"The illustration is of the angel of death, flanked by a skull and an hourglass. The large, decorated Hebrew letters state: "The end of man is to die" The illustration is done using micrography, e.g. depicting lines using small Hebrew characters. (1/2)

Shanah Tovah and Gut Yontif, everyone! h/t @shvlman.bsky.social for posting the Leviathan Rosh Hashanah postcard.

Hi folks. My Jewish Monster and Magic Trading Cards are available again on my shiny new Ko-Fi site. Check 'em out. 2 decks, 108 individual cards, shipped right to your door! ko-fi.com/s/3a04d5f963

I'm working Jewish Monster & Magic Trading Cards decks Gimmel and Daled. I've done first drafts on 3 cards, only 105 to go :) Here's 109 - Sherblekh!

Hey Yiddishists...what's the correct way to spell sherblach in Yiddish (e.g. broken pottery shards used during Tahara)?

Love this. Found it in Harold Schwartz collection “Gates to the New City: A Treasury of Modern Jewish Tales”. I think it’s from Langer’s 1937 book “9 Gates to the Chasidic Mysteries”

Memunim are angels, "celestial deputies" "Houses and cities, winds and seasons, months and hours and days, each star above, each speck of dust underfoot, no thing in nature or in fancy exists independently of its memuneh, its heavenly "deputy" (Check out the cute memunim stickers by @devotaj.com )

Success! Sold cards, maps, and some monster hunting kits. Fun was had.

Setting up for my for first table sale at the Ann Arbor JCC Apples and Honey event. 2 to 5.

Repacking Jewish Monster Hunting kits for my table sale tomorrow at the Ann Arbor JCC. Edith is helping.

New Books! Carmen Caballero-Navas' "The Book of Women's Love & JewIsh MedievaL Medical Literature on Women (Sefer Ahavat Nashm)" and Jon Levenson's "Creation & the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence"

I just found out that Beatrice Weinreich, author of Yiddish Folktales, wrote her 1957 dissertation at Columbia titled "The prophet Elijah in modern Yiddish folktales." I'm so need to read this. I just submitted a request to Colombia's Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Wish me luck!

It’s deeply funny to me how the biggest insult to God in the entire Tanakh, namely the Philistines stealing the Ark, is punished by… hemorrhoids and a mice infestation.

More Talmud trash talk! In Genesis Rabbah, the angels get feisty and argue over whether or not humankind should be created … because they know we're going to suck. God's clap back is epic.

Frickin' bats becoming frickin' demons (and frickin' spines becoming frickin' snakes) 🦇😈🦴🐍

My buddy @broomsticknpen.bsky.social gave a fun academic talk last year about Peter S. Beagle's classic fantasy novel "The Last Unicorn" and made reference to the book's Jewish themes and folklore. Check it out! australasianhorrorstudiesnetwork.wordpress.com/spells-of-se...

Satan, in Ashkenazi Jewish stories, sometimes shows up in the form of a black dog (as he does in other folklores.) In one Baal Shem Tov story, he shows up as black dog in court to inform against a villager. Satan was scolded, "as one scolds a dog" and he ran away. A 😈🐕‍🦺🧵 1/4

When you think you're a bal-shem but you're really more of a "fail-shem"

I'm convening a new course celebrating the spooky and Awesome days of Elul, called "Elul is a Place." Come learn with me! exploreashkenaziculture.blogspot.com/2025/08/elul...

Reform Judaism fired Satan. References were systematically removed from the early Reform prayerbooks in favor of an emphasis on personal repentance before God. Here's an original discussion of it by R. Isaac Mayer Weiss in his 1882 book "Judaism and Christianity! Their Agreements and Disagreements"

bonus Dybbukry: In a 1925 American production, The Dybbuk's doomed bride, Leah, was played by Mary Ellis, who had then recently originated the role of Rose-Marie in the eponymous operetta.

lol. Am struggling to find accurate source material regarding Reform Judaism's elimination of Satan from the liturgy in the 1800s. Tried ChatGPT hoping it could help...it cheerfully and wholly fabricated some wonderful quotes that are not in the claimed source documents. oh well.

Currently nerding out reading all the stories about the Baal Shem Tov vs. Satan in Shivhei ha-Besht. (There are a surprising number of them). My fav is the one with the talking/dybbuk frog. because...frogs 🐸🐸🐸 Any one else doing any fun Shabbat reading?

Irving Buchen’s 1967 article “Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Revival of Satan” was my gateway drug. (to paying $$ for a JSTOR account. sigh)

This is really cool. I'm in!

Segulah chain letter referencing "Kra Satan" (rend Satan). Are chain letters still a thing? Wanna be memes before social media, they urgently say "this is important, republish it!" This one is a "tried & proven" segulah (Jewish charm) that was published in 2005 in the Monsey View classifieds.

1850 Ashkenazi "Kra Satan" (rend Satan) amulet, used to cure a person who has been attacked by an evil spirit. The first word of such an amulet is a name for God, in this case "Shaddai." "Kra Satan" is also take from the mystical 42 letter name of God. 1/2

In Rabbinic writing, Satan is "just" an angel, serving God. Satan is our adversary but a necessary one since, to quote Billy Bragg "virtue never tested is no virtue at all." In this way, according to the Rabbis, Satan is the personification (angelification?) of the evil inclination in all of us.

For something more traditional, check out Texas Early Music Project's "La serena" here: music.apple.com/us/album/nig...

I read the Talmud for the trash talk.

One of my fav traditional Ladino Sephardic songs is about a mermaid "La Serena" This version is by the band De Leon. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SU3... You can see the full lyrics here: lyricstranslate.com/en/la-serena...

look what got from @martifuerst.bsky.social it’s so cool! She’s so good!

PJ Library "sends free, award-winning books that celebrate Jewish values and culture to families with children from birth through 12 years." The've got a fun podcast going called Beyond the Bookcase. Meet Golem, the Mayor of Mashan! beyondthebookcase.podbean.com/e/bonus-epis...

I’m in #jewishmagic heaven thanks to @earlsavoy.bsky.social gifting me @adnesadeh.bsky.social incredible monster cards. Immersing myself now. I’m blown away. #jewsky #jewishwitch אהבה

Sigh. Busted my laptop screen, was out of commission for a week, but worst of all got a new monitor and LOST MY STICKERS. Had to restart with what I had in hand. Need more ASAP.

nothing is more fun than articles or monographs where academics trash talk each other. Like Moshe Idel saying one of Isaiah Tishby’s concepts is “weird” and knocking Gershom Scholem for the “quite dramatic” impact of Enlightenment figures on his thinking. 🤯🔥😂 (Primeval Evil in Kabbalah)

One of my favorite bits of Reform liturgy was written by Rabbi Chaim Stern for the Prayer Book “Gates of Prayer.” I like to reread it sometimes when I’m settling in to study Jewish monsters and magic lore. Its sense of awe at God’s everyday miracles suits this study, I think.

Mastema, "enmity" in the Book of Jubilees, played a role similar to Satan "adversary" in Job, testing people for God. Where Satan, reporting to God, tests Job, Mastema is responsible for the Akedah, sending Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Mastema presides over evil spirits, given to him by God. 1/2

I'm prepping for the next Wayward Children podcast, this time on evil & Satan. I've avoided the topic because of the Christian emphasis on it. But ha-Satan is in Job, later Jewish texts & becomes a big deal in early modern period, so here we go What Is the Power of the Devil? www.chabad.org/4579763

@yonichanowitz.bsky.social makes cool 3D printed mezuzah mounts. Worked great on my daughter's handmade mezuzah (other than me needing to be extra careful with not squishing the klaf)

Shabbat Shalom everyone!

today's random theater photo: a 1925 production of The Dybbuk

My favorite part of reading The Dybbuk is when they take the young girl who has been possessed by a dybbuk to this famous rabbi for an exorcism and the rabbi is just sitting around and sobbing like "why do all these people come to me with their problems, i don't want to work, i just want to nap"

They’re back! The second printing of Jewish Monster and Magic Trading Cards have arrived! We’ll get them back into the @madnessheartpress.bsky.social store and I’ll be doing my first in person sale at the Ann Arbor JCC Apples and Honey event on 9/14.

Quiet afternoon so I set up the LinkTree I've been meeting to get to. linktr.ee/adnesadeh

Shabbat Shalom, everyone!

Hey artists/writers who have done table sales. I'm going to be doing my first table sale for my Jewish Monster and Magic trading cards at the Ann Arbor, MI JCC on Sept 14. I've got a month to prep. What are your best tips. (looking at you @kaijupoet.bsky.social and @roseberrycomix.bsky.social).

@rokhl.bsky.social is a great teacher. You want in on this!

The phrase "sees but is not seen" signifies that God is omniscient but hidden and anchors a variety of charms, amulets, and recipes for Jewish invisibility magic that confused the eye of the hostile viewer. So "social invisibility" keep our heads down magic. Very relatable :) 1/5

Whew. Wayward Children episode 31 about Werewolves in Jewish lore is in the can. @kaijupoet.bsky.social really needs a silver headed walking stick, just sayin'.