Magical Swords in the Jewish Tradition
The concept and usage of swords as
magical items in Judaism is attested to in various manuscripts and Hebrew
books. To illustrate, I will examine several examples and the functions they
served.
The
earliest legendary use of a magic sword I have found is attributed to the
Biblical Methuselah. In his commentary on the Bible, Rabbi Epraim ben Shimshon
(Germany, c. 1200s), a member of the Hasiedi Ashkenaz, has the following to say
on Genesis (4:24):
Know
and understand, when Adam separated from Eve for 130 years and Adam slept
alone, the first Eve who is Lilith found him and desired his beauty in her
heart for his face shone like the Sun. She came and slept with him in a dream
–meaning, while he was asleep. And she gave birth from him demons and lilin.
All those 130 years she bore him spirits (ruhin), damagers (mazikin) and demons
(shadein), and this is the intent of the verse (Samuel II 7:14) “I will be to
him a father, and he shall be to me a son; so that when he goes astray I will
chasten him with the rod of men and with the negaim [lit. plagues, a
term often used for demons] of the sons of Adam.” The firstborn of Adam’s name
was Piznai Lilith Agrimas. He married his sister Imrith Lilith and she bore him
ninety two thousand myriad demons; and no creature was able to withstand their
dread. The firstborn of Agrimas was Aklamas who married his sister Yayfrith
Lilith. She bore him ninety two thousand myriad lilin and demons. The firstborn
of Aklamas was Agrimas who went and married Afiznai daughter of Afiznai Lilith
who dwelt on the top of the mountains. She bore him three thousand myriad
demons and no creature was able to withstand their dread; and they went and
comingled with the angel of death and whoever would encounter him he would
kill. This continued until the righteous Methuselah arose. Methuselah sat three
days fasting and entreated mercy from God, saying: “Master of the world, it was
your intent to create Adam [or mankind] in your image and likeness, by right he
should rule over the spirits, demons and lilin –shall evil spirts preside over
him?” God then gave Methuselah the righteous permission to write his Explicit
Name [Shem HaMephorash] on his sword and with it he killed 490 thousand
myriad of them in nearly an instant until Agrimas the firstborn of Adam came to
him. Falling upon his face, he asked for mercy. In defeat, he [Agrimas] handed
over the names of the demons and lilin. He [Methuselah] bound their kings in
iron fetters and the rest fled before him, hiding themselves in secret in the
Mediterranean Sea. This sword was hidden away with Methuselah upon his
death.
This excerpt from Rabbi Epraim’s
commentary is fascinating from many angles and certainly deserves a proper
analysis. However, for our purposes we will focus only on his sword. Here we
have (according to Rabbi Epraim) the very first use of a sword that can kill
demons. All that we know is after a three day fast, he was able to write the
Shem HaMephorash on it and that sufficed to kill a very large number with one
swipe. Although it is certainly possible that this was not a physical sword and
it was merely the Shem HaMephorash (either through pronunciation or even
meditation) similar to the “Sword of Moses” (Charba DeMoshe) which is not a
physical sword, but rather the names are the “sword”, I would posit that since
in our case the name is described as being written on his sword that it
was a physical sword.
Moving
forward, lets discuss swords that were certainly intended to be physical
objects.
In a 18th century
manuscript of Jewish magic from the Moussaieff collection (#140) (and now shelfmarked
as Bar-Ilan University Library, Ms. 1222) we find the following:
And this is the sword of Ashmodai, king of demons. And these five
names are beneficial for all exoteric and demonic matters.
This sword is drawn in between an
unrelated part and what follows after it “You also need to write this name…” is
not part of it. However, notice that five names are written inside the shape of
the sword while the name מצמצית is written next to
it. It is unclear to me if this too is to be written on the sword. Regardless,
this is the only source I have found thus far of the “Sword of Ashmodai”. No
further instructions for its construction or use are noted.
However,
considering it seems to be a general purpose use sword for control of demons, I
would advance that should one wish to construct on that it have a black handle.
The use of a black handled knife or sword is well attested in the summoning of
demons and drawing magical circles with (which is a whole separate discussion).
Suffice it to say several examples can be found in Babylonian oil magic in
the Talmud and in the later Jewish literature (Daiches, 1913). One fascinating use of a magic sword to
communicate with a demon is found in a Yemenite manuscript Ms. YM.011.083
(Gross ms. #373) fol. 4. Many demonic princes are to be found there, similar to
Daiches’ collection (and will be the subject of its on forthcoming overview in
regards to this manuscript). We will focus on the “Princes of the Sword”.
Another [magical formula]: Princes
of the Sword, and it is a great operation. If you wish to inquire [of them],
take a sword and enter a dimly lit house and stick the sword into the ground.
Take a torch of wax in your hands, bow on your knees [in front of the sword]
and look into the blade. Say the following adjuration but be forewarned that
there be no other person with you the first time you perform this operation.
However afterwards there is no concern. This is the adjuration: “I adjure upon
you Charabiel the satan, brother of Samael the great prince that you come with
your troops and camps and inform me of all my needs and questions in the name
of the Truthful Name VHVY I AM YHVH”. This has been tried and tested.
Another fascinating use of swords in
recorded in the collection of minhagim (ritual customs) of the Worms, Germany
community by the synagogue’s sexton Rabbi Joseph Schammes -Wormser
Minhagbuch (des R. Jousep Schammes) מנהגים דק"ק
וורמיישא. The author was born in 1604 and describes daily life of the
German Jew of the 1600s. First published in 1988. In section 288 (printed in
volume 2 page 158) discussing childbirth we find the following:
והיולדת אינה
יוצאת מבית לידתה עד שבת רביעי אחר הלידה ולפעמים בשבת חמשי. הא כיצד. ראשית
אודיעך שכל אשה יולדת צריכה להיות בביתה עד סוף דער קראייז אוי"ז איז דהיינו
שבכל לילה מיום הלידה אשה עומדת אצלה בביתה לשמשה לוקח חרב שלופה ומסבב בו את
היולדת איזו סיבובי' אומר איזו לחשים כידוע לנשים. וכן עושה כל לילה ארבע שבועות
מיום הלידה
…The woman who gave birth does not leave her house till after the
fourth week of giving birth and sometimes till the fifth week. How so? Firstly,
you must know that the woman who gave birth must remain at her house till after
der Kreis aus ist [=the Circle is completed]. That is, every night from
the night of childbirth the woman who assists her in her home takes an outstretched
sword and swings it around the woman several circles while saying some
incantations that is well known to the women. Such is done every night for the
four weeks from childbirth.
Rabbi Schammes makes no mention of any particulars if there are any
particulars to the sword or what the incantations may be. The fact that he
feels no need to mention this testifies to the fact this was a known ritual and
realia of his times that did not warrant an explanation. This ritual is
mentioned only passingly in another work, Sefer HaChaim by Rabbi Chaim of Friedberg,
Germany (brother of Rabbi Judah Löwe of
Prague of “golem fame”) who was slightly older than our author and even more
passingly by some other German rabbis of the era. Although the incantations
seems to have never been recorded or have been lost to time, thankfully one
such “Circle Sword”, or “Kreismesser” as it is called has been presereved.
First described, catalogued and photographed in Monumenta Judaica : 2000 Jahre
Geschichte und Kultur der Juden am Rhein (Koln, 1964) vol. 2 Section E number
28, it is now part of the Alsatian Museum of Strasbourg, France. An image of it
can be seen on their website here:
According to both the Monumenta
Judaica Katalog as well as the website, the other side bears the verse “you
shall not suffer a witch to live” on it. This would be an important detail as
it would indicate at least some specifications were required for the sword. It
is unclear to me if the markings on the photographed side is merely ornamental
or connotes some magical significance. I had contacted the museum to see if
they would be willing to photograph the other side for me. They indicated they
would oblige next time they have a professional photographer. Whenever that
will be is anyone’s guess!!
Sword shapes have also been used as
amulets as protection for children, most notably from Jewish Kurdistan. For
example:
A sword amulet for protection. Early 20th century from
Iraqi Kurdistan.
Another one is shown on page 173 in
The Jews of Kurdistan: Daily Life, Customs, Arts and Crafts (Jerusalem, 2000),
reproduced below:
This article is not intended to be a
complete and exhaustive list of all known usages of swords in magic, however I
will end off with one of the more unusual uses.
An interesting use of a knife is
found in NLI, Ms. Heb. 38°4917 fol. 7 for a “dream request”.
