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NEXTBOOK FEATURE
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Bi'ur Hametz and the Ancient Semitic Magic
David Bernat, professor of ancient Near Eastern history, the Bible, and early Judaism, Wellesley College
One year, when David Bernat was sweeping with a feather and candle in the traditional pre-Passover ritual of burning leavened foods, it struck him that the procedure, known as bi'ur hametz, was similar to the rituals that the ancient Babylonians, whom he was then studying, used to exorcise demons. “The nature of the ritual—taking representational hametz and burning it—reflects a popular conception of sympathetic magic,” he says. “What you say is very much like an incantation to get rid of evil,” This insight led to his current research. Nobody knows exactly when and how Jews began to perform bi'ur hametz, Bernat explains; the Bible does not offer instructions, and it's thought to have become a standard practice during the Talmudic Period. “The sages that instituted the practice seem to have borrowed the form from incantations, and converted it into something totally different where the implications are not spiritual, they're basically halachic. So, something that is magical now has solely legal purposes because you don't actually believe that you've banished the hametz. In other words, it looks like an exorcism and acts like a contract.”
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About the Conference
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