Rabbi's Musings

What is the Evil Eye?

It is not uncommon for people to say “knock on wood” if they don’t want something bad to happen. In Judaism we have a complementary phrase, “kenna hora”. It means “against the evil eye”. What is an evil eye? And why don’t we like it? For all of our 21^st century sophistication, we humans remain afraid of malevolent powers. There is a lot of Jewish background for this fear. In the Talmud, Rav visited a certain cemetery and said that the majority of those buried had died through the evil eye. (Talmud Baba Mezia 107b) In more modern times, whenever praising someone, we would say “kenna hora” to make sure that our words of blessing would not be transformed into curses.

What makes good speech attract curses? Perhaps it is the old idea that if we are not always fearing the worst, if we let down our guard, then bad things will happen. It is hard to square this with our belief in a benevolent God who would not create such a dangerous and punishing world. Hence we have a tension between belief in God and a desire to live a pleasant life by preventing catastrophe with magical thinking.

Perhaps in our day we can think of the evil eye not as a generic power of evil so much as a reminder that we cannot take good fortune for granted. Since there are no guarantees we need to appreciate the present. It is not magical thinking to be grateful for each blessing.