Blessings

A sign of blessing in the religions a gesture and / or an object, the life-enhancing near divine show power or will cause.

In Jewish piety, blessings and gestures have an ancient tradition. The original divine blessing ("God blessed Abraham") is passed on to someone else by its bearer. Rembrandt , who knew Jewish rites, poignantly portrayed the laying on of a hand on the head of the blessed one in his painting Jakobssegen (exhibited in the picture gallery of Schloss Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel ): as the mystery of the transmission of a mission given from above and an obligation to the chosen successor .

Signs of blessing of a special rank in Christianity are the sacraments . In addition, especially in the Catholic and Orthodox rites, there are numerous sacramentals (such as holy water , blessings , ashes , palm branches , Easter candles , herbal consecration on Assumption , etc.) and blessed devotional objects .

If the effect of blessings is expected “automatically” and independently of the inner attitude of the people involved, one speaks of magic . If the effectiveness of external signs is denied and rejected, one speaks of spiritualism .