{"id":1088,"date":"2015-05-08T11:20:59","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T15:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2015-05-08T14:52:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T18:52:00","slug":"on-jewish-demons-and-sublunary-buttercups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=1088","title":{"rendered":"On Jewish Demons and Sublunary Buttercups"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"matted<\/a>Buttercups are blooming in our back yard. Sighting spring buttercups inevitably leads my husband, Ralf, to remember the many walks he took with his mother, Evelyn. Evelyn loved flowers and meadows, and upon seeing buttercups she inevitably said the exact same thing. Each time, each year, wherever they happened to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWenn man das sieht, dann m\u00f6chte man eine Kuh sein und gleich reinbei\u00dfen!<\/em> \u201c<\/p>\n

For those of you who don\u2019t speak German, a translation: \u201cWhen one sees that, one would want to be a cow and start munching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I wonder,\u201d Ralf told me this morning, \u201cwas that some kind of past life experience talking?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFunny you should say that,\u201d I answered. \u201cI\u2019ve been wondering about the same thing where my mother was concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s not exactly<\/em> the same thing,\u201d I explained. \u201cBut I was reading the other day about the way medieval Jews described demons at work in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWait,\u201d Ralf said, \u201cwhat are you saying about your mother?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually about my mother\u2019s stories,\u201d I said. Then I paused. \u201cThough she did tell me she was a witch.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the absolute truth. When I was a child my mother professed to be a witch who could fly to the moon. She did so frequently, she said, and she claimed to have taken me with her, too. Sadly, I seem not to have been able to remember these nocturnal lunar visits, so she always had to fill me later about the experience.<\/p>\n

She also provided an explanation for the knots and tangles in my hair. That, she claimed, was the doing of Mr. Tangle. Apparently, he would party down in and among the strands with selected invited guests all night long. This would account for the knots that had to be combed out in the morning. Tears stinging my eyes, I would get to chastise Mr. Tangle because he was mean and cruel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBad Mr. Tangle,\u201d I would say through gritted teeth. \u201cBad!\u201d<\/p>\n

I know. It doesn\u2019t seem like this has much to do with buttercups or cows. Bear with me.<\/p>\n

I had been reading about medieval Jewish demons, you remember. I had learned, among others, about the mares<\/em> <\/a>(these are not horses, but demons). Mares<\/em> hang out in groups of nine. If there are ten, Satan will surely come along and seize one. Moral of the story: Don\u2019t make a minyan with mares.<\/em><\/p>\n

Apparently such demons hang out with sleeping humans and make it impossible for them to speak by grasping their tongues and choking them. The mare<\/em> is responsible for nightmares. (Surprise!)<\/p>\n

On to my mother.<\/p>\n

Well, actually, the mikveh<\/a>, first.<\/p>\n

Most of us know that a dip in the mikveh requires that before stepping into the water, every last item on the body must be removed. No rings, no jewelry. There are other rules about clipping nails and the like, but the question that concerned some of our ancestors was apparently this one: Should badly matted hair be cut off before allowing a candidate to step into the ritual bath?<\/p>\n

Answer, according to one of the greatest rabbis of the thirteenth century, Isaac Or Zarua<\/a>: No.<\/p>\n

And why not?<\/p>\n

Matted hair is caused by a demon. It would be courting mortal danger to cut such hair. Mortal dangers are not something to be courted at any time, particularly during the Middle Ages when Jews are oft surrounded by such things.<\/p>\n

It turns out that there is a name for this demon. Actually, a demoness. She is Holle, also known as Holda and\/or Hulda (no connection, I think, to the prophetess in II Kings, 22:14 who sanctifies a scroll supposedly found during the time of King Josiah). Though her origin is likely German, in which tradition she took the form of a rather ugly witch with long, matted hair and buck teeth, she apparently made her way into Jewish folklore.<\/p>\n

As I was reading about this demon, I couldn\u2019t help wonder: Was my mother refracting some old belief, some traditional story she had been told? My grandparents came from central and eastern Europe, with names like Kirschenbaum (or Karschenbaum \u2013 we aren\u2019t quite sure which).<\/p>\n

Was Mr. Tangle actually Holle? Was this Jewish-past-life experience turning up in modern America? Given that my mother claimed to be a witch, what might she know about demons and demonesses of the past?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe Holle and Mr. Tangle worked together,\u201d Ralf said when I was done explaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow so?\u201d I asked.\"buttercups\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t think it takes two to tangle?\u201d he asked innocently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am going out to water the sublunary buttercups now,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should badly matted hair be cut off before allowing a candidate to step into a mikveh?
\nAnswer, according to one of the greatest rabbis of the thirteenth century, Isaac Or Zarua: No.
\nAnd why not?
\nMatted hair is caused by a demon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[270,271,272],"class_list":["post-1088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-demons","tag-isaac-or-zarua","tag-jewish-magic"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1088"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1097,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088\/revisions\/1097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}