The Maccabaean

THIS is the way a person, afflicted with a serious disease, had his name changed in order to frustrate the machinations of the Angel of Death: The interested parties went to the synagogue, opened the Ark, said various Psalms and then opened a Prayer Book or a Bible in a chance manner, and selected for the patient a new name commencing with the letter which they found on the top of the page. A prayer was then offered to the following effect: "It has pleased the Almighty to utter a decree of mortal illness concerning N.N. (here the name of the patient was given). We do not presume to ask that Providence shall alter its decree, but now we have changed his name to M. M. (here follows the new name), that person has ceased to exist, and we implore the Divine protection for the new person." This was not the exact wording, but it was what it amounted to. The assumption was that it would be an effrontery to ask Providence to alter a decree already made, but that the name being altered and the person being now someone else, his case might be considered de novo. The idea of the efficacy of a change of name in view of impending calamity shows itself in this occasional superstitious procedure. But the student of the elements of superstition in Jewish ceremonial finds that when once calamity has taken place, there is a distinct tendency in old Jewish ideas to avert further disaster by a change of place on the part of the person or persons affected

It is usual for people who have lost relatives to occupy, during the year of mourning, a seat in synagogue other than their own. It has become a matter of synagogue ritual for mourners attending synagogue on the first Sabbath after their bereavement, to occupy quite special seats set apart for that purpose. Why is this? The ordinary enquirer can get nothing better than the ordin-

ary answer which is that it has to be done. The student of Jewish superstitions, however, discovers that the idea is that, by changing his seat, the mourner can escape being further pursued by the evil fate which has found him in his ordinary place and which may look for him there again. He, therefore, changes his place in the synagogue not as a sign of mourning, but, originally, as a prophylactic. The original idea was that the evil influence, whatever it may have been, would look for the victim of its persecution in the old place, and not finding him, would go away disappointed. Evidently those who believed in this superstition credited the evil fate with more malignity than common sense. The same thing shows itself in reference to the case where a person loses a child for the first time. We are at once told that he must not attend the funeral of the first of his children who dies. I have known many instances where a parent has been perplexed by the horrified injunctions of "those who know" against his attending the cemetery on such an occasion. He cannot understand why nor do they. But every body has to be content with the traditional injunction that "it is not to be done."

Again the student of Jewish superstition is able to throw light upon this custom. The idea was that the evil influences having been at work in this man's family, may mark him out at the funeral and cast some further evil spell upon him. The evil destiny naturally expects to see him at the funeral and waits for him there. Not finding him, however, nothing happens and the spell is broken. This is the sole reason underlying the custom which prohibits a parent following the funeral of the first child that he loses. Like the change of place in the synagogue on the part of the mourner, it is superstitious pure and simple.