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Hershel Shanks

SUPER BOWLS. Standing in his Jerusalem home, antiquities collector Shlomo Moussaieff surveys his collection of ancient incantation bowls. The inscriptions on these bowls call on supernatural beings to provide aid to the people who dedicated them. Often addressed to the Israelite God, Yahweh, as well as to other spirits, both foreign and domestic, Jewish incantation bowls such as these were used as magic charms to invoke divine intervention in matters of sickness, personal disputes and love.

These bowls are the subject of Dan Levene’s doctoral dissertation at University College, London.