Class Recordings Archived HERE
Join Rabbi Seidel and guest speakers in an exciting exploration of Sephardic magical remedies and folk medicine in the greater Sephardic diaspora, mostly Mediterranean and in the hidden culture of the Conversos. We will examine collections in Ladino of “Sifre Segulot u Refuot” Treasured remedies and Healings..(such as Agua Tibia: Media Vida) .from incantations to rituals of exorcism, to food recipes that were produced and transmitted in the folk culture of the Sephardim . We will consider the particular rituals and folklore of women in our class including pregnancy and childbirth remedies and will trace the intersection of “modern western” medicine with the folk remedies and herbal and floral traditions which have largely disappeared.
In a world of practice where “magic” and “medicine” were not separated, we will explore healing and medicine in the context of the language of the healers themselves. Some questions (inter alia) that we will address are:
- What evidence of women’s folk medicine might we deduce from the records of the Inquisition trials?
- How were these practices understood in the environment of Jewish law and Rabbinic authority? How many of these traditions were indebted to local e.g Turkish, Palestinian, Greek traditions of folk medicine?
- What were the Halakhic legal limitations of these practices i.e., kashrut? How did Sephardim deal with psychosomatic crises and mental illness and with the very serious spread of tuberculosis and cholera? How did they treat epilepsy? Convulsions? Brain injuries?
This class complements our earlier studies of magic and folk medicine that were offered in the Yeshiva in 2022. Guest lecturers will include herbalists, Ladino experts and folklorists. We will also learn some Ladino songs that celebrate plants and herbs.