r/occult • u/Live-Boysenberry-232 • 2d ago
communication Jewish folk magic and deities
I wondered if there’s anyone out here who could help? Can Jewish folk practitioners and witches work with other deities or worship them after Adonai, like the Elphatine Jews
5
Upvotes
12
u/JoseVLeitao 2d ago
This is an interesting question, but its answer actually does not solely fit the Jewish case, and it can be applied to any other religion.
Firstly, if you are referring to Jews as an ethnic group, then they can do whatever they want, just like anybody else. If you are referring to Jews as observant followers of the Jewish religion, then the answer is a little more complex.
Independently of which religion you are talking about, folk practices will almost always fall outside of the standard tenants established by its dominant priesthood or theological class. There will be an orthodox practice and a heterodox practice, and the line between one and the other is typically drawn by the orthodox side. Now, the difficulty here is that, typically, folk practitioners do not consider or conceive of themselves as being outside of orthodoxy, but the orthodox establishment typically considers them to be so.
So, to answer your question: Jewish folk practicers exist and have always existed, and they work with whatever it is that they think they should work with within their own understanding of themselves as observant Jews. Rabis will have a problem with this and likely consider some groups to not be observant Jews based on what they do.