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310 Augury

days between New-year and 1he Day of Atonement, light it in a house where there is no draft; if the candle burn to the socket, that one will live the year through. In order to know if some matter of business will succeed, one must feed a hen if she grow In fat and plump, the matter in hand will succeed. order to know if one will return home from a journey, one must go into a dark room, and if one see there the "shadow of the shadow." one will return. The Talmud discourages, however, recourse to these oracles given by R. Ami, as a person becomes lowspirited if they are unfavorable (Ker. 5b, bottom Hor. 12k)- The first form of Augury reminds of

and



pyromancy



the second, of the feeding of chickens

"tripudium " of the Romans). In the Middle Ages It may be said in general that -the philosophers were averse to Augury, as well as to any other form of superstition. This is true especially of Maimonides, who, although bound (the



by the Talmudic tradition, was not inclined to make any concessions on this point (Hilk. 'Ab. Zarah xi. The Talmudists, again, for whom the Tal4, 5). mud was the decisive authority, could not accept Hence all the utterances and stories found therein. a curious discrepancy between theory and practise arose, as indeed is found in the Talmud itself. While, on the one hand, everything that at all suggests idolatry is strictly forbidden, much, on the other hand, is

still

practised in Slavonia at his time.

which to-day is so much practised in Israel," and declares that the choosing of a day

Germany

(for instance, starting children in their

schooling only on the new moon) is He admits, however, that there are certain reliable signs, of which he would rather not speak in order not to lead others into Thus the itching of the foot indicates superstition. that one will go to an unknown place of the ears, that one will hear something new of the eye, that one will see or read something new; of the hand, that one will receive money (Gudemann, I.e. i. 200 et This superstition is so firmly seq. §§ 59 and 162). rooted as to be given credence to-day. An}' one who, during the night or the day, sees his own shadow or form with closed mouth and eyes will die soon (I.e.

and France,

idolatry.





,

g 547). R. Moses of Coucy (about 1250) explains DDp D'DDP (Deut. xviii. 10) to be a form of divination

Slivers of

wood, from which the bark had been removed on one side, were thrown into the air, and according as they fell on the peeled or on the barked side, the omen was favorable or unfavorable. Flames leaping up on the hearth indicated that a guest was coming. Cup and nail divination was practised. Children were made to look into glasses filled with water, into crystals, etc. while invoking a demon, the pictures they saw being then interpreted. For nail divination the children looked upon the finger-nail (Gudemann, I.e. %% 82 and 208, note 1). Asher ben Jehiel thought it permissible to find out a thief by means of divination (Yoreh De'ah, 179), a proceeding that ,

elsewhere is described in detail (Gudemann, I.e. % 208, note 1). In France and Germany in the thirteenth century the future was foretold by means of the "

name of interpretation

"

(

"

shem ha-meforash

"),

a species of the name of God, to the astonishment of the Spaniard Nahmanides (I.e. % 222).

The book "Nishmat Hayyim," by Manasseh ben a celebrated Dutch rabbi, is a mine of infor-

Israel,

mation respecting all kinds of superstition. Although a highly educated man, well versed in the knowledge of his time, one who could even enter into negotiations with Cromwell regarding Nishmat the return of the Jews to England, the Hayyim." author believed in every superstition. '

'

In the nineteenth chapter of the third

permitted, or practised in spite of the interdiction,

probably in consequence of overwhelming popular opinion (see Tur and Shulhan 'Aruk, Yoreh De'ah. 178-179, together with the commentaries). Expressly heathenish practises, however, were mercilessly condemned. The mystics readily accepted all such beliefs, since all superstitious practises coincided with Moreover, a part of the their views of the world. people could never wean itself from these views. As Gudemann has shown in his "Gesch. der Cultur der Juden in Frankreich und Deutschland," the Jews of Europe were greatly influenced by the superstitions of the peoples in the midst of whom they were living. A few examples only may here be given. Judah the Pious (died 1216 atRegensburg), who was highly venerated by his contemporaries, and especially during the thirteenth century, gives in his " Book of the Pious " a mass of superstitions. He condemns on the whole the "interpretation of signs,

310

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aug-usti

book he rejects the opinion of Maimonides, who declared all the black arts to be lies and deceptions, and refers for the veracity of rhabdomancy even to the Chinese and the wild Africans. He knows the kinds of divination mentioned above, and speaks also of chiromancy and others. The cabalistic works, to which Manasseh's book betreatise of his

longs, include of course also other directions for fore-

even to-day and among persons given to In Baden, Germany, coins and beans are

telling the future, a practise that obtains

among

the uneducated

mysticism. used, the diviner prognosticating according to their position and the stamp on the coins. An earlier form of divination, for finding a drowned person, was to let a wooden bowl float on the water. Wherever it stopped, the corpse lay on the bottom (Griinwald, "Mitteilungen," i. 111). On pagan methods of prognostication (nat i^ xh v ), see DIVINATION.

Bibliography

Winer, B. R. ii. 672 Hamburger, R. B. T. supplement 3; A. Dillmann, Handbuch der Alttestamentlichcn Thcolngic, Leipsic, 1895; R. Smend, Lehrhuch der Alttestamcntliehen Rcligionxgesch. 1st ed., 1893, 2d ed.,



iii.,

W. Duvies, Magic, Divinatietn, rind Demonotogu, London and Leipsie, 1899; D. Joel, Der Ahcrglaube und die Stelluny ties Judc nthums zu Demselben, Breslau, 1881; L. Blau, Das Altjlldinelic Zauberwesen, Strasburg, 1898 Giidemann, Gesch. der Cultur der Juden in Frankreich und Deutschland, Vienna, 1880; Lenormant, Die Magic und Wahrsagcrei der ChaldUer; Daremberg-Saglio, Dictiunnaire des Antiquites Greertnes et Romaines, i. 550; PaulyWissowa, Rcal-EncyMnpUdie der Ciaxsischen AUcrthums1899; T.



wisxensehaft, E. B. Tylor,

k.

ii. 2313; Ennemoser, Gesch. der Magie, p. 142; Primitive Culture, s.v. Augury. L. B.

AUGUSTA

The capital of Richmond county, Georgia, received its first Jewish settlers about 1825, when a Mr. Florence arrived with his wife. About a year later, Isaac and Jacob Moise and Isaac Hendricks and his wife came there from Charleston their number was added to by others from the same place, and subsequent to 1844 Jews from Germany began