The following excerpts are taken from an article by H. Khayes,on ‘Beliefs and customs in connection with death’, published in YIVO’s Filologishe shriftn in 1928. The study was based on a survey conducted among the members of the Vilna Teachers’ Seminary in 1925, asking them about beliefs and customs in the towns they grew up in. It also made use of a lot of secondary material, particularly the work of the pioneering female ethnographer Regina Lilientalowa. The ‘L’ in brackets references her work. Other brackets reference other scholars, or the towns where the customs and beliefs were recorded. 

The people interviewed came from the following towns : Orle, Oshmene, Bialystok, Bilsk, Berezne (Volin), Bratslav, Brisk, Duksht, Devenishok, Volp, Vileyke, Vilne, Visoke, Loshkovitsh, Nay-Sventsyon, Stavisk, Pyask, Petrikov, Kobrin, Kartuz-Bereze, Krinek, Rozhony (Grodno region), Rishkan (Besserabia). Material was also received from Volp, Lune, Motele and Slonik. 

I have translated a few short excerpts from this article, where the findings relate to the various women’s traditions documented on this site. The full Yiddish article can be accessed here.This first excerpt contains examples of cemetery and candle ritual used to ward off death and rescue the dying. Please note: the use of the word “magic” – a word which has and has historically had many connotations – in the title is my own reading. Evidence suggests that the people practicing these rituals in the 19th and 20th centuries, they were simply part of Judaism.

Excerpts from : Kh. Khayes, Beliefs and customs related to death and dying (Vilna, 1928), Sections 3 and 7.

From Section 3: Casting off fear

On the eve of Yom Kippur a wax candle is lit for the life of all the closest family members, the wick is made of as much thread as the size of the family (probably having used it to measure the height of each family member). If the candle goes out without completely burning, someone from the family will die that year. It is, in general, a bad sign. (Vilna).

Therefore, the candle must be guarded so that it doesn’t go out. It is also a bad sign when a sabbath or festival candle goes out; for this reason when blessing the candles women pray ‘as the candles shine, so shall we light up the sabbath’ (Orle) 

From section 7: Death Throes  

A) How to rescue a severely ill person 

When someone is very ill, those close to them give candles to the synagogue and hand out donations (L)

The sick person is measured with a thread, which is then used to make a wick for a candle the size of the sick person. The candle is carried into the synagogue or buried in the cemetery, wrapped in shrouds. Sometimes instead of doing this the cemetery is measured with the thread. (L)   

The length and breadth of the cemetery is also sometimes measured with linen, which is then distributed among the poor. (l, 18, 171)

The family of the sick person goes to “aynraysn” the synagogue. (In Volp (Vowpa) it is said that the women go to “raysn” the synagogue). They go into the synagogue, there they open the holy ark, and before the open ark they cry and scream to God, asking him to heal the sick person. 

People go to the ‘feld’ [cemetery] to the graves of deceased relatives and beg them to intercede with God on the sick person’s behalf, asking him to make them healthy. They take a ball of thread, and with the thread measure the whole length of the cemetery. This is usually done in pairs, one woman takes the end of the thread, and the other rolls it up continually and helps the first woman to draw out the thread. (Orle/Orlya) From the thread candles are made and the candles are brought to the synagogue. 

A candle the size of the sick person is melted, charity is donated, and bread is distributed to the poor (Orle/Orlya) and to pious Yeshiva students (Volp/Vowpa) 

Wax is poured for the person and then buried in order to rescue a dying person. 

Grass from the cemetery is placed at the sick person’s head (Bilsk.)

One can rescue a seriously ill person by giving him some of your own years. The person that donates their years will live that much shorter. (Kartuz-Bereze/Bereza Kartuska) 

If you walk from the cemetery without speaking to anyone and go straight to the dying person and rip their shirt (or wail over them?) the dying person can be made well (Švenčionys) 

Cite this: Annabel Gottfried Cohen, “Candle and cemetery magic to ward off death and rescue the dying” – excerpts from H. Khayes, Gleybungen un minhogim in farbindung mitn toyt, (Beliefs and customs related to death and dying), Filologishe shriftn, (Vilna, 1928).