships with plants, rather than extractive or cerebral….aaaaaand sadly out of print, though I’ve heard it may be available as an e-book now!
Ancient text I’d like to spend more time with! From wikipedia: “Jewish magical text supposedly given to Noah by the angel Raziel, and passed down throughout Biblical history to Solomon, for whom it was a great source of his wisdom, and purported magical powers. This is an unorthodox text; while traditional Jewish laws of purity are part of the cosmogony, there are “praxeis which demand we eat cakes made from blood and flour” (Morgan 9). It is thought to be a sourcebook for Jewish magic, calling upon angels rather than God to perform supernatural feats.”
Archived website of the wonderful Kohenet Ketzirah Lesser
So many great resources from the person known to many as “the cosmic reference librarian”
Encyclopedia Judaica: Medicinal Plants
jewish virtual library with a bit on medicinal plants
Article on Jewish Healing by Geoffrey Dennis
Tu B’Shvat rituals from RitualWell
