2

I noticed a woman yesterday that had a very colorful and beautiful tattoo of a Chai and a hand on her right wrist. I looked up on the internet and found the hand was called Hamsa Hand. Of course, I am against tattoos as a Jew, however it really struck my attention. I don't know anything about the meaning of the Hamsa Hand and the Chai. Can anyone tell me a little about it? Is the right wrist important in any way? What does the Chai and the Hand symbolize?

The basic question is, I'm interested in learning about the Hamsa and the Chai.

It looked like this, but colorful: Click Here

Thanks!

somejkuser
  • 171
  • 4
  • 2
    @jkushner you want to know if there is some connection between the two symbols and what the meaning is of their connection? Or are these two separate questions: 1)What is the meaning of Chai? 2)What is the meaning of Hamsa? – Seth J Aug 01 '13 at 14:24
  • 2
    related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/13157/sources-for-hamsa http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/25742/is-ahimsa-related-to-hamsa http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/7890/is-hamsa-allowed – Charles Koppelman Aug 01 '13 at 15:13
  • @SethJ Anything you can tell me. I'm just interested in learning about it. – somejkuser Aug 01 '13 at 15:24
  • @CharlesKoppelman None of these specifically tell me the meaning of the Hamsa and the Chai. – somejkuser Aug 01 '13 at 15:26
  • @jkushner Absolutely right. They're related questions, not answers or duplicate questions. This is so that when people of the future come by and read this question, they can see more related questions on the side of the page. And those questions get linked to this one, too. It's just an information-management technique. – Charles Koppelman Aug 01 '13 at 15:29
  • 1
    Right. What I'm trying to get at is, what's the "it" you want to know about? They're two different symbols. If you want to know the meaning of them individually, that would be two separate questions. If you want to know why they may be joined together, you may not get a full answer on their specific meanings. So you may actually have three questions here: 1) and 2) above, and 3)Why might they be used together in artwork? – Seth J Aug 01 '13 at 15:35
  • Hamsa is an old non-Jewish tradition. The reason I believe we adopted it is because it has five fingers and according to the Hida (Petah Enayim 20) five has Segula against Ayin Hara. – Hacham Gabriel Aug 01 '13 at 16:52
  • @HachamGabriel Why do you assume the Hida's original source (or the source of that source...) is not non-Jewish? – Charles Koppelman Aug 01 '13 at 19:06
  • IIRC he didn't write the idea of the Hamsa rather just the idea that five is importatnat aginst Ayin Hara. The Ben Ish Hai later adapted the Hamsa. – Hacham Gabriel Aug 01 '13 at 19:22

1 Answers1

1

The Ben Ish Chai (Pinchas 2:13) writes the hamsa is a spiritual protection from the evil eye –

והגאון חיד"א ז"ל כתב מנהג העולם לומר חמשה ולכן תולין עץ מצויר בו צורת כף שיש בו חמשה אצבעות וחקוק עליו אות ה' וכתב בכתר מלכות דמן הגמרא מוכח דאנשי בבל צריך להזהר ולשמור עצמן מן עין הרע טפי משאר מקומות.

Additionally, Aish explains

"Hamsa" is the Arabic word for five. It is customary for Arabs and Jews from the Middle East to raise their hand (five fingers) for good luck and against (Ayin Hara) an evil eye. In Exodus 17:11, we see that when Moses raised his hand, the Jews were successful in battle against Amalek. Conceivably, this is where it originated.

On the other hand (bad pun), "Chai" refers to 'life'.

NJM
  • 14,246
  • 2
  • 19
  • 57