By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist
My daughter returned from Israel, and like many visitors she brought back gifts. She presented me with a red string, blessed at the Tomb of Rachel. She tied it around my wrist and told me that it would guarantee that no harm will ever come to me. The red string, she said, protects from the dreaded evil eye. After wearing it around a bit I am getting comments about Madonna, Paris Hilton and the Kabbalah Center. What is the origin and meaning of the red string? Is it Jewish? I thought we do not believe in superstitions.
What to do when an ancient Jewish practice turns trendy? Somehow, the sight of my Hassidic friend’s children with red threads tied around their wrists looks awfully different than non-Jewish celebrities sporting these suddenly chic red threads spouting all sorts of misguided New Age Kabbalah.
That you can purchase these red strings over the Internet with all sorts of promises intensifies my concern.
Here is what the Kabbalah Center pledges regarding the red string, which they are selling for $26: “The Red String protects us from the influences of the Evil Eye. Evil Eye is a very powerful negative force. It refers to the unfriendly stare and unkind glances we sometimes get from people around us. Envious eyes and looks of ill will affect us, stopping us from realizing our full potential in every area of our life.”
Let me unravel some of the issues for you. First the evil eye: many of us grew up with notions of ayin hara. My mother, of blessed memory, confided in me the secret incantation in Yiddish that is an assured antidote to the evil eye. I was not, she cautioned me, to use this incantation unless it was absolutely necessary. It was not to be invoked casually. I was duly impressed, and you can be sure that I have never squandered its implementation.
The core belief of ayin hara is that people who may be envious of you may cast an “evil eye” upon you and in your height of success or good fortune you could be brought down by their evil vibes. Psychologically, I think this actually has some validity; bad vibes can’t ever be helpful. Additionally, ayin hara certainly has weight if you believe it to be true.
As an aside, the opposite of ayin hara also exists; it is the ayin tov, the good eye. One who posses an ayin tov looks with a grand heart at what others have and at their talents not with jealousy, but with generosity and delight. Our matriarch Sarah was said to have had an ayin tov. She looked upon all, and she felt a generosity of spirit. This is a noble, magnanimous attitude each of us should strive to embrace. It is the opposite of schadenfreude, delight when someone feels satisfaction and glee at another person’s failure.
But back to the red thread: so far we have established what the it is supposed to counteract, now we need to figure out how it works. Why red? Why a string? Why tied around the wrist?
The color red has obvious associations with blood, the life force and with danger and perhaps impending perils. Several episodes in the Bible come to mind involving red threads. In Genesis, we read that the midwife ties a red thread around the wrist of the first twin to emerge from Tamar. The baby had quickly drawn back into womb and she wanted to mark the firstborn. What do we learn from this? It tells us something simple and maybe useful. Red thread was around. It was tied on the wrist. It was a mark of some kind.
The next episode that comes to mind is an incident from the Book of Joshua. As the spies entered the land, they found safe sanctuary with a Canaanite woman named Rahab, who they promised to spare upon their return to Jericho. They suggested she hang a red rope outside as a sign. No harm would come to Rahab and her family, though the rest of Jericho was to be destroyed. Could this be the beginning of the protection notion of the red thread? Perhaps, but still a stretch.
Some think that perhaps the red thread serves as some sort of reminder. You look at the thread and your remember the matriarch Rachel. You remember her generosity of spirit as she helps her sister, Leah, marry her own intended groom Jacob. It may lead you to recall her weeping for her people. Perhaps in some way, your good thoughts can counteract other people’s evil
thoughts. Maybe, but there doesn’t seem
to be a lot of Jewish legal writing to back any of these theories.
Here’s my bottom line: for those who have a family tradition to wear a red thread, as do many Sephardic and Hassidic families, this is their practice and I see nothing compelling to stop them. It is certainly not forbidden by Jewish law, though we really do not support most superstitions the have tended to become part of Jewish practice as we became influenced by other cultures.
On the other hand, for those outside our faith to adopt this practice trivializes Judaism and true Jewish practices, and in some ways reduces Judaism to a ridiculous, silly shtick. We are not that! We are a very deep, meaningful religion with very real expectations, disciplines, rituals and mitzvot whose purpose is to turns us towards God Almighty, to divine service, and to doing good in this world. I do not see where the donning of a red thread comes into all of this. Nor do I understand Jews who traffic these practices to the outside world.