This lecture presents a surprising and innovative spiritual-alternative strategy of Israeli-Jews to refer to the Jewish tradition – an interpretation of the tradition while identifying with the anti-heroines of an ancient Jewish legend. In this way, the characteristic approach of the “spiritual-but-not-religious” (SBNR) trend that criticizes the religious establishment is expressed, while adopting the criticism inherent in the ancient Jewish sources. In our case it’s the retelling of an ancient Jewish legend – about a witch hunt conducted by Rabbi Shimon ben Shatach in Ashkelon in the second century BC.
The lecture was presented at the 12th Annual Congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) held at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, July 16-20, 2023, under the title “Branching Out: Diversity of Jewish Studies”. It was included in a session organized by Dr. Nimrod Singer, on “Occult, Magic, Folklore and Zionism from Mandatory Palestine to Present Israel”.
There are more academic articles and lectures related to this research – see links below.
The title of the lecture was “Recycled Witches – The Retelling of Narratives from Rabbinical Literature within Contemporary Alternative Spirituality”.
Here is a video of the lecture accompanied by the presentation:
Abstract
Within the contemporary Alternative Spirituality sphere – in Israel and abroad – the affinity to Jewish tradition is challenged by the widespread suspicion and criticism of organized religion. The SBNR (Spiritual-but-not-Religious) stance contrasts between “spirituality” and “religion”. The latter is considered the oppressor of the individual – especially women – the destroyer of magic, and a model of a conservative, aggressive establishment that lost its connection to the secrets of ancient perennial truth that unite all religions and cultures.
This legend – which illustrates Shimon ben-Shatach’s witch-hunt and includes an admission to false justice and the vicious execution of eighty witches – could become another example that supports this criticism of religious tradition and makes relating to Judaism within the alternative-spiritual space difficult. However, it seems the opposite is true: spiritual-alternative leaders in Israel choose a retelling of this narrative, which identifies with its anti-heroines. Thus, the Jewish sources become a resource of the critical spiritual approach to tradition.
Author
Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro
Links
For the full conference program – click here.
To download the book of abstracts of the conference – click here.
For a Call-For-Papers distributed before the conference – click here.
To the website of the European Association of Jewish Studies (EAJS) – click here.
For the Ashkelon National Park, including its ancient and pagan findings – click here
The article analyses Hebrew texts by Ruchama Weiss (see here), Pele Ohad Ezrachi (see here), and Dov Ahava/Trubnik (from this book).
For another interesting text, published after the research was already conducted, by Carmit Mizrahi, click here.
Date
July 17th, 2023
Language
English
Academic/Non-academic
Academic item
Bibliographical citation
It is recommended to use the references to the published articles. See links below.
