![]() Like a number of folk customs, it was absorbed into Sephardic Jewish culture in the lands where Jews and Muslims lived and worked side by side, and where it came to suggest the hand of God, or a talisman used to ward off the Evil Eye. ![]() According to one interpretation, the five fingers are meant to represent the five pillars of Islam (faith, fasting, pilgrimage, prayer and tithing). The “hand of Fatima” is a Muslim symbol, perhaps pagan before that, and possibly Christian. We have a wall of these hand-shaped amulets in our house - less for good luck or spiritual karma than to advertise our connection to Israel.īut to advertise what, exactly? The hamsa’s Jewish roots are slightly tenuous, or at least secondhand. The latest, which I picked up in May (along with a case of COVID - another story) is a lovely teal ceramic design from a workshop in the Golan Heights. ( JTA) - I tend to get to Israel every two or three years, and every time I come home with a hamsa.
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