The Hamsa and Protective Customs

Scholars disagree about where the hamsa began. Open hands appear in very ancient art, including Paleolithic cave art in Algeria, and in symbols of the ancient Mediterranean world. A large carved hand marks the fourteenth century Gate of Judgment at the Alhambra in Spain. Over time the open hand became a shared language of protection, with many details:

• The number five. Khamsa means “five” in Arabic, and the number was associated with turning away the evil eye. Some hamsas are symmetrical, with a thumb on each side.
• Fish. The Talmud teaches that the descendants of Joseph are protected from the evil eye just as fish are hidden under water (Berakhot 55b). Fish became a favorite design on Jewish hamsas.
• Color. Blue and red were both said to keep the evil eye away.
• Hebrew words. Jewish hamsas may carry Hebrew verses, blessings, or the divine name Shaddai, whose first letter, shin, some linked to the shape of the hand.

What is the “evil eye”?

The evil eye, ayin hara in Hebrew, is the belief that a jealous or admiring look can cause harm. Many cultures around the Mediterranean and beyond have held versions of this belief.

Rabbinic texts discuss it too. The Talmud advises against staring at a neighbor's ripening field, and offers a protective gesture for someone who fears the evil eye when entering a new city.

Jewish families developed many customs in response, from wearing amulets to saying a protective phrase. In Israel, people sometimes say “khamsa, khamsa, khamsa” for the same purpose.

Amulets. A Jewish amulet is called a kame'a (plural kame'ot). Amulets were worn on the body or kept in the home at times of change and vulnerability, such as childbirth, marriage, and illness. Many held biblical verses, Psalms, names of God, and the names of angels and of the patriarchs and matriarchs, often drawing on Kabbalah, Jewish mystical tradition.

Birth. Before modern medicine, childbirth was dangerous for mother and baby. Families hung amulets in the birthing room, on the crib, and on the mother and child. Many invoked three angels, Sanvi, Sansanvi, and Samangelof, from a medieval legend about Lilith, a figure believed to threaten newborns. One amulet in the Magnes Collection at UC Berkeley, from the eighteenth century, combines Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo Spanish texts to protect women and newborns. In the Ottoman Empire, new mothers might wear a protective headpiece.

Weddings. Some Sephardic brides wore a hamsa around the neck at the henna celebration before the wedding, and the henna itself was believed to bring blessing and keep away the evil eye. Yemenite brides wore sprigs of a rue like herb in their crowns for the same reason.

What did the rabbis say?

Jewish tradition has long been uneasy about magic. The Bible forbids magic and divination, and the tradition rejects the idea that any object has power apart from God.

Yet the Talmud mentions amulets many times. It permits carrying an amulet on Shabbat if it was made by an expert and had “proven” itself by healing three times. The Shulchan Aruch, the major code of Jewish law, permits amulets for healing and protection.

Maimonides, the great rationalist, mocked people who treated a mezuzah as a magic charm, though he too allowed a proven amulet on Shabbat. Rabbis continued to debate these questions for centuries.

Tunisia

A small silver hamsa from Tunisia, made in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, hangs from a belt clip together with an amulet case. It is part of the collection of the Jewish Museum in New York, which also holds several childbirth amulets.

Fez, Morocco

Hamsas decorated synagogues as well as homes. A cast brass hamsa from about 1920 once adorned a synagogue oil lamp holder in Fez. It is now in the collection of ANU, the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.

Morocco

The Magnes Collection holds a nineteenth century Moroccan amulet on parchment, painted in ink and lacquer. Curators there have studied the texts, magic formulas, and mystical sources of the collection's many Hebrew amulets.

Yemen and the Ottoman world

Protective objects took many forms. Examples include an eighteenth century amulet necklace from Yemen and a nineteenth century headpiece worn by new mothers in the Ottoman Empire.

Iraq, Iran, Kurdistan, North Africa

Jewish amulet makers across these lands adopted the fish and the hamsa, symbols shared with their neighbors, and gave them Jewish meanings.

Jerusalem, 2018

The Museum for Islamic Art exhibited 555 hamsas, by Jewish and Arab artists, in “Khamsa, Khamsa, Khamsa.” Some carried Jewish, Christian, or Muslim prayers, and some pieces came from Iran, Iraq, Algeria, and Morocco.

Shared across faiths. Among Muslims the hamsa is known as the hand of Fatima, after the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, and it has been used in the Islamic world for many centuries. Some Christians use hamsas decorated with a cross. Some Jewish families called it the hand of Miriam, after the sister of Moses. The same kind of object could be found in Jewish, Muslim, and Christian homes alike.

Arrival in Israel. Jews from the Middle East and North Africa brought hamsas with them in the 1940s and 1950s. At first the hamsa was tied mainly to Mizrahi immigrants and was not part of mainstream Israeli culture. One curator recalled that Sephardic women often kept their hamsas hidden inside their shirts. Later, the hamsa moved into public view and became a popular gift; sources date this shift anywhere from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Today. The hamsa appears on necklaces, bracelets, wall hangings, mezuzah cases, and key chains, and in the work of contemporary Jewish artists. For many people it is less about belief than about beauty, memory, and pride in Sephardic and Mizrahi heritage. A hamsa with an eye is also part of JIMENA's logo.

Common misconceptions

• “The hamsa belongs to one religion.” It is a shared regional symbol used by Jews, Muslims, and Christians, each with their own meanings.
• “The hamsa is in the Bible.” It is not. Its connections to Jewish texts, such as the fish of Berakhot 55b, came later.
• “Judaism has one view of amulets.” Rabbis debated amulets for centuries, and opinions ranged from cautious acceptance to sharp skepticism.
• “It has always been popular in Israel.” It became mainstream only decades after Mizrahi families arrived.

In the public school classroom

• Teach the hamsa as a symbol shared across the Middle East and North Africa, and compare it with protective symbols in other cultures.
• Study museum objects closely: What materials, words, and images do you see? Who might have owned it?
• Describe beliefs in the past tense and as beliefs (“people believed”), and avoid asking whether amulets work.
• Art classes can study hamsa patterns as design. Do not have students make objects as protective charms or recite verses.
• Some students may wear a hamsa or another religious symbol. Treat these with respect.

In Jewish schools and communities

• Read Berakhot 55b with older students and trace how the fish became a Jewish design.
• Discuss the rabbinic debate about amulets: why might rabbis be both cautious and accepting?
• Invite families to bring a hamsa or amulet from home and tell its story.
• Explore the Sephardi & Mizrahi Education Toolkit for ways to weave heritage into the school year.

At home and with family

• Ask relatives: Did our family have a hamsa? Where did it hang, and who gave it?
• Look for hamsas in old family photographs and wedding pictures.
• Ask elders which phrases or customs the family used at a birth or a wedding.
• Record an elder's memories and share them with JIMENA's oral history project.

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