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Adne Sadeh

@adnesadeh.bsky.social
666 followers 177 following 2K posts

Apprentice Jewish monster hunter, podcaster, storyteller, teacher (occasionally), blogger (and AI researcher by day). He/him. linktr.ee/adnesadeh

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Reposted by Adne Sadeh
Nick Tortelli’s Ignominious Legacy @nick-tortelli.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Since it's October AND people are talking about Hebrew "punctuation" I thought I'd share this cool story about a vampire in the Torah/OT and how it henges on the Hebrew language. 🧵
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The image of sea serpent is a 19th century re-engraving of an 18th century drawing by Charles Owen, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Se...
commons.wikimedia.org
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This comes from Talmud (Bava Barta 75a) which tell how God will feed the righteous in the World-To-Come a feast of the flesh of Leviathan, the great sea dragon. It will be served under a sukkah of its skin. www.sefaria.org/Bava_Batra.7...
sefaria.org
Bava Batra 75a:6 | Sefaria Library
And Rabba says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: In the future, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will prepare a sukka for the righteous from the skin of the leviathan, as...
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
There's a custom to say the following when you leave the sukkah for the last time "May it be Your will Hashem our G-d and the G-d of our forefathers, that just as I have fulfilled the mitzvah and dwelled in the sukkah so may I merit in the coming year to dwell in the sukkah of the skin of Leviathan"
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Definitely! And one book at a time when you can!
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I’m really excited. I’m using the Koren / Steinsaltz translation.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Woot!! 🎉📚✡️
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The takash / dugong connection is cool, for sure
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Started doing daf yomi last week. Sunday’s daf (Bekhorot 8) is about animal procreation…opening with dulfanin aka mermaids! (Or maybe dolphins).
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
here's the librarything list www.librarything.com/catalog/jzai...
librarything.com
Catalog your books online | LibraryThing
LibraryThing catalogs your books online, easily, quickly and for free.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
www.librarything.com/catalog/jzai...
librarything.com
Catalog your books online | LibraryThing
LibraryThing catalogs your books online, easily, quickly and for free.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Sure! I’ve got a LibraryThing account that (mostly) lists all my books. I can share the link. But we can also find a time for a guided tour if you want.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I entertain myself. I made mounts for my silver handled iron tipped cane so it sits nicely against my bookcase by desk. Just in case of emergency.
Bookcase with cane in front of it
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The family image is "Friedrich German and his family, Jewish. Bukan clinic" is public domain, also courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:De...
commons.wikimedia.org
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The "man is possessed of several spirits" quote comes from Joshua Tractenberg's "Jewish Magic and Superstition" which discusses it in depth. The death mask image is the of Václav Jindřich Veit (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) CCA 4.0 license. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:De...
commons.wikimedia.org
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
so that his last thought was "protect the treasure." turning him into a spirit guardian. Whew. Wild stuff. But the basic idea, that the dead linger and remember was a standard believe in medieval Judaism.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Alemano then tells a crazy story of how some magicians (not Jewish) would find a condemned man and offer to save him from execution if he'd promise to guard their treasure. While the man was promising to do so, the magician would have him killed
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I'm reading Joseph Dan's article on teraphim and ran into this evocative quote about the memory of the dead attributed to Rabbi Eleazar of Worms (quoted by Dan from R. Johanan Alemano's Shaar ha-Heshek, a "kabbalistic, philosophical, and demonological compilation."
"And so wrote Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, in these words: Most of the dead [keep thinking] the same thought that they had in the moment the soul left the body"
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Upgrading my library with facet classification, online search, and STICKERS!!! I’m at enough books that I’m starting to not be able to find books I reference less frequently. My books are mostly in LibraryThing already but I’m adding shelf location and search tags. Not a small project but fun!
Bookshelves with shelf stickers!
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Can’t wait to read them!!
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
New books! Carved Memories: Heritage in Stone from the Russian Jewish Pale by Davis Goberman. Burning Girls and other Stories by Veronica Schanoes.A Book that was Lost: Thirty Five Stories by S.Y. Agnon
Book covers for  CARVED MEMORIES
Heritage in Stone from the Russian Jewish Pale by Davis Goberman. Burning Girls and other Stories by Veronica Schanoes.A Book that was Lost: Thirty Five Stories. By S.Y. Agnon
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Do it!
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Here's a link to Sabar's article (behind a free registration wall). www.academia.edu/37491715/Sha...
academia.edu
Shalom Sabar, “Amulets,” in Norman A. Stillman, ed., Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 202-206
Shalom Sabar, “Amulets,” in Norman A. Stillman, ed., Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 202-206
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Here's another hamsa with a lizard, on same for $1800 (yeek!) at 1st Dibs. www.1stdibs.com/furniture/mo...
1stdibs.com
Antique Moroccan Handmade Silver Hamsa with Lizard Symbol – 1880
For Sale on 1stDibs - This rare handmade Moroccan Hamsa pendant, crafted in 1880, is made of intricately engraved silver and features a three-dimensional lizard, a symbol of
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Here's a Moroccan hamsa with a lizard. Center for Jewish Art image, also from the William Gross collection. cja.huji.ac.il/gross/browse...
silver hamsa with lizard
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Lizard Hamsas! North African Jewish hamsas sometimes use a lizard motif. According to Shalom Sabar "The lizard represents regeneration and was used for the protection of mother and child." Here's one from the William Gross collection from Sabar's entry "Amulets" in Enc. of Jews in the Islamic World
Sliver hamsa with a lizard. From the William Gross collection.
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Reposted by Adne Sadeh
Madness Heart Press @madnessheartpress.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
OUT NOW from Michael Panush, MITZVAH MACABRE is a story inspired by a key bit of Jewish folklore: the belief that the spirits of dead emerge from the cemetery, enter the synagogue, and conduct their own services. #Books #WritingCommunity madnessheart.press/product/mitzva
Art card featuring a skeletal hand spinning a dreidel. Text reads “Mitzvah Macabre by Michael Panush”
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
New book! “Ferryman: The life and deathwork of Ephraim Finch” by Katia Ariel. “Blending biography, memoir, and cultural history, Katia Ariel brings to life the remarkable story of Ephraim Finch OAM—a deathworker, community builder, and guardian of cultural memory”
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Shabbat Shalom everyone. Dunno about you, but I need a nap. And a book.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Yup. That's one version. It's noted in the same BR passage, which says Abel had 2 twin sisters & they fought over the 2nd one. There's also an version that there were 974 generations before Adam that were mostly erased-Cain's city of Nod & their wives came from them aish.com/were-adam-an...
aish.com
Were Adam and Eve the First People on Earth? | Aish
In the book of Genesis God creates the first people, Adam and Eve. If you do the math, that event happened a little less than 6,000 years ago.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Specifically, Bereshit Rabbah 18 says "At first He created her for him, but he saw her full of viscera and blood, so He distanced her from him, and then fashioned her for him a second time." So Cain and Able arguing over the First Eve is still weird but less weird.
"The man said: This time, it is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, because this one was taken from Man" (Genesis 2:23).
"The man said: This time hapaam]" - Rabbi
Yehuda bar Rabbi said: At first He created her for him, but he saw her full of viscera and blood, so He distanced her from him, and then fashioned her for him a second time. That is what is written: "This time" - this is the [same one from that time.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Lol. My buddy Meg got annoyed at a dude who read Bereshit Rabbah 22 about Cain & Abel arguing over who would get to marry the First Eve & thought they were talking about their mother (eww) even though Bereshit Rabbah 18 explained that the First Eve was a different person.
"Cain said to Abel his brother. It was when they were in the field. Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him" (Genesis 4:8).
"Cain said to Abel his brother. It was when they were..." - about what were they quarreling?
They said: 'Let us divide the world between us.
One took the land and one took the movable property. This one said: "The land on which you are standing is mine? That one said: What you are wearing is mine? That one said: "Take it off.
This one said: 'Fly. As a result: "Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him." Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin said in the name of Rabbi Levi: Both of them took the land and both of them took the movable property. Regarding what, then, were they quarreling? Rather, this one said: "The Temple shall be built in my domain, and that one said: "The Temple shall be built in my domain, as it is stated: "It was when they were in the field," and "field" is nothing other than the Temple, as it says: "Zion will be plowed like a field" (Micah 3:12). As a result:
"Cain rose up against Abel his brother..."
Yehuda bar Rabbi said: They were quarreling over who would wed the first Eve. Rabbi Aivu said: The first Eve had returned to dust.
Regarding what, then, were they quarreling?
Rabbi Huna said: An extra twin sister was born with Abel. This one [Cain| said: 'I will take her, as I am the firstborn. That one [Abel said: 'I will take her, as she was born with me? As a result:
"Cain rose up"
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Into books. I need to do some digging into books. Not graves.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Roundabout paths? I’m not sure what’s being referred to. There are the tunnels that are said to open up to let the dead roll to Jerusalem. But that’s the physical body (bones) rolling. There are stories of the soul being tormented for a few days in grave before ascent. I need to do some digging.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Reading parsha Vaethchanan. The Me’am Lo’ez commentary has multiple explanations for Moses pleading to enter the promised land including a desire to die there. ML describes souls who die outside the land being surrounded by angels of destruction and “suffer in roundabout paths until it can ascend”
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
New book! The Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies” by Louis Jacobs. “A unique and inspiring collection of accounts by people who have encountered God, from Biblical times to the present”
Picture of the book cover with some daisies and a wooden railing behind it.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
It’s late. You’re hanging out in a cemetery. You’re hungry. Cooking up some nice hot porridge is obvious move right?
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Starting to think about stories to tell at this year's Monsters and Mulled Wine event. I'm hunting for a chevre kadisha (burial society) story and ran into this fun anecdote from the Israeli Folktale Archive "676*D The Brave Man at the Cemetery" folkmasa.org/ifa/mi_sipur...
A candidate for the Hebra Kadisha had to show his courage by cooking a pot of cemetery porridge at night before being accepted. When, during the task, the chairman of the society wanted to scare him, hid nearby and extended his hand to him, supposedly begging him for some food, the candidate filled his hand with boiling porridge. Since then, the society has stopped the tests.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Ok. Maybe I do??
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Great question. Let me do some poking.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Whew. Been super busy with a work project but am now on a short vacation, reading Lasser’s “ Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries of Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam.”
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Shabbat shalom everyone. Dunno about you but I need it :)
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
The method and descriptive quote come from Barzilay, Levinson, and Baumgarten's "Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Northern Europe, 1080-1350: A Sourcebook" (3/3) www.academia.edu/92601189/Jew...
academia.edu
Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Northern Europe 1080-1350: A Sourcebook, Kalamazoo, Medieval Institute Publications, 2022
Designed to introduce students to the everyday lives of the Jews who lived in the German Empire, northern France, and England from the 11th to the mid-14th centuries, the volume consists of translatio...
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
"The method Isaac utilized was to sum up the numerical value of the couple’s names, add sixteen to the amount, then divide the result by nine, until left with a remainder between one and nine. Each number represents a particular planet and thus a particular destiny" (2/3)
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
I ran into bit of Jewish love magic of "he loves me, he loves me not" variety documented Yitzhak ben Yitzhak in Chinon, France around 1250. It starts with gematria (numeric values of of the bride and groom's names), math, numerology, and then an astrological look up table. (1/3)
Text describing the process
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
That’s really interesting and makes the study title an even weirder choice.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
That’s cool….i’m kinda baffled by the title
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Reposted by Adne Sadeh
Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein @deepcuts.blog · 14/04/2026
@adnesadeh.bsky.social In the mail today.
THE CHILDREN OF AHASUERUS: A Study of Jews and Judaism in Fantastic Fiction by Ben Indick

Yellow cover. Illustration is a group of cowled faced within a Star of David, with a hand and a smaller star beneath.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Me too. Ok. I’ll let you know on what I find.
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Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
@bluma.bsky.social Are you familiar with the term "bobik" referring to a supernatural creature? דער באָביק I just ran into it on this site. inmolaraan.blogspot.com/2013/10/supe...
inmolaraan.blogspot.com
אין מױל ארײן: ‏ ‏ Supernatural Phenomena of the Yiddish World (and Pumpkins) כּישוף און באַניעס אױף ייִדיש
On my various visits to Europe, I never came across pumpkins or anything made with them. Maybe it's because none of my trips were during pumpkin-harvest season.
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