Cursed by Neighbors!
Finn came back to his apartment in Williamsburg on Thursday to find this mysterious sticky-note on his door. Not recognizing the language, he did what any bright hipster would do: posted it to Flickr and Ask.Mefi and asked for help. Quite soon, the answers started rolling in, and it was bad news! He had been cursed in Hebrew:
"My guess is that it is some kind of a curse written by a native Yiddish speaker who is religious (hence the "basad" at the beginning). The curse itself is in "loshen koydesh" i.e. Hebrew but the names are written in Yiddish...the entire last two lines are a name of a person (two names actually). "hi-ku besanverim" is from the bible and literally means to blind someone. It was probably aimed at a specific tenant only they weren't sure about the apartment number."Basically, walk through the door and you'll be struck blind. Yikes! Time to get a counter curse brewing.
"With Heaven's help, strike blind the people of this house." The two names at the end--Levy Yitshak ben Sara-Sasha and Nachman ben Feyga--most likely identify the tenants to whom the curse is directed.
Plenty of advice for counter-hexes and spiritual protection in the two threads-- quite a few people suggested Finn get a mezuzah, but we recommend the hamsa, which is better at warding off the evil-eye. Or better yet, just move to Park Slope!
