Sephardic Serendipity
When I got to the slide about Rue, there was a petite, 80 year old Sephardic woman, born in Spain, whose ears perked right up. “Ruda?” she asked? “Yes, Ruda” I affirmed. Ruda being the Ladino word for Rue, closely related to its botanical name in Latin, Ruta graveolens. Her entire posture changed, it was clear that now that I was in the company of rue, that I knew about the plant and its role in our community, my talking about Jewish magic was legitimate.
After the gathering is when our magic happened. She approached me and said “Something happened when I was a little girl in Spain and I wonder if you might know something about it?” I encouraged her to share her story, though it was hardly necessary, she was so eager for this conversation.
She told me, “When I was a little girl, my Mother came and asked me for my urine for our neighbor. Do you have any idea what that was about?”
“Well, I believe I do. I think she asked for yours rather than using her own, because you were a virgin.”
“That’s exactly what she said!”
“I imagine that your neighbor had approached her for help because the neighbor felt they had the evil eye.”
“Yes, yes, the eye, that’s what she said!”
“I’m sorry to inform you, but I believe your Mother gave your urine to the neighbor to drink, to rid himself of the evil eye.”
She took in that information with what I appreciate as great equanimity. I told her what an honor it was to meet and speak with her, as I had learned of this magical ritual in a book*, but to meet someone who had been a party to it, verified it in the most tangible way for me. And as for her? “I’ve been carrying that question for 75 years”.
A magical, meaningful moment, may there be many more!
*The wonderful book that I’m referring to is Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women: Sweetening the Spirits, Healing the Sick. Lévy, Isaac Jack, and Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt. University of Illinois Press, 2002.
In a rare and thrilling moment, I met a woman who had lived what I’d only read about. I was at the Peninsula Jewish Community Center, the year, 2024. I was leading a workshop for their elder community, titled Jewish Herbal Magic (with tea!). I presented a slide show and facilitated discussion on the topic of Jewish magic to accompany an exhibit they were hosting titled Magical Thinking: Superstition and Other Persistent Notions, which was created by the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. As the name suggests, I served a couple of magical teas, and lectured with slides about Jewish conceptions of magic in different times and places.
A bonus - listen to this lovely recording of the traditional Ladino song Una Matica de Ruda. Here are the lyrics, both in Ladino and English.
