Text of Jewish exorcism discovered
(麻豆淫院Org.com) -- A rare - and possibly unique - text describing a Jewish exorcism has been discovered by a scholar of medieval Jewish studies.
The 150 word neatly written fragment - discovered by Dr Renate Smithuis from The University of Manchester - describes a ceremony to dispel the evil spirit of Nissim Ben Bunya from his widow, Qamar Bat Rahma.
Dr Smithuis thinks the Hebrew document was most likely written in the eighteenth century and probably originated from Egypt or Palestine.
The fragment provides what is likely to be unique evidence of the prayer ritual's actual use in a synagogue.
It is one of the 11,000 manuscript fragments held at The University of Manchester鈥檚 John Rylands Library - rescued from a 1000-year old storeroom - or Genizah - at the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo.
The fragment contains the second part of a prayer ritual in which the husband - or husband-to-be - of a widow recites an exorcism prayer, to which the other men gathered in the synagogue respond with a similar prayer.
Apparently, Qamar had been possessed by the spirit - or dybbuk - of her late husband Nissim Ben Bunya while engaged to, or just married with, Joseph Moses Ben Sarah.
In the prayer, Joseph and the rest of the congregation ask God that the ghost may be expelled from Qamar and that the new family and all their possessions may be protected from the troublesome ghost also in the years to come.
Professor Gideon Bohak from Tel-Aviv University, who has worked with Dr Smithuis - discovered that the prayer is ascribed to the famous eighteenth-century Kabbalist Rabbi Shalom Shar鈥榓bi.
The Arts and Humanities Research Council awarded The John Rylands Library over 拢 361,000 to digitise and catalogue the Rylands Genizah in 2006.
The project - soon to be completed - provides high resolution images of the fragments on the website of The John Rylands Library for both researchers and the public. There will be at least 22,000 images.
Dr Renate Smithuis, who is based at the Centre for Jewish Studies at The University of Manchester , said: 鈥淔rom the second half of the sixteenth century onwards, there were lots of dybbuk stories across the Mediterranean, primarily in North Africa and Palestine.
鈥淏ut this fragment is so exciting because it鈥檚 not a story, but the record of a real event using a prayer which was actually recited in a synagogue.
鈥淭he prayer was said in the presence of a minyan - the minimum number of ten adult Jews required for a communal religious service.
鈥淲e think it likely to have come from Egypt or Palestine not only because the fragment originates from the Cairo Genizah but also because Qamar (Arabic for 鈥淢oon鈥�) and Rahma (鈥淢ercy鈥�) are names of Arabic origin.
鈥漌e know little more about what happened than what is contained within these 150 or so words - but it does throw some light on this mysterious and little known side of Jewish culture.鈥�
Provided by University of Manchester
