Reposted by Adne SadehNick Tortelli’s Ignominious Legacy @nick-tortelli.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Since 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. 🧵 122
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The 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 060
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 02/10/2026This 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.orgBava Batra 75a:6 | Sefaria LibraryAnd 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... 191
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 02/10/2026There'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" 1213
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I’m really excited. I’m using the Koren / Steinsaltz translation. 120
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Started doing daf yomi last week. Sunday’s daf (Bekhorot 8) is about animal procreation…opening with dulfanin aka mermaids! (Or maybe dolphins). 3122
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026here's the librarything list www.librarything.com/catalog/jzai...librarything.comCatalog your books online | LibraryThingLibraryThing catalogs your books online, easily, quickly and for free. 031
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026www.librarything.com/catalog/jzai...librarything.comCatalog your books online | LibraryThingLibraryThing catalogs your books online, easily, quickly and for free. 021
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Sure! 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. 220
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 27/09/2026I 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. 130
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 20/09/2026The 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 030
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 20/09/2026The "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 141
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 20/09/2026so 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. 230
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Alemano 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 130
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 20/09/2026I'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." 142
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Upgrading 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! 060
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 08/09/2026New 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 151
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Here's a link to Sabar's article (behind a free registration wall). www.academia.edu/37491715/Sha...academia.eduShalom Sabar, “Amulets,” in Norman A. Stillman, ed., Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 202-206Shalom Sabar, “Amulets,” in Norman A. Stillman, ed., Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 202-206 121
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Here's another hamsa with a lizard, on same for $1800 (yeek!) at 1st Dibs. www.1stdibs.com/furniture/mo...1stdibs.comAntique Moroccan Handmade Silver Hamsa with Lizard Symbol – 1880For 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 131
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Here's a Moroccan hamsa with a lizard. Center for Jewish Art image, also from the William Gross collection. cja.huji.ac.il/gross/browse... 121
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Lizard 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 153
Reposted by Adne SadehMadness Heart Press @madnessheartpress.bsky.social · 20/08/2026OUT 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 031
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 26/08/2026New 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” 010
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Shabbat Shalom everyone. Dunno about you, but I need a nap. And a book. 090
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Yup. 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.comWere Adam and Eve the First People on Earth? | AishIn 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. 000
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Specifically, 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. 120
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Lol. 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. 120
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Into books. I need to do some digging into books. Not graves. 090
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Roundabout 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. 160
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Reading 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” 141
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 22/07/2026New 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” 0122
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 19/07/2026It’s late. You’re hanging out in a cemetery. You’re hungry. Cooking up some nice hot porridge is obvious move right? 030
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 19/07/2026Starting 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... 1102
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Whew. 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.” 091
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 24/04/2026Shabbat shalom everyone. Dunno about you but I need it :) 0130
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 17/04/2026The 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.eduJewish Daily Life in Medieval Northern Europe 1080-1350: A Sourcebook, Kalamazoo, Medieval Institute Publications, 2022Designed 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... 031
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) 131
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 17/04/2026I 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) 151
Adne Sadeh @adnesadeh.bsky.social · 16/04/2026That’s really interesting and makes the study title an even weirder choice. 020
Reposted by Adne SadehDeep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein @deepcuts.blog · 14/04/2026@adnesadeh.bsky.social In the mail today. 272
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.comאין מױל ארײן: Supernatural Phenomena of the Yiddish World (and Pumpkins) כּישוף און באַניעס אױף ייִדישOn 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. 100