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Antisemitism Education

## Holy Smokes: Incense & Burning Botanicals in Jewish Magic

September 18, 2025 By Jewitches Blog

While the rolled incense, widely popular in America, boasts a centuries-old legacy, Jewish tradition embraces a diverse array of methods for burning botanicals, each with its unique significance and spiritual resonance.

Terminology-wise, there are a few options used in academic texts on the matter. Fumigation, defined as “the action or process of disinfecting or purifying an area with the fumes of certain chemicals”⁷ has long had a place within spirituality and anthropological study. The term smudging is often used in modern texts as well; however, it solely refers to the practices of Indigenous peoples and should not be used as a catch-all term. Smoke cleansing is another popular new-age term. Historically, Jewish communities might utilize their own terminology to refer to these practices. Whatever the name, we are referring to the “widely used technique that involved burning or roasting a plant, an object, or an animal organ to create a curative smoke” ³. Whether the cure is for a physical or spiritual ill, the smoke serves to restore one to homeostasis.

Modern Jewish places of worship are not often inundated with smoke or burning herbs, but this is a fairly new phenomena in the history of the Jewish people and our connection with Divinity: for centuries, the burning of herbs was a constant in Jewish life. Truthfully, it has never truly faded from practice.

“This rejection cohered by positioning incense as an outward ceremony, contrary to prayer, and associated with outside religious-ethnographic groups, in particular the Jews”.⁶

Jews were historically associated with incense by certain groups, particularly in Europe, where such practices were received in the most xenophobic manner. Martin Luther, famed antisemite and force behind the Protestant Reformation, and after whom the Lutheran denomination is named, was an especially vitriolic proponent of disdain for incense. Incense was a convenient tool in his work of othering Jews and other communities.

“The first explicit reference in a 1523 sermon, in which he contrasted proper offerings to God with those of the Jews, who offered food and incense.111 A year later in his lectures on the minor prophets, Luther wrote, "incense and the sacrifice of foods were foremost among the Jews, which were done as the highest form of idol worship in all valleys and under all the trees." True Christian incense, Luther explained, was prayer:….By the 1530s, incense had become a keynote for all three of the chief outside social categories in Luther's thought: Jews, Turks, and papists.”⁶

Marek Tuszewicki, in his book A Frog Under the Tongue: Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe, reminds us of the consistent belief in foul odors being indicative of demonic or nefarious forces. While this is not exclusively a Jewish belief, it can be found around the world, it held strong in Jewish homes. This holistic system taught that sickness can be caused by demons, and likewise, the places traditionally linked to sickness or harm (cemetery, bathrooms, dark places, etc) were hotbeds for demons. The restroom, for example, boasts a toilet demon; and of course, “the first thing one should do in the face of an epidemic was to purge one’s house of all malorous items, food remains, and faeces”. ³

Air was integral to the spiritual and physical health of the community: “In order to remove the pestilential air, houses were fumigated with incense.”⁴ Even simple things, like colds (which were often thought to be caused by winds) were believed to be cured by fumigations of amber.³

During the Black Death and other epidemics, Jews held tight to not only purity rituals like washing, but also fumigation. Abraham ben Solomon Hen wrote Tracatulus de Pestilentia, which served as a guide for many. His recommendations not only changed for the ‘type’ of air (hot, turbid, etc). He recommended that “One should apply these fumigations four times a day, in the morning, at midday, in the evening, and at midnight, because at these times the air makes different [sorts] of movement.” ¹³

Burned botanicals served as a means of cleansing, enriching, and maintaining Jewish life long after the fall of the Beit Hamikdash: through it, Jewish communities protected themselves spiritually and physically, endowed one another with joy, and preserved Diasporic tradition.

“Oil and incense gladden the heart, And the sweetness of a friend is better than one’s own counsel.” Proverbs 27:9

At the Bene Israel cemetery, a quick tidying of the gravesite is done, and some families light incense in the earth in front of the grave or in specially built boxes, following the Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Muslim, Orthodox Christian, and Parsi tradition in India of honoring ancestors and past religious figures through the ritual use of incense.” In such faiths, incense is used to make the air sweet-smelling for the gods/spirits and the souls of the deceased, and to relax one’s senses. Similar to the Bene Israel, at Baghdadi [Jewish] cemeteries a few relatives or congregants discreetly light several sticks of incense in the earth in front of the grave, headstone, or tomb. The Baghdadi [Jewish] use of incense on this occasion was simply explained, “It is just something we started to do since moving to India.’” ¹⁰

Controversy

Like all things Jewish, incense is not without nay-sayers, some arguments against it as old as a few thousand years. While ketoret, the incense of the altar of the Beit Hamikdash (Temple) is without opponents, incense created for any other reason is often railed against in Jewish spaces.

After the destruction of the Temple, many Jews came to see incense as a means of idolatry or used for witchcraft (witchcraft, in this context, is practically synonymous with idolatry and the practices of non-Jews). How as a good, pious Jew to know the difference between pious incense and that of an idolators? What if they were mistaken for a non-Jew through their prayers? And what of Jews who took part in non-normative, taboo practices? Indeed, there were Jews who spurned the ‘rules’ (religious as they may be).

“R. David ibn abi Zimra (RBdZ, d.c. 1573) was asked: “in which way is it allowed and in which way is it forbidden [to burn incense]? Many have broken down the fence of the Torah by offering incense to demons, maintaining that their intention was not to worship them, but on the contrary to force them do their will. Is there any permitted way, as I have heard that incense was once offered to a demon in the presence of one of the prominent men of our generation without any interference on his part?”

While not strictly idolatry, using incense as a means of summoning and appeasing demons is quite thoroughly discussed in certain Jewish communities. It falls in line with classic Jewish thought that demons are far more nuanced and complex than the basic ‘evil creature’ idea found in Christianity.

“The activities of the good and evil demons varied according to their treatment by man. They could be either subdued and “coerced” to fulfill men’s wishes, or appeased and pacified. This was done by means of invocations, incantations and conjugations, offerings, and gifts (milk, honey, water, sugar, wheat or barley, salt, eggs and cocks), and particularly through the burning of incense”.⁴

But, outright forbidding it wasn’t the answer to all Jews:

“He forbids the offering of incense “since he who offers incense to demons in order to assemble them is liable to the death penalty. Offering of incense, however, with the purpose of putting the demons to flight appears to me to be allowed.” ⁴

While some said it was only acceptable to ward demons off with incense (as burnt botanicals were frequently used for curative properties), others were certain it was acceptable to utilize the smoke to appease sheydim.

“Smoke of incense was not only used to frighten the demons and to put them to flight. Sometimes it was regarded as a means of attracting them and so mankind them willing to fulfill one’s wishes, since smoke of incense forms their essential food. The reason is as follows: while all creatures whose bodies consist of earth, water, air and fire, take food composed of the same four elements, demons who are made only of fire and air have food naturally corresponding to their composition”.⁴

Alternatively, it would appear that certain Jewish practices included the use of incense in the appeasement or summoning of angels, "Take myrrh and frankincense on fiery coals for the angel called Orpaniel." ¹⁴

There seems to be little consensus among Jews, however, the Talmud does provide instructions for burning botanicals as well as warnings surrounding them:

Berakhot 53a,

We learned in the mishna: One may neither recite a blessing over the candle nor over the spices designated to honor the dead. The Gemara explains: What is the reason? Because a candle of the dead is kindled for the purpose of honoring the dead, not for light; the spices are to neutralize the bad odor, not for their pleasant fragrance. And Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: Any deceased before whom a candle is taken out both by day and by night, it is evident that the candle is for the purpose of honoring the deceased; therefore, one may not recite a blessing over it. And any deceased before whom a candle is taken out only by night, it is evident that the purpose of the candle is for its light alone, and one may recite a blessing over it. Similarly, Rav Huna said: Over spices used to deodorize the bathroom and fragrant oil intended to remove filth, one may not recite a blessing as they are not used for their pleasant fragrance. The Gemara asks: Is that to say that any case where it is not used for its pleasant fragrance, one may not recite a blessing over it? The Gemara raises an objection based on the Tosefta: One who enters the store of a perfumer, and smelled a fragrance, even if he sat there throughout the entire day, he only recites a blessing once. However, if one entered and exited, entered and exited, he recites a blessing on each and every occasion. Isn’t it a case here, where the spices are not intended for fragrance, as they are not used to improve the scent in the store, and, nevertheless, one recites a blessing? The Gemara responds: Yes, in this case the spices are also intended for fragrance; they are used to generate a scent in the store so that people will smell them and come and purchase from him. The Sages taught in a baraita: One who was walking outside a city and smelled a scent; if the majority of the town’s residents are gentiles he may not recite a blessing over the scent, but if the majority are Jews, he may recite a blessing. Rabbi Yosei says: Even if the majority are Jews, one may not recite a blessing, as the daughters of Israel burn incense to witchcraft and the spices were certainly made for witchcraft, not for their fragrance. The Gemara asks: Is that to say that they all burn incense to witchcraft? Rather, there is a minority of people who burn incense to witchcraft, and a different minority who burn spices in order to perfume their garments with incense. A majority, therefore, exists that does not use it for fragrance, and in a case where the majority does not use it for fragrance, one does not recite a blessing. Similarly, Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: One who walks on Shabbat eve in Tiberias or at the conclusion of Shabbat in Tzippori, and smelled the scent of incense may not recite a blessing, as the presumption is that it was intended to perfume garments. On a related note, the Gemara cites the following: The Sages taught in a baraita: One who was walking in the marketplace of idolators and willingly smelled the incense wafting there, he is a sinner, as he should not have the intention to smell it.

The line between sanctioned and unsanctioned practices was, and is, ill-defined, existing in a space controlled by each community. While many Jews are perfectly fine with the idea of burning store bought incense in this day and age; as it is no longer solely associated with the worship of deities, there are still some Jews who choose to not be around it as their perspective sees it as a vestige of this tradition. Others will only burn incense created in a specifically secular manner, as opposed to incense created for the worship of a specific deity or intended for rituals, spells, etc.

Bakhoor/Bakhor [بخور] refers to aromatic chips of wood, usually agarwood/oud, often soaked in resins or oils, that can then be burned. The practice of using burning botanicals, particularly Bakhoor, to scent clothing is a well-established practice among some Jews, particularly from SWANA communities. As further discussed, agarwood is believed to be one of the botanicals used to create the Ketoret, or incense used in the Holy Temple.

Ketoret

Fragrant incense, ketoret, burned at the altar of the Beit HaMikdash was created of eleven fragrant herbs, identified by Maimonides as, "Onycha, Storax, Frankincense, Musk, Cassia, Spikenard, Saffron, Costus, Cinnamon, Agarwood," with the addition of "salt of Sodom and Jordanian amber. Another two ingredients (vetch lye and "caper wine") were used in preparation of the tziporen (onycha) spice. There was also a special herb, referred to simply as maaleh ashan ("makes smoke rise"), that would produce a pillar of smoke that rose straight up rather than spread out. The identity of the herb was a secret that was closely guarded by members of the Avitnus family, who made the incense based on the tradition of their ancestor"¹.

The composition of Ketoret, however, is of huge significance. Exodus 30:37-38 teaches that we are not to make the exact formula: “But when you make this incense, you must not make any in the same proportions for yourselves; it shall be held by you sacred to HaShem.” ⁸ Attempting to recreate the recipe in its exact measurements is strictly forbidden.

What do the letters in the word ketoret (“incense”) stand for? The kuf stands for kedushah (“sanctification”), tet for taharah (“purity”), resh for rahamim (“mercy”), and ta for tikvah (“hope”). Midrash Tanchuma, Tetzaveh, Siman 14

“Scripture mentions sammim (sweet spices) a second time because it wants to say: take the aforementioned sweet spices, and along with them, take pure frankincense.” Ibn Ezra on Exodus 30:34:2

Necromancy

Incense, according to Joshua Trachtenberg, also played a role in the ever-taboo practice of necromancy. “‘Incantations’ at the grave, which were apparently not favorited, for the word lachash usually denotes a forbidden type of magic; 2. spending the night at the grave, clothed in a distinctive garment and burning spices and incense while waving a myrtle wand, ‘until one hears an exceedingly faint voice. from the grave reseponding to his questions, so faint that is seems hardly to be sensed by the ears, but rather to exist in his thoughts’”.²

Necromancy is a practice forbidden to Jews; a line that is not crossed often in historical Jewish magical documents. The inclusion of incense in potential necromantic actions played a part in communal worry regarding incense.

Burning Botanicals

Outside of specific incense blends, Jews have long burned herbs on their own or in combination. Various texts chronicle the use of each of the following botanicals in Jewish tradition.

Agarwood

Alum

Amber

Asafetida (Devil’s Dung or Hing)

Atropa Belladonna

Buckwheat

Cedar

Cedar

Clove

Cypress

Date palm frond (from a Lulav)

Frankincense

Ginger

Hova*

Hyssop

Juniper

Laurel

Mastic

Mustard

Myrrh

Myrtle

Oregano

Pepper

Rocket

Rosemary

Rue

Sandalwood

Styrax (Styrax officinalis)

Tamarisk

Wild Rue (Peganum Harmala L.)

Hova is an unidentified herb utilized for purification before Pesach. “Mary Algrante of Izmir was recalling the use of hova during Passover: "Hova is an herb that we gather in a bunch and put in a vase for the night of Passover. And this is good so that no sickness would occur in the house. And this hova is also to burn as incense in the house." Levy asked, "So how did you do it? You took it. You put it on the table for Pesach and. ...." "The night of Pesach," Mrs. Algrante corrected. "When it dries," Levy began, and then suddenly remembered burning the dried herb. His memory was triggered by Mary Algrante's description, and by the sudden Proustian sense of recall: the smell of the hova burning.” ⁹

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Sulfur

The sweet, fragrant scents of herbs and spices are not the only scents used in Jewish rituals and practices. Exorcisms, for example, utilize sulfur to draw out the demon or dybbuk. Indeed, “[t]he most efficacious were acrid smokes, and the Jewish sources abound in. recipes with ‘hell-related’ references (deadly nightshade, sulfur, tar, or juniper). However, perhaps in view of the significance of spices in the religious tradition, in particular the burning of besomim (spice mixture) to mark the closing of the Sabbath, less pungent substances such as levonah (olibanum) were also used”. ³

Sulphur also has a place within exorcism, being used to coax out the dybbuk from its hiding place in their victim.

Cobwebs

But it isn’t only botanicals that were burned as a means of cleansing, protecting, and fumigating. Documented in the writings of Eastern European Ashkenazim, we see the collecting of cobwebs for warding off fright. In this practice, one could burn cobwebs from four corners.³ Other examples include “earth from beneath three thresholds, a splinter from the threshold of a synagogue, the front hooves of a goat, a ‘devil’s finger’ (fossilized belemnite), an umbilical cord—which would have been kept and dried for this very purpose—and herbs used in incense intended for protection from demons”³

Non-Botanical Items

A splinter from the threshold of a synagogue

Brain of a white cockerel (or hen, depending on gender)

Burnt Fish Heart

Cobwebs

Cock’s Comb

Dog hair

Earth (from beneath three thresholds)

Feathers

Feathers from the sufferer’s bed

Fossilized belemnite

Goat hooves

Hair

Rectified Spirits (Neutral Spirits)

Sulfur

Tar

Umbilical cord

Spiritual Cures

One of the primary uses of incense/burned botanicals is the spiritual curing of those in need. This practice transcends the Diaspora:

From the Moroccan community of Sefrou, it was chronicled, “You make this in charcoal braziers for anyone whom you see is afflicted by the evil eye. You should start it on Thursday and continue on Friday and again on Sunday. This is all there is to fumigation against the evil eye. One puts into it that which is against the evil eye: gum lemon, alum, and wild rue. Well, there are hundreds of different things that can be mixed. You can buy them in the shops. You may buy two ryals worth or four. Whenever one sees someone in such a condition, one should fumigate.” ¹¹ ¹²

In the Ashkenazi imagination, it served as an apotropaic and cure for charms, evil eye, fright, and demonic influence. Whether it was a lulav being burned or the hairs from a dog who caused a child fright, it was a common place practice among Eastern European Jewry.

Also, from Sefrou, both the fumigation and charcoals would be used as protective measures:

“God protect you from harm. When someone is not feeling well or is sick, or has something wrong, they say to her: Make "the measure for me." They go and ask charcoal from nine women who have been married but once and still are, or from eleven such women, or from seven. For example, someone married to one man would give a piece of charcoal, and I who am married to one man would give a piece. But whoever married only one man and was divorced, or far from us whose husband died on her, and she married another, such women may not give it. Well then, they collect these coals, buy fumigation items and set up a brazier in front of the synagogue. Oh me, oh my! When it burns down, she adds more charcoal. It burns down again, she adds again. Then she takes the hot ashes and empties them between her legs, extinguishes them with cold water, and smears it on her arms and legs.” ¹¹

In the Psychosexual Imagination

In both Sephardic and Ashkenazi practices, the fumigation of the genitals had its place within the toolbelt of the practitioner. The evil eye and dybbuk possessions each included a sexual component. Dybbukim often had female victims whom they would enter in a sexual manner, with numerous writings about their expulsion through the vagina, anus, or mouth. The evil eye can be based on jealousy or lust. However, the fumigation of the genitals was not exclusive to Jews:

“Like many fumigation rituals in Morocco practiced by both Jews and Muslims, this one involves having the smoke rise up under the clothing and fumigate the sexual organs… It may be that the frequency with which the genitals are fumigated in fumigation rituals is due to the psychosexual symbolism connected with the evil eye superstition.” ¹¹

Alternatively, the fumigation of genitals during labor was believed in some communities, chronicled in Eastern European Jewish practice, to aid in “[inducing] contractions and thus [easing] the child’s delivery.” ³

While it does not include the fumigation of genitals, a smoke made using the hairs of the husband whose wife is experiencing uterus pain is believed to be a cure that includes a substitution for sexual relations. ³

White Sage

When discussing burning herbs, the topic of white sage inevitably arises. White sage, salvia apiana, is native to the west coast of what is known as the Americas, thriving in “Southern California and Northern Baja”⁵. This is the only place that salvia apiana is naturally occurring and therefore, ancient Jews and Jews prior to the colonization of this region would have had no access to white sage. Other forms of sage, however, like Garden Sage (Salvia Offionalis), have a role in Jewish folk practices, including but not limited to love magic rituals. Garden Sage is not the same as white sage.

“Metric tons of white sage (Salvia Apiana) are being poached to supply an international demand. This plant is deeply rooted in the cultures and life ways of the Indigenous communities of Southern California and northern Baja, the only region where white sage naturally occurs in the world. The devastating theft and the appropriated trend that it feels stand in sharp contrast with the values and traditional practices of regional native communities.”⁵

Jewitches does not and will never participate in the selling and commodification of white sage nor do we encourage its appropriation. We encourage people to learn from and listen to Indigenous voices on this issue.

Aris Romero, a Indigenous clinical herbalist born in Mexico City of Purepecha, French, and Middle Eastern ancestry, lends her words on the topic of white sage.

“Support of indigenous nations and conservancy go hand in hand. There are about 34,000 plant species currently in danger of extinction. When a plant species goes extinct it creates ripple effects in the environment. California is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots; A third of the native plants in California don’t grow anywhere else in the world, which includes white sage - a keystone species. There are many factors affecting white sage like climate change, over exploitation of natural resources, pollution, human population, destruction and change of habitat, and appropriative trends rooted in capitalism and power. Metric tons of white sage are harvested from public and protected spaces every year. It's commonly harvested by people who don't know how to harvest white sage properly which inevitably impacts its ability to regrow. Conservation groups report labor trafficking is involved in keeping the white sage market in business. When people buy ceremonial plants like white sage from a local herb shop, health food store, or an Instagram shop, they are conveniently removed from the ecological and human impact their purchase is supporting."

White sage is not meant to be sold, period. All sages are medicinal, so why are non-natives so drawn to white sage in particular? Why single out this sage that is deeply rooted in the lifeways of the native people where it grows? When non-indigenous owned and operated companies like Juniper Ridge make the wildcrafting of indigenous ceremonial plants like white sage and sweetgrass a part of their ongoing business plan, it becomes about possession and the continued marginalization and mockery of native spirituality. I encourage you to stop the support of wildcrafted and indigenous ceremonial plants in commerce. Let's leave wildcrafting and the use of ceremonial plants like white sage to the people who have a right to their native spiritual practices. If you are drawn to smoke cleansing and burning herbs for prayer and ritual, take it as an opportunity to learn about the herbs and traditions practiced in your own ancestry.”

*The terminology of smudging is related solely to the practices of Indigenous peoples, particularly of the Americas, and therefore has been edited in the above article for clarity.
Sources

1. https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4423106/jewish/Why-Ketoret-Incense-in-the-Temple.htm

2. Jewish Magic and Superstition: a Study in Folk Religion, Joshua Trachtenberg

3. A Frog Under the Tongue: Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe, Marek Tuszewicki

4. Magicians, Theologians, and Doctors. H. Jacob Zimmels

5. https://www.cnps.org/conservation/white-sage#:~:text=This%20plant%20is%20deeply%20rooted,naturally%20occurs%20in%20the%20world.

6. From Incense to Idolatry: The Reformation of Olfaction in Late Medieval German. Jacob M. Baum. The Sixteenth Century Journal , Summer 2013, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Summer 2013), pp. 323-344

7.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7882240/#:~:text=Fumigation,fumes%20of%20certain%20chemical%20agents.

8. https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.30.37-38?lang=bi&aliyot=0

9. Memories of Time past: Fieldwork among the Sephardim Author(s): Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt and Isaac Jack Lévy Source: The Journal of American Folklore , Winter, 2001, Vol. 114, No. 451 (Winter, 2001), pp. 40-55 Published by: American Folklore Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3592377

10. Rethinking "Sephardic": Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Observances among the Jews of Bombay Author(s): Yale M. Needel Source: Shofar , Winter 2008, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Winter 2008), pp. 59-80 Published by: Purdue University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/42944529

11. Women on Folk Medicine: Judaeo-Arabic Texts from Sefrou Author(s): Norman A. Stillman Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society , Jul. - Sep., 1983, Vol. 103, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1983), pp. 485-493 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/602030

12. The translator notes that “gum-lemon” is not a certain translation and is unsure of which plant is indicated here.

13. The Black Death in Hebrew Literature: Abraham Ben Solomon Hen's "Tractatulus de pestilentia" Author(s): Gerrit Bos and Guido Mensching Source: Jewish Studies Quarterly , 2011, Vol. 18, No. 1 (2011), pp. 32-63 Published by: Mohr Siebeck GmbH & Co. KG Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41289138

- M. Margaliot, Sefer ha-Razim, p. 68

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