Abstract
A book of fortune, or sortes, is a literary composition which includes a number of sayings independent from one another, each explaining or predicting a fate. These sayings are written down in such a manner that only one of them may be pointed to if the inquirer follows particular instructions. To this genre belongs a book written in Hebrew, part of which is preserved in the Cairo Geniza, and slated for publication in the fourth volume of magical texts from this collection.1 Scholars have repeatedly attempted to classify books of fortune by their origin, construction, the method of divination, and the context in which these books were used.2 My article pursues a number of goals. First, it summarizes the aforementioned attempts, while elucidating some aspects unnoticed or unexplained by other researches; second, it reconsiders the position attributed to Hebrew gor alo t in the history and evolution of books of fortune; third, the article seeks to reveal the origin of sortes, the reason of their appearance, and in addition, it will propose the external model for a specific kind, staggered sortes, thus drawing a link between books of fortune and other cultural phenomena.
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