Masapan, Ruda, and the Evil Eye
A bowl of freshly ground almonds poured into a hot pan of dissolved sugar: a key step in making the delicious dessert known as masapan – a variant of marzipan. In the United States, many Sephardic Jews homemake this traditional sweet for celebrations such as engagements, weddings, births, Brit Milahs or circumcisions, and B’nei Mitzvahs or ceremonies marking the beginning of adulthood. It is one of many recipes that The Sephardic Heritage Cookbook offers in connection with a personal family story. The author of the recipe recounts how her family brought the “delicacy” to Los Angeles from Rhodes, in what is now Greece, when they migrated. The Sephardic tradition of preparing this dessert has lasted generations and continues to be a custom for those that immigrated to the United States. Part of the tradition is to top each piece with silver ball called a dragee and to garnish it with a plant called ruda (rue). In the Sephardic Heritage Cookbook, the author of the recipe, Kaye Hasson, specifically uses ruda when preparing marzipan for engagements. Kaye Hasson explains that ruda is not merely a decoration for the presentation of the marzipan: it represents Sephardic spirituality, superstitions, and folklore as, many people traditionally believed that it could ward off the evil eye.
Many believe that the evil eye causes almost everything that goes wrong, especially illness. Different cultures refer to it by various names including “mal ojo, nazar (Turkish), ayin arah (Hebrew), ojo hui (Judeo-Spanish, eye dark)” and the one who inflicted the misfortune is said to echar nazar or cast the evil eye. Central to the belief is envy or greed. One can harm others intentionally or unintentionally simply by gazing at them with envy or ill will. The evil eye is not always given with a hateful glance but can be conferred by words of praise if one envies the success of the other. It is still possible for one to give compliments without giving the other the evil eye by following the remark with the term maxala (the equivalent of the Arabic term mashallah, meaning “what God wills” – an expression many Muslims commonly use in Arabic to ward off the evil eye, too.) If, however, one forgets to say maxala, they can give the evil eye even with no ill will. Some people claim that a person who receives the evil eye has drowsiness, low energy, and yawns frequently. To cure the evil eye, a woman, typically, would perform a ritual called Aprecantar during which she recites spells. The prevalence and universality of the evil eye provokes the need for protective measures: foremost among these is the ruda plant.
Sephardic Jews historically valued ruda for its medicinal, ceremonial, and spiritual qualities. The “mythologies and cures associated with the plant” began when Spanish Jews in the Ottomon Balkans discovered it. One of the key uses is the protection of newborns and their mothers or paridas. Friends and family place it on the pillow of a birthing mother, set it in the crib of a newborn, pin it to the clothes of the child, or placed it on top of marzipan and bring it to a new mother as a gift of good luck and protection.
Today, Sephardic Americans no longer use ruda for its medicinal properties due to skepticism of herbal medicine and the availability of modern medical treatments. They, however, still recognize its use to protect against the evil eye. Younger generations raised in western society call the use of ruda and other such practices “kozas de muestra madres” or “things of our mothers.” The reference to such practices as “things of our mothers” suggests younger generations perform them out of respect for their ancestors and culture rather than a belief in the spiritual power. The properties of the plant, especially the ease at which people can cut and replant it, have allowed it to endure time and migration. A close look into a single plant can reveal a rich history. Many families brought a snippet of ruda from a plant grown by previous generations across seas where they settled in places such as Los Angeles and Seattle. As they travelled, they continued to use cuttings of the plant to grow new ones. Two generations of Sephardic Jewish families distributed a singular ruda plant brought to Los Angeles “across at least seven households and a grave.” On top of its protective properties, ruda also holds familial and cultural history and connects American Sephardic communities to their ancestors.
Works Cited
Firestone, Melvin M. “Sephardic Folk-Curing in Seattle.” The Journal of American Folklore 75, no. 298 (October 1962): 301. https://doi.org/10.2307/538366.Kerem, Yitzchak. “‘Superstitions of Sephardic Jews in the Balkans’, Paper given in Gerona, Spain, in Memory of Deceased Prof. Yomtov Asis (z&qout;l), June 2013,” May 27, 2014.https://www.academia.edu:443/4449171/_Superstitions_of_Sephardic_Jews_in_the_Balkans_paper_given_in_Gerona_Spain_in_memory_of_deceased_Prof_Yomtov_Asis_z_l_June_2013.
Sephardic Temple Or Chadash Sisterhood. Sephardic Heritage Cookbook: Ottoman, Persian, Moroccan, Egyptian Recipes and More. North Charleston: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.
Stein, Sarah Abrevaya. “The Queen of Herbs: A Plant’s-Eye View of the Sephardic Diaspora.” Jewish Quarterly Review112, no. 2 (2022): 119–38. https://doi.org/10.1353/jqr.2022.0004.
Zumwalt, Rosemary Levy. “The 1996 Archer Taylor Memorial Lecture. ‘Let It Go to the Garlic!’ Evil Eye and the Fertility of Women among the Sephardim.” Western Folklore 55, no. 4 (1996): 261. https://doi.org/10.2307/1500136.