How a Kabbalist Accidentally Became an Arsonist: A True Tale of the Rabbi who Burned Down the Jewish Ghetto of Frankfurt in 1711 🔥🧵 By 1704, when he was invited to become Chief Rabbi of Frankfurt, Rabbi Naphtali Katz had gained renown throughout Ashkenaz as a Ba'al Shem—a shamanic healer, amulet writer, and kabbalist.

No Jewish symbol is more misunderstood than the Magen David, "The Star of David." A thread on the actual connection between the Magen David & Jewish magic: Its magical origins are obscured by the English phrase, "The Star of David," which is a poor translation of Magen David. Magen = "shield." It is a symbol of a shield, not a star. Nowhere in Jewish literature do we find the phrase "kochav David." It is the "Shield of David."

Is this actually how Ezekiel’s angelic creatures were imagined?
Well, it depends who you ask—medieval Jews or medieval Christians.
An illuminated thread.
[CGI by Spectrum Cinema]

In 1331 Nicholas of Lyra claimed that Jews & Christians imagine Ezekiel’s angels differently: “In order to grasp the imaginative vision of Ezekiel, I have placed here figures according to the description of the Latins and also of the Hebrews” (“Postilla litteralis”).

Did an ancient group of renegade Jews invent a secret alphabet to hide something?
A Story of Discovery & Scholarship
Thread Seventy-five years ago, a treasure trove of scrolls from an ancient sect is discovered near the banks of the Dead Sea & revolutionizes what we know about Jews in Greco-Roman Palestine. The story of those scrolls is fairly well-known.