Jewish History (2012) 26: 247–262 DOI: 10.1007/s10835-012-9152-8 ‘Too holy to print’: taboo anxiety and the publishing of practical Hebrew esoterica J.H. CHAJES University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel E-mail: chajes11@gmail.com Abstract Not merely forbidden, magic was often constructed as a taboo in Jewish culture; its practice was restricted to particular persons while forbidden to general use. At once in- violable, sacred, and unlawful, magic is the object of what Freud called “holy dread.” That magic was taboo, however, does not mean that its adepts were viewed as evil or in rebellion against the authority of Jewish tradition. Magical adepts could be cultural heroes, and magical prowess so attractive and impressive that its attribution to rabbinic saints was a sine qua non of hagiographical traditions. Given this fraught status, the printing of Jewish magical materials could hardly have been anything but a complicated affair. This article explores some of the taboo-anxieties on display over the course of the history of the printed magical book in the Jewish world, exposing its tensions, ironies, and the interests of the various parties involved. “Magic attracts and at the same time repels.” Marcel Mauss 1 “[T]he barrier crossed by transgression...is one of repulsion and attraction, open and closed at the same time.” Michael Taussig 2 A story from the field: In the fall of 1995, while working on my disser- tation in Jerusalem, I learned that an important magical compendium by the seventeenth-century Rabbi Moses Zacuto, Shorshei ha-Shemot, had been published in the city. 3 Strangely, the book was unavailable in stores and could only be purchased directly from its publishers. I telephoned one of them, Rabbi Shraga Boyer, at his Har Nof residence, and he asked that we meet for an interview the following day at a street corner in Mekor Barukh, an Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood adjacent to shuk Mah . ane Yehuda, Jerusalem’s central market. At the appointed hour, I met Rabbi Boyer, and his business partner, Rabbi Shraga Eisenbach. The three of us had a congenial conversa- tion that lasted roughly ten minutes. The rabbis explained that it was their I dedicate this contribution to my friend, mentor, and University of Haifa colleague, Prof. Ken- neth Stow. I had the privilege to collaborate with Ken on a modest publication that touched upon the history of Jewish magic. See J.H. Chajes and Kenneth Stow, “The Scroll or Ge- nealogy of Ahimaaz ben Paltiel: Jewish Learning, Myth, and Ideals in an Uncertain Salentine World (1054),” in Medieval Italy: Texts in Translation, eds. K. Jansen et al. (Philadelphia, 2009), 508–513.