In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

12 The Coin from the Collection Box of Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes T O L D B Y S H L O M O YA L O Z T O R I V K A H. A Y Y U N AChristian woman came to Rabbi H.ayyim Smadja, who was a rabbi in one of the towns of Tunisia, and gave him a large sum of money for the collection box of Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes. Rabbi H.ayyim Smadja was very puzzled why a Christian woman would give money for Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes, and he asked her: “Why do you send money to Rabbi Meir?” The Christian woman told him: “During the First World War, when my only son was recruited into the army, my Jewish neighbor said to me: ‘Here, have a coin from the collection box of Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes, and give it to your son for him to wear it around his neck as an amulet, until he returns from the army.’ “When my son returned from the army,” the Christian woman continued , “he showed me the coin with a gun bullet hole in it. The coin blocked the enemy bullet and it did not penetrate my son’s body. It was then that I began to make donations to the collection box of Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes.” 85  86  Folktales of the Jews: Volume 1 COMMENTARY FOR TALE 12 (IFA 9158) Rivka H.ayyun recorded the tale from Shlomo Yaloz.1 Cultural, Historical, and Literary Background For a discussion of Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes see notes to tale IFA 8391. In Jewish folk-religion amulets draw their magical power from the sanctioned texts and letters that are inscribed on paper or parchment and then inserted in them. This is magic of literacy in which words, names, and letters have magical power. The amulets contain biblical verses in a variety of orders. This kind of magic contrasts with amulets of nonliterate peoples; such amulets contain natural substances that have symbolic values.2 In the present tale, the coin, a nonmagical object, transforms into an amulet, obtaining protective abilities through its dedication to the memory of a saintly person. However, its protective power manifests itself literally rather than magically . It saved the person not by extending a magic protective shield over him but by actually standing between the individual and the bullet. In a similar tale, the amulet itself saves an individual in a like manner (IFA 6031: The Holy Amulet of Rabbi Shalom Shar‘abi).3 Folktale Types • 839*C (IFA) “Miraculous Rescue of Person.” Folklore Motifs • D1252 “Magic metal.” • D1288 “Magic coin.” • cf. D1500.1.10.3 “Money from offertory as cure.” • D1392 “Magic object saves owner from death.” __________ Notes __________ 1. First published in D. Noy, A Tale for Each Month 1971, 38 no. 5. 2. For studies and descriptions of Jewish amulets see Davis and Frenkel, The Hebrew Amulet; Schrire, Hebrew Magical Amulets; Shachar, Jewish Tradition in Art, 237–317; and Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition, 132–152. 3. Published in Seri, The Holy Amulet, 37 no. 8. 12 / The Coin from the Collection Box  86  ...

Share