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A Babylonian Jewish Aramaic Magical Booklet from the Damascus Genizah 11*

continuous stretch of text is found in our folios 5–7, where the spell that
begins in 5b continues into 6a, 6b, 7a, and 7b, ending at the bottom of 7b.
Similarly, there is a clear textual continuity from 1b to 2a and then to 2b,
and from 3a to 3b and to 4a and 4b. On the other hand, some text is
probably missing before 1a, there seems to be a break between 2b and 3a,
and the continuity between 4b and 5a is far from certain. In such cases, one
may either try to re-order the folios in a way that would leave fewer gaps or
assume, as we do, that more folios are still missing in these places,
especially before 1a and between 2b and 3a. How long the original booklet
was we cannot say, nor can we reconstruct the structure of its quires, as
even its bifolia were dismembered before they were photographed.

One additional factor complicating the reconstruction and interpretation
of this set of magical texts is that only three of the recipes bear clear titles:
‫( לאהבה‬for love) in 2b:7, ‫( לשלוח אש‬lit., “for sending a fire,” i.e., for
aggressive magic) in 3a:3, and ‫( לשילטון‬for [appearing before] a governor)
in 5a:4. In all other cases, no titles are provided, and it often is unclear
where one recipe ends and the next begins. Unfortunately, the punctuation
marks used by the scribe do not seem to mark the beginnings or ends of the
magical recipes in any consistent manner or to separate the spells from the
ritual instructions that explain how to employ them. These difficulties are
compounded by the fact that a single textual unit may cover more than one
magical aim; for example, the long text that begins in folio 5b sets off
without any title or explanation (the previous recipe was “for [appearing
before] a governor” and ended at the bottom of 5a) and includes a long
spell for what is usually known as “opening the heart,” i.e., memorizing the
words of the Torah and the Talmud. But then, in 6b:5, we find the
connecting word ‫ותוב‬, “furthermore,” followed by a long spell for
protection against all types of demons, and in 7a:5 we move without any
apparent break to a second anti-demonic spell, which begins with ‫חתים‬
‫ומחתם‬, “sealed and counter-sealed,” and runs to 7b:6. Only then is the user
instructed to recite this adjuration on three (consecutive?) Fridays before