Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

May 27, 2021

Four Decades after Its Discovery, a Talmudic-Era Jewish Amulet Comes to Light

A 1,500-year-old weapon against the evil eye.

Since talmudic times, Jews have used amulets to guard themselves from spiritual and physical harm, and even in the 18th century it was commonplace for rabbis to give lay people amulets with supposed kabbalistic powers. Forty years ago, a resident of the Galilean village of Arbel discovered an amulet from the 6th century CE, which her heirs recently turned over to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Rossella Tercatin writes:

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