El enkanto de la majia: research into Sephardic magic: history, trends and topics

Abstract

The studies dedicated to various types and periods of Jewish magic, in general, refer also to these phenomena among Sephardic Jews, but usually without focusing on magic concepts and practices unique to Sephardim, or on magic as an additional way for Sephardic Jews to express their particular ethnic identity. The studies that do concentrate on certain aspects of Sephardic Jewish magic are still quite scant, and we are still waiting for a comprehensive study on magic phenomena in Sephardic culture, a research that would map, categorize, and analyze these phenomena, comparing them to Hebrew culture of the rabbinic elite, to Iberian cultures, as well as to ambient cultures in the Ottoman Empire. Such research would need to examine the entire corpus of all known testimonies on magic concepts and practices preserved in Hebrew or in Ladino, in the written or oral literature of the group. A monographic study of this type would fill a large vacuum that is still felt in the research into Jewish magic in general and the study of Sephardic magic in particular.

Studije posvećene različitim vrstama i periodima jevrejske magije generalno, odnose se i na ove pojave među sefardskim Jevrejima, ali obično bez fokusiranja na magijske koncepte i prakse jedinstvene za Sefarde, ili na magiju kao dodatni način da sefardski Jevreji izraze svoje određeni etnički identitet. Studije koje se koncentrišu na određene aspekte sefardske jevrejske magije i dalje su prilično oskudne, a mi još uvek čekamo sveobuhvatnu studiju o magijskim fenomenima u sefardskoj kulturi, istraživanje koje bi ove pojave mapiralo, kategorizovalo i analiziralo, upoređujući ih sa hebrejskom kulturom rabinske elite, do iberijskih kultura, kao i okolnih kultura u Osmanskom carstvu. Takvo istraživanje trebalo bi da ispita čitav korpus svih poznatih svedočenja o magijskim konceptima i praksama sačuvanim na hebrejskom ili ladino jeziku, u pisanoj ili usmenoj literaturi. Monografska studija ove vrste ispunila bi veliki vakuum koji se i dalje oseća u istraživanjima jevrejske magije uopšte i posebno u proučavanju sefardske magije.