Who Knows What Magic You Can Achieve? – A Gemara (Commentary) on Judaism Unbound Episode 345: When Jewish Meets Jewitch
This piece is a Judaism Unbound “Gemara” (commentary) on a Judaism Unbound podcast from a few weeks ago. It is a reflection, written by Catherine Horowitz, on a Judaism Unbound podcast episode (Episode 345: When Jewish Meets Jewitch - Ketzirah Lesser).
By Catherine Horowitz, New Voices/Judaism Unbound Fellow (2022-23)
You know those guys in the movie The Prince of Egypt who are played by Steve Martin and Martin Short? One is tall, one is short (weirdly, this is the one whose last name isn’t “Short”), and both are supposed to be court magicians. They’re always going around making fun of Moses and trying to out-magic him, but they’re only able to do simple, practical tricks while Moses is able to demonstrate the real power of God. I get some secondhand embarrassment during their song in the movie, every time, where you can see them focusing lights to create optical illusions and making shadow puppets with their hands. There’s also the scene where Moses turns the entire Nile into blood, and then the magicians create the illusion of blood by putting red powder into a bowl of water. Pathetic!
I found myself thinking about Hotep and Huy (the above two characters) as I listened to Episode 345 of Judaism Unbound, entitled “When Jewish Meets Jewitch,” which featured Ketzirah Lesser as guest. She argues – and Dan and Lex agree – that it’s time we move past the idea that magic is completely antithetical to Judaism.
For a few minutes at the end of the episode, Lesser, Dan, and Lex talk about the references to magic that already exist in Jewish texts but are instead called “miracles” or “wonders”—in Lex’s words, more “rational terms.” And here, Lex says, “I think in the Torah, Moses is actually doing a lot more than we think. We like to say that it’s God doing it through Moses—but I think Moses is kind of a superpowered force in the Torah.”
The Prince of Egypt and the actual book of Exodus both make it clear that Moses himself isn’t supposed to be the one creating snakes or blood or frogs: instead, he’s channeling God’s power. Pharaoh’s magicians even remark on this in Exodus; they are able to replicate the first few of the ten plagues, but eventually they fall short and claim that “this is the finger of God.” In the movie, when Moses turns his staff into a snake, he says the same thing, very unambiguously: “Behold, the power of God.” I had never considered the alternative option: that Moses had his own set of magic powers in these stories, which enabled him to cause these miraculous events himself.
If I knew nothing about Judaism, though, Moses being a magician would make total sense to me. To start, he already carries his staff around with him at all times, and uses it for most of his tasks that shouldn’t be achievable by humans. His staff (magic wand, much?) can turn into a snake. It created water from a rock, parted the Red Sea, and created a hail storm. Honestly it sounds like something straight out of Lord of the Rings. And it’s not just the staff. Moses and Aaron also employ a few other magic techniques, like throwing handfuls of soot into the air to cause boils, or stretching out an arm to bring a swarm of locusts.
This understanding of biblical figures as magicians isn’t new, either. I’m in an art history class this semester, and in my class we’ve discussed art from the 4th century depicting biblical figures as magicians, with magic wands. This sort of art was common at the time, and mainly featured magic because of how frequently it was talked about in daily life. Using magic in biblical art was not only acceptable; it anchored the work in the world around it.
We’ve learned about both Christian and Jewish depictions of Moses as a magician – his staff as a magic wand, and the plagues as a magic competition between him and the Egyptian sorcerers. I’d never heard anyone treat Biblical stories as, well, basically witchcraft, but after engaging with these works of art, I realized they really made a lot of sense, given the text that they were illustrating.
So, what are the implications of this? Sure, maybe we can start saying “magic” instead of “miracle” to talk about Jewish rituals and texts—but what would it really mean if humans had the ability to do magic, not just God? How does this change the narratives we’ve been told and, more importantly, what we take away from them?
One takeaway, potentially, is some amount of empowerment —those “miraculous” biblical events we learn about and study aren’t completely separate from our lives today. They are parts of the human world, something that we’ve achieved before and could even achieve again. Even if you don't believe in the literal magic of the book of Exodus, the idea that today's Judaism is a kind of magic, as well, frames it in a much more active way: Judaism is something we can go out and make instead of just receiving it from the past — or talking about it.
The most famous part of The Prince of Egypt, the song “When You Believe,” even includes this idea in its chorus: “who knows what miracles you can achieve?” If we replace that more rational term – “miracle” – with “magic,” the question becomes: who knows what magic you can achieve? We should take that question seriously, and answer it with real chutzpah and ambition.
Catherine Horowitz is a senior at Oberlin College studying English and Jewish Studies. At Oberlin, she works at the Writing Center, writes for a creative nonfiction magazine, and is a tour guide. She is originally from Silver Spring, Maryland and is the 2022-23 Judaism Unbound/New Voices fellow.
