ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the belief and practices of pre-Talmudic and Talmudic Judaism will be compared and contrasted with several counterparts in the texts and magical praxes of Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Persia. Demonstrating the influence of the symbolism and constructs of Jewish religious texts on magical incantations, these ideas moved from one culture-area to another over a period of around seven hundred years. In addition, this illustrates the potency of Jewish notions of the cosmos as revealed in the Hebrew language and the letters of its alphabet.
