Jewish Love Magic

Ortal-Paz Saar (Ph.D, 2009, Tel Aviv University) is a cultural historian researching Judaism and its contacts with other religious traditions. Her publications focus on ancient and medieval Jewish magic, and she currently researches Jewish diasporic identity at Utrecht University, Netherlands.

• AcknowledgementsList of FiguresAbbreviationsIntroduction1 What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Love (Magic)? A Survey of Ancient Love Magic1 Historical Background2 Main Features of Love Magic3 The Magical Rationale4 The Uses and Abuses of Love Magic5 The Silence of the Targets: Reactions to Love Magic and Counter Spells6 Summary2 Making Love, Making Hate Practices of Jewish Love Magic1 Introductory Remarks2 Magical Practices: An Overview3 Products of Magical Practices4 From Theory to Practice3 Of Loviel and Other Demons The Verbal Aspects of Jewish Love Magic1 Introductory Remarks2 Linguistic Aspects3 Appeals and Demands: The Magical Formulae4 Literary Devices in the Magical Formulae5 Magical Signs4 A Time to Love and a Time to Hate The Temporal Aspects of Jewish Love Magic1 Written in the Stars2 The Timing of Magical Practices3 Temporal References in Magical Products4 Summary5 You Shall Not Walk in Their Statutes? The ‘Jewishness’ of Jewish Love Magic1 Introductory Remarks2 Prohibited or Permitted Love? The Legitimacy of Love Magic in Judaism3 Traits of Jewish Love Magic4 Jewish and Non-Jewish Love Magic: Some Differences5 ConclusionsSummary1 In the Previous Chapters …2 What is Jewish Love Magic? A Second LookBibliographyIndex of ManuscriptsIndex of Subjects

“Due to the general neglect of the topic in previous scholarship, the richness of the research corpus and the scientific precision of the author, Saar’s Jewish Love Magic is an important volume that should be on the shelf of every scholar focusing on ancient Jewish magic, but also on Jewish culture and cultural history in general. Furthermore, the book is an enjoyable read also for a non-specialist audience thanks to its clarity and fluency.” - Alessia Belusci, Yale University, in: Journal of Semitic Studies 64.2 (2019)