A Remembrance of His Wonders. David I. Shyovitz

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      “THE POWER OF INCANTATIONS, AND THE POWER OF HERBS, AND THE POWER OF STONES”

      And yet, the Pietists at times invoked Psalms 111:4 regarding “remembrances” that are anything but prosaic. Indeed, in his liturgical commentary Arugat ha-Bosem, Abraham b. Azriel—a student of Eleazar of Worms, and compiler of Ashkenazic and especially Pietistic traditions—offers a categorical description of the “remembrances” found in the world: “Everything the Holy one created in his world is a remembrance of His wonders; he created the power of all kinds of incantations, and the power of herbs, and the power of stones.”¹⁰⁰ Each of these subcategories is well represented in Pietistic writings, and is utilized in contexts that seem prima facie to undermine the notion of a stable, theologically resonant natural order.

      The “power of incantations” refers to apparently inexplicable phenomena like the one with which this chapter began: “If one places hot ash on hot excrement, it will cause harm to the one who produced [the excrement].” This remembrance, which sheds light upon God’s wondrous invisibility, is accompanied in Pietistic texts by an array of remembrances that are themselves wondrous. For example: “If one were to ask: How can [God] be present everywhere, yet remain invisible to the eye? It is possible to respond that He created an example in His world…. If one’s nose is cut off [of his face], and he attaches another person’s nose [to his own face] using a potion, the nose will fall off when the man [who owned it originally] dies, for it smells the death of its [original] body. Some substance must have come in contact with [the nose], though it is too subtle to see.”¹⁰¹ Not only potions serve as wondrous remembrances, but also spells and adjurations: “If one were to ask: How are we to believe that [God] is omnipotent, since He cannot be seen? I will offer you an example: one can adjure a sword so that it will not cut him, or a piece of white-hot iron so that it will not burn him. And even though we see no boundary between the sword or the iron and the body, we know that there is something in the way, preventing the cutting or the burning, even though it is too subtle to see.”¹⁰² Or again, “if one places upon oneself a dead snake, and ties it as a belt around himself, no sword will [be able to] harm him.”¹⁰³ In a similar vein, Eleazar refers to certain varieties of charcoal which can serve as charms that will protect one from magical attacks.¹⁰⁴ The “power of herbs” is represented in these contexts as well. Judah discusses a type of grass which can cut iron, again suggesting that there is some force “too subtle to see” in operation, which in turn validate belief in an invisible God.¹⁰⁵

      But the wondrous remembrance that is most frequently invoked is the “power of stones.” Judah and Eleazar describe an array of stones whose seemingly inexplicable properties point to an array of divine truths. For instance, Judah recurrently discusses the even tekumah (“preserving stone”), an amulet mentioned in rabbinic literature that was purported to prevent miscarriages.¹⁰⁶ According to Judah, its workings can be attributed to the power of scent: “The even tekumah … has a scent that enters a woman’s belly and [reaches] the fetus. The belly does not block the [scent of the] stone from the fetus, and the fetus remains in place until the woman’s pregnancy is complete. This is done through the power of the scent of the stone.” The even tekumah, like the more mundane phenomena traced above, sheds light upon God’s attributes: “Therefore, do not wonder at the actions of God (ha-tsur, lit., “the Rock”), for he does everything through His power even though we do not sense how he does them.”¹⁰⁷

      The Pietists seem to have been particularly preoccupied by one stone in particular—the magnet or lodestone, which they varyingly identify by its Hebrew, Latin, and German names (even sho’evet, magnet, and Augstein, respectively). “God created an example in his world: a stone which attracts … iron to itself, known in German as a magnet or Augstein. We cannot see who attracts [the iron], or by what means it is attracted to it. Rather, there is some subtle substance that attracts [the iron] to it which we cannot see.”¹⁰⁸ Like so many of the natural phenomena we have encountered thus far, Judah utilizes this object for theological ends: “The wondrous proof that God can cause the righteous to cleave to Him is the stone that attracts iron to itself, despite the fact that no one can see by what means it pulls it. It is intended to show that God knows those who trust in him—‘He has created a remembrance of His wonders.’”¹⁰⁹ The Pietists were interested in the practical applications of magnetism as well, and invested these, too, with spiritual significance. Judah provides a lengthy (if confused) description of the nautical compass in his discussion of how the souls of the dead “navigate” the next world:

      Now if one were to ask, “How will [the souls of the dead] be transported immediately [to Heaven or Hell]?” The stone that attracts iron can demonstrate this, for it attracts a needle to itself in an instant. And the captain of a ship can even use it to discern in which direction his ship is traveling. He brings the magnet in a bowl of water, and places a needle next to it, and asks his fellow: “Where should the ship travel?” If he answers, “east,” and the ship is pointing west, the needle will travel round the magnet via a circular path … and if the ship is pointing east, [the needle] will remain straight. “He has created a remembrance of His wonders,” so that we may believe that in an instant the soul can cleave to Heaven or to Hell, via a straight or circular path.¹¹⁰

      In addition to these stones, herbs, and magical incantations, Judah and Eleazar also located “remembrances” in the animal kingdom. At times, they recount the properties of mundane animals that they would have had occasion to encounter in daily life. For instance, “a dog can smell the footsteps of a thief, although we cannot see anything of the thief remaining in the place of his footsteps, and his footsteps are not marked in the ground. Nonetheless, there is some fine, invisible substance in the place of his footsteps, which the dog uses to recognize the thief.”¹¹¹ But often the animals in question manifest wondrous and apparently inexplicable qualities. Thus the salamander, “which is not ruled over (i.e., harmed) by fire,” proves that “God’s will and existence” should not be doubted despite the inability of human beings to perceive of them.¹¹² Elsewhere, in discussing God’s restorative powers, Eleazar argues similarly: “He has created a remembrance of His wonders: There is a certain kind of fish … which, if it is chopped into pieces and thrown into the water while it is still convulsing, will reattach its components to one another and live. The tail of a lizard does something similar. [The lizard] can remove its tail, and return later on and reattach it to itself.”¹¹³ An additional confirmation of the plausibility of resurrection, Eleazar asserts, can be derived from “the weasel, which resurrects its fellow using a certain plant.”¹¹⁴

      Another invocation of wondrous phenomena in the animal kingdom appears in reference to the lion; in a yihud text, Judah argues:

      ‘He has created a remembrance of His wonders.’ … A lion can make a circle like this ○ and move on, and any animal that enters it is unable to leave the circle, till it dies. Behold, the lion can seal and unseal this circle, and allow an animal to leave it, for [the lion] understands every language, and if one goes and beseeches it, [the lion] will understand and indicate what its will is…. Behold this wonder…. Who taught [the lion] to draw a circle in the earth? Is [the lion] a magician?! Moreover, how is it that by drawing a circle animals become trapped within it? … And how does it know every language? Who created animals that are possessed of such wisdom? We cannot help but believe that “there is wisdom on high” (Ps. 73.11)—that ‘the Lord is a God of wisdom’ (I Samuel 2:3). The lion knows how to draw a circle and trap animals within it, even when he is not present—certainly the Master of All … even though he cannot be seen.¹¹⁵

      Elsewhere in Pietistic writings, other wondrous animals, such as the phoenix and the barnacle goose, are invoked to similar effect.¹¹⁶

      Finally, the Pietists recurrently locate wondrous remembrances in the written sources they had before them. One figure who features prominently СКАЧАТЬ