By Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein In one of the first commandments listed after the Ten Commandments, Hashem stipulates, “you shall not ascend through stairs [ma’alot] upon My altar, so that you will not reveal your nakedness upon it” (Ex. 20:23). This verse is the source for the prohibition of building stairs instead of a ramp to lead […]
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Dec. 17, 2020
In the Hebrew manuscript collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, among the formulas for potions – both medicinal and magical – hides an unusual document. If you study it you might learn how to rob a house in broad daylight, even if the owners are there watching.
It turns out that thieves in the 15th century – Jewish ones, too – brought with them all sorts of weird stuff. “The thieves that enter houses take with them the hand of a dead man,” the manuscript reads. “They put it in the middle of the house and then all the household members tremble and fall asleep.”