A thread on Jewish incantations, rituals, and anxieties, related to memory in late antiquity and the early medieval period. 1/24

There were two main incantations for improved memory and learning capacity, one known as “opening the heart”, and the other as “Prince of Torah” praxis. While the former has some parallels in other magical traditions, I know of no parallels to the latter. 2

The genre of Jewish memory spells known as “opening the heart” (Petiḥat Lev) are so named because they seek to “open the heart” of the client, that is, provide them with a spongier more acquisitive brain to facilitate their studies. 3

These incantations often invoke Pataḥiel, the angel of opening (Patah), the least subtly named angel after Ahaviel, the angel of love (Ahavah) magic. 4

Often, “opening the heart” spells are to be performed while reciting Havdalah (“separating”), the liturgical practice marking the conclusion of the Sabbath and the start of the profane week. Apparently, you needed a “booster shot” of “open the heart” incantation each week. 5

Whether to be performed while reciting Havdalah or not, these spells involve imbibing generous quantities of wine. This conforms with rabbinic statements that list among the five things that restore one’s learning “frequent indulgence in wine & spices” (Bavli Horayot 13b). 6

“Opening the Heart” spells speak to an anxiety, especially prominent in rabbinic literature, that one might forget their (often taxing) studies, squandering sacred knowledge. These anxieties were intensified by the ever-expanding materials to memorize. 7

Rabbis warned students to remain diligent, because “words of Torah are as difficult to acquire as gold, and as easy to destroy as glass vessels” (Sifre Devarim 48). As we saw above, they also prescribed specialized diets intended to improve memory and knowledge acquisition. 8

In addition, Rabbis employed a range of mnemonics, heuristic devices, and memory techniques. One rabbi instructs: “You should always gather the words of Torah together into general rules, for if you assemble them as individual details, they will weary you.” 9

(For a great thread on memory techniques in the medieval Islamic medical tradition, see @elainevdalen's great thread: https://twitter.com/elainevdalen/status/1252667030123220993?s=21). 10

While opening the heart is undoubtedly a Jewish product, other magical traditions similarly facilitate knowledge acquisition, such as the Greek Magical Papyri (incidentally, the use of specialized inks in spells is worth investigating @joumajnouna !). 11

By contrast, the “Prince of Torah” tradition is, to my knowledge, unique in ancient magic. The Prince of Torah, named after the angel, or prince, who guards all Torah knowledge, is undoubtedly informed by “Opening the Heart” incantations, and the same anxieties therein. 12

It is part and parcel of late antique Jewish mystical texts known as “Hekhalot,” or Palaces, which describe (and instruct) visionary ascensions to the heavenly firmaments. The Prince of Torah practicalizes this framework for the sake of knowledge acquisition. 13

It also incorporates practices typical of magic and Jewish mystical literature, e.g. invocation of angelic names, angelic roles, angelic hierarchy, and the necessary spells and seals to control them. But the method by which it facilitates knowledge acquisition is distinct. 14

The Prince of Torah refers to a complicated interrelated group of texts that provide historiola, incantations and rituals that allow the practitioner, who maintains proper material abstention, invokes the proper angels, and so on, to acquire all sacred knowledge in an instant. 15

That is, this is not about knowledge retention but its immediate and total acquisition: “When he completes the twelve, he will go forth to all the principles of Torah that he seeks, whether to Bible or to Mishnah or to the vision of the chariot.” 16

The Prince of Torah traditions therefore offer a radically unique perspective on the Torah and the pious practices associated with it: The Torah is a complete, finite corpus of knowledge. It is not expanding. The main goal is to possess it, and not its study. 17

As a result of the Prince of Torah's proximity to Hekhalot literature,& its unique perspective on the acquisition of the Torah, scholars have speculated at some length about the social location of its authors, identified as ignorant Jews, or synagogue or academy functionaries. 18

These explanations therefore posit that the Prince of Torah was the product of Jews who were not rabbis seeking to climb the Jewish social ladder despite not having the means or access to “proper” rabbinic instruction and methods of knowledge acquisition. 19

Personally, I remain unconvinced; given widely attested rabbinic anxieties about memory and forgetting, given the value placed on Torah, including rabbinic texts, figures, and teachings, it is just as likely (in theory) that a group of rabbis produced the Prince of Torah. 20

Whatever explanation we adopt, we need to avoid assumed evaluation that the “Prince of Torah” practice is “cheating” and therefore could not be produced by rabbis or learned Jews. Perhaps, instead it exposes a variety of views and practices among rabbis concerning the Torah. 21

The “Opening of the heart” and the “Prince of Torah” practices therefore both reveal the deep anxiety among ancient Jews that they might forget & not fully acquire Torah knowledge. 22

Yet they also expose two facets related to the study the Torah and its acquisition that hold true, I find, for any scholastic endeavor: that there is both a journey (study) and a destination (knowledge acquisition). 23/fin

Addendum: The prerequisites for Prince of Torah are a kind of ancient social distancing:
"He who would bind himself to the Prince of Torah.. must enter & dwell for twelve days in a room or in an upper chamber. He may not go out & he may not come in, & he must not eat or drink..."