Cambridge University Press Association For Jewish Studies

Ayin Ha-Ra: The Evil Eye in the Bible and in Rabbinic Literature by Rivka Ulmer
Review by: Alan J. Yuter

AJS Review, Vol. 21, No. 1 (1996), pp. 151-153
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486666 .
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BOOKREVIEWS 151
PLO visas when visiting the WesternWall "hasmuch to teachus" (p. 258).
(He immediatelyreassuresthe reader:"Thisis not to be taken,of course,as
an uncriticalaffirmationof all aspectsof NatoreiKartasociety,specifically
theirgenderpractices"[p. 337, n. 45]). In thepenultimatechapterof thebook,
Boyarincarefullyexamines recentGermantheologicalantisemitismand its
relationto the Nazis. Yet in his last chapterBoyarininsists,"Inorder. .. to
preservethe positiveethical,politicalvalueof Jewishgenealogyas a modeof
identity,Jews mustpreservetheirsubalternstatus"(p. 242). Herehe invokes
the rabbisas models who "renounced[the land] until the finalRedemption,
becausein an unredeemedworld,temporaldominionandethnicparticularity
are ... impossiblycompromised"(p. 256). I find this astonishing.To claim
thatthe rabbisvoluntarilyrenouncedthe landout of anxietyaboutthe results
of powerandethnicparticularism is historicallywrongheaded;
to insistat this
point in the twentiethcenturythatthe best coursefor Jews is powerlessness
is nothingless thanmorallyirresponsible.
MarthaHimmelfarb
Princeton
University
N.J.
Princeton,
Rivka Ulmer. Ayin Ha-Ra: The Evil Eye in the Bible and in Rabbinic
Literature.Hoboken,N.J.: Ktav, 1994. x, 213 pp.
RivkaUlmer'sstudyof the evil eye in rabbinicliteratureoffersa thorough

summaryof the passagesin rabbinicliteraturewhichemploytheterm,as well
as of its semanticantecedentsin HebrewScripture.She examinesthemeaning
of "evileye" and"goodeye," often suggestingpsychologicalunderstandings.
While she has consultedpsychological,historical,andfolkloreresearch,she
rarelyapplies the methodologyof these disciplinesin the explicationof her
literarydata. After summarizingsignificantpassages,she usually offers an
impressionisticreactionto the meaningof eye imageryin thepassageat hand.
Following (but not citing) the methodologicalterminologyof Jacob
Neusner,Ulmer argues that "the system of rabbinicJudaismis a religious
one dealing with God's attributes,emanations,and laws" (p. viii), and she
arguesthat the evil eye went unexaminedin rabbinicJudaismbecause, to
her view, the rabbisdid not believe that the eye had power independentof
divine control.Ulmerdoes not examinethe use of eye imageryin the ancient
Near East, where the eye, sight, and the spokenword are all understoodto

152 BOOK REVIEWS
possess power.Ulmer also imposes a medievalrationalistframeworkupon

the rabbinicliterarycorpus,for she presumesthat the rabbisof all periods
spoke with one voice, articulateda single rationaltheology,and possessed
a monochromeview of the world. While the mysticaltraditionin Judaism
spoke of "emanations,"the rabbinicsystem did not. RabbinicJudaismdoes
not deal with divine attributes,or "predicates,"which are a concern of
medievalepistemology.Ulmerhas not appliedthe folkloreresearchfindings
ormethodologiesof Dov Noy or DanBen Amoz,or theimplicationsof culture
realiaof Daniel Sperber'sresearch.While thorough,she does not presenta
scientificexplicationof the evil eye phenomenonin rabbinicliterature.
After suggesting that the use of the "eye" is a metaphorof intent in
HebrewScripture,Ulmer contendsthat the notion of an evil or benevolent
eye possessing power is a Mediterranean phenomenon.In pointof fact, the
biblical and Babylonianface serves a function similarto that of the eye
as viewed by the rabbis.The shiningface of Shamashis a sourceof order
and legal vindication,'the radianceof the Lord'sface in HebrewScripture
(Numb 6:24-26) is taken to be a source of blessing for Israel, while the
biblicalhiding of the face (Deut 32:20), takenby the latertraditionto be a
withdrawalof providentialcare, indicatesdivine displeasure.Populartaste
andbelief are sometimestranslatedinto folk idiomswhichcolorthe religious
applicationsof the exoteric normativeliterarycanon.The manyeyes of the
angel of death,like the manyeyes of the 'ofanim,reflectubiquityas well as
power.Ulmer does not distinguishbetweenmetaphor,meaning,and actual
belief, and she does not offer any methodologicalmeans of examiningthe
relationshipsbetween levels of meaning.On one hand, she concedes that
the Angel of Death image appearsregularlyin the Hekhalotliteraturebut
only once in the BabylonianTalmud.The place of the Hekhalotwritings
in normative,or "Formative"(Ulmer'sterm,borrowed,againuncited,from
Neusner),Judaismshouldhave been examinedat this point.By leaving the
genre of "rabbinicliterature"undefined,Ulmer again gives the readerthe
confusingimpressionthat the Judaismsof the Mishnah,MidrashTehillim,
the BabylonianTalmud,and the Hekhalotrepresentone consistentwhole,
wroughtof one seamless conceptualcloth. After suggestingthat Balaam's
evil eye had to be closed to obviatehis using his poweragainstIsrael,Ulmer
1. Wapamnzis the Akkadian equivalent of the Hebrew root yp', which means "to appear";
the Akkadian causative ?iGpameans "to shine," and is often associated with the shining justice
of Shamash.

BOOK
REVIEWS 153
contendsthatthe "rabbisgenerallyunderstoodBalaam'spowerto use an evil

eye as an evil characteristicthatshouldnot imitated"(p. 121). However,the
blindingof Balaam (shetumha-'ayin [Numb24:3], takento be "of closed
eye" in the singularin B. Niddah31a) may be betterunderstoodas a divine
withdrawalof a gift abused.Further,the "rabbis"to whom Ulmerrefersare
not adequatelydefined.Thereis no attemptto associatethe evil eye with a
school of thought,geography,or literaryform.
Rivka Ulmer has done a greatdeal of researchin assemblingand orga-
nizingthe varioustexts regardingthe "evileye," andfor this worthyexercise
she is to be commended.She was a visiting scholarat Brown, where she
apparentlylearnedthe terminologyand methodologyof JacobNeusner.But
accordingto Neusner,a documentmustbe studiedfirstin orderto determine
its message, and then it must be examinedas an exemplarof its genre,and
finallyit must be readin contextof the history,literature,andmindsetof its
age. Subsequentscholarshipin the field musttakeinto accountthe historical
situationof the texts which use the idiom, the natureof the variousgenres
of Jewish writingin late antiquityand the early MiddleAges, and how the
idiom and idea, with its philological,semantic,and thematicrange,is used
in cognate languagesand neighboringcultures.A structuraland/orfolklore
analysis of the narrativesin which the idiom occurs would help to define
the context of the idiom as it moved from biblical to rabbinic(as well as
Christianand pagan)literaturesandcultures.
AlanJ. Yuter
TouroCollege
NewYork,N.Y.
Martha Himmelfarb. Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and ChristianApocalypses.

New York:OxfordUniversityPress, 1993. xii, 171 pp.
It wouldbe clever,butnotveryaccurate,to representMarthaHimmelfarb's

Ascent to Heaven as a companion volume to her Toursof Hell: An Apocalyptic
Form in Jewish and Christian Literature (Philadelphia, 1983). The two
books are in fact quite dissimilar.In Toursof Hell, Himmelfarbrescued
from obscurity an ill-studied apocalypticgenre; and, throughmeticulous
examinationof detail, tracedout the relationshipsamong the sources that
representit. The result was a fundamentalwork of scholarship,to which
anyoneinterestedin these disagreeablebut importanttexts has no choice but


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Ayin Ha-Ra: The Evil Eye in the Bible and in Rabbinic Literature by Rivka Ulmer

Review by: Alan J. Yuter

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.145 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 13:21:08 PM

RivkaUlmer'sstudyof the evil eye in rabbinicliteratureoffersa thorough

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.145 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 13:21:08 PM

possess power.Ulmer also imposes a medievalrationalistframeworkupon

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.145 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 13:21:08 PM

contendsthatthe "rabbisgenerallyunderstoodBalaam'spowerto use an evil

Martha Himmelfarb. Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and ChristianApocalypses.

It wouldbe clever,butnotveryaccurate,to representMarthaHimmelfarb's

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.145 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 13:21:08 PM

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