An Open Letter from Jewish Students at Columbia
8 min read
Does this popular accessory really protect us from the evil eye?
Red strings are a popular symbol of Jewish identity. It’s not uncommon for tourists to buy red strings in Israel from street vendors and return home with one tied around their wrists for luck or protection.
The custom goes back generations. I remember my grandmother tying a roite bendel - Yiddish for red ribbon - to my coat to “keep away the evil eye”. An acquaintance told me that her synagogue gift shop sells red strings; she’d been told they were blessed by a rabbi.
There’s a lot of superstition around red strings, and more than a little hokum. Here’s the lowdown on its history and meaning – and meaninglessness – of red strings, and some advice on how to “keep away the evil eye”.
The concept of ayin hara – an evil eye – is found throughout Jewish literature and conveys something deeper about human nature. The 2nd Century sage Rabbi Eliezer was once asked to name the most important priorities for each of us to develop. His reply was to strive to develop “a good eye” – to find something positive to nurture and encourage in everyone they meet and look upon everyone with tolerance and patience (Ethics of the Fathers, 2:13).
The opposite is to look with an ayin hara, finding fault and fostering hatred instead. The first time the Torah mentions an “evil eye” is in Deuteronomy, when Moses warns the nation of Israel what will come from fomenting negativity and resentment: “Beware lest there be a lawless thought in your heart…and you will look malevolently upon your destitute brother and refuse to give him” the charity that he needs (Deuteronomy 15:9). The implication is clear: when you look at people negatively, you fail to notice their needs and close our hearts to them.
When you brag about your good fortune in any way, that raises a question in the Divine realm: do you really deserve all this luck?
You can also invoke an “evil eye” response from others by how you behave. If you brag and draw attention to the ways in which you’ve been blessed with material or other types of success, you risk provoking envy – and even hatred – in others.
That envy can affect you in the Heavens, as well. The Torah teaches that everything you possess comes from God; He ultimately decides how wealthy, how talented, how “lucky” you will be. When you brag about your good fortune in any way, that raises a question in the Divine realm: do you really deserve all this luck? Drawing the envy and attention of others can boomerang back on you, leading you to lose the good fortune you flaunted. The “evil eye” isn’t a malevolent force that evil people can channel; it’s a cosmic system of fairness where showing off and taking your blessings for granted harms you in the long run.
In ancient times, there are some records of Jews trying to avoid being harmed by the jealousy of others through magical means, such as putting their fingers together in specific positions or reciting a certain verse. The Talmud even talks about some Jews tying red strings around their fingers in order to ward off the evil eye – and warns it’s a pagan custom which Jews shouldn’t do (Tosefta Shabbat 7:1).
Rav Pappa, a 4th Century Jewish leader, pointed out that believing in God, not magic, is a core Jewish tenet. He quoted the pagan prophet Balak’s words about the Jewish people: “For there is no enchantment with (the people descended from) Jacob, nor is there any divination with Israel (Numbers 23:23). Rav Pappa then noted “This verse indicates that spells do not affect the Jewish people” (Talmud Pesachim 111a). Wise advice.
It’s a Jewish value to live modestly, which includes not being overly flashy and to not flaunt your wealth and good fortune.
In modern times, some Jews say bli ayin hara – literally, “without (giving an) evil eye” when they praise someone, the idea being that one doesn’t want to arouse anyone’s jealousy or resentment by pointing out another’s good fortune. It’s a Jewish value to live modestly, which includes not being overly flashy and to not flaunt your wealth and good fortune.
There are a few mentions of red strings in the Torah, though they have nothing to do with warding off an evil eye. When the Biblical figure Tamar was giving birth to twins, one of the twins’ hands was visible first. It was very important to Tamar to know which of her children emerged from her womb first, so her midwife tied a red thread around the wrist of that twin (Genesis 38:27-30).
In ancient times, on Yom Kippur, the High Priest would take two goats. One was sacrificed in the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The other one had a red ribbon tied around one of its horns and was sent away to the wilderness south of Jerusalem. Later on, when the goat was found, if the red ribbon had turned white, that was an indication that the prayers of the Jewish people had been successful and their sins forgiven.
A red ribbon shows up again in the story of the Jewish conquest of Jericho. After a friendly Jericho prostitute named Rahab aided two Jewish spies, they promised that she and her family would be kept safe during the forthcoming Jewish conquest of the city. So that the Jewish fighters would know which house was hers, the spies instructed Rahab to affix a red cord to her window (Joshua 2:18).
No Jewish writings draw any such connection between these stories and the supposed powers of wearing a red string today.
These stories are sometimes used to give a Jewish stamp of approval on the red string superstition. But no Jewish writings draw any such connection between these stories and the supposed powers of wearing a red string today.
The practice of wearing a red string got a big boost in the late 1800s, after the tomb of the Biblical matriarch Rachel got a major renovation and became a popular pilgrimage site.
Rachel is one of the most beautiful figures in the Torah. Born into an immoral, idol-worshiping home, Rachel nonetheless became a modest, God-fearing young woman.
She married her cousin Jacob, and exemplified piety, modesty, kindness, and faith. Rachel died in childbirth as her family traveled to Jerusalem, and she was buried south of the city, near present-day Bethlehem.
The prophet Jeremiah described Rachel weeping one day and praying for her people, as the national of Israel was exiled from their land, and fled, walking along the very road next to Rachel’s final resting place. “Thus said God: A voice is heard on high, wailing, bitter weeping, Rachel weeps for her children; she refuses to be consoled for her children, for they are gone” from their home (Jeremiah 31:14). Jewish tradition teaches that because of Rachel’s pleading, God will one day relent, and end our exile.
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For generations, Jews made their way to Rachel’s tomb to pray. In the late 1800s, the British Jewish philanthropists Sir Moses and Lady Judith Montefiore renovated Rachel’s tomb and built a beautiful synagogue next to it. At the time, the Jewish population of the Land of Israel was exploding, and Rachel’s Tomb became a popular destination to go to pray and pour one’s heart out to the Divine. Around this time, people began performing a very peculiar ritual with red string in the tomb. Avraham Shmuel Hershberg visited the tomb about the year 1900 and described it as extremely crowded with both men and women. “And there are those who stand and measure strings around the tomb. These strings are used afterwards for healing the sick.” (Quoted in Rachel’s Tomb: The Development of a Cult, by Susan Starr Sered. Jewish Studies Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2 [1995], pp. 103-148.)
It became a popular practice to wind a spool of red string or ribbon around Rachel’s tomb (some practitioners insist it must be wound seven times). The string was then thought to have magical properties. If there is such a thing as an “authentic” Jewish red string, it’s one that underwent this hocus-pocus at Rachel’s tomb. (How many of the “magic” red strings for sale in Israel and around the world were ever in Rachel’s tomb is anybody’s guess.)
Israeli researcher Dr. Elly Teman has noted that wearing a red string has become much more popular within the past few decades, both in Israel and in Jewish communities abroad. (See The Red String: A Cultural History of a Jewish Folk Symbol by Elly Teman. Jewish Cultural Studies, Bronner, SJ, ed. [2008), pp. 28-57.)
The Torah, however, makes it clear that Jews must stay clear from magic and superstition (see Deut. 18:9). If you want to wear a red string around your wrist because you think it looks nice, go right ahead. Just don’t expect it to have any more significance, power, or meaning than any other jewelry you wear.
If you truly wish to avoid the evil eye, nearly 3,000 years ago the prophet Micah gave a surefire formula for how to do it: “What does God require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
Live simply, and instead of focusing on what you have concentrate on what you can do for others. That’s way more powerful than donning a red string.
