Sunday, November 23, 2008

Witchcraft Of A Biblical Matriarch

כ"ה חשון תשס"ת
Phasma Priscus 27

In follow-up to previous entries positing that the daughter of Avraham was a witch, why wouldn't the daughter of Avraham be a witch? Her mother Sarah, a biblical matriarch, was a witch. "In the Midrash Genesis Rabbah the rabbis write that Sarah tried to use witchcraft against Hagar."

Interestingly, in another biblical incident involving Sarah, "shutting off the wombs" of rivals is a black magic fertility spell. In Vayera (Bereshit 20:18), the wombs of the women of Abimelech's house were closed up "because of Sarah" (through witchcraft). Perhaps Sarah's longstanding barrenness was somehow connected to her own use of black magic to shut up the wombs of rivals. The later births of Isaac and Avraham's daughter suggest that Sarah did teshuvah for a possibly longstanding malignant use of this kind of magic.

Related entries:

Bakol & Transmitting The Torah Of Atzilut
Best Among Women
Kwisatz Haderach, A Daughter's Blessing

No comments:

Dare to be true to yourself.