(Baal Shem Tov). Sepher Shem Tov Ha’katan [prayers, remedies, charms and protective (“white”) magic]. Collected from the writings of mystics “as shown to me from Heaven”

HA’KOHEN, BENJAMIN BEINISH

Aaron ben Moses Ropé

Berlin

1740

Second edition

Vinograd, Berlin 180

Practical Kabbalah, which was for the most part, virtuously motivated, is preoccupied with the manipulation of the spherical powers to affect the physical, not the spiritual world. Such magical operations are not considered impossible in the Kabbalah. Indeed, they are not categorically forbidden, although numerous Kabbalistic writings stress that only the most perfectly saintly individuals are permitted to perform them, and even then, never for their private advantage, but only in times of emergency and public need. Jewish “white” magic worked largely through the manipulation of the sacred, esoteric names of God and the Angels. Those who knew its secrets, were known as “Ba’alei Shem”