[Avodah] The Talmud’s Many Demons

[Prof. Levine]

 From http://tinyurl.com/9vwk7t9


Sages in a superstitious age accepted the 
existence of invisible devils and the use of magic to render them visible

Here is a baraita attributed to Abba Benjamin: 
“If the eye would be granted permission to see, 
no creature would be able to stand in the face of 
the demons that surround it.” We are all, 
apparently, constantly beset by invisible devils, 
and the rabbis of the Gemara go on to expand on 
the proposition: “Abaye said: They are more 
numerous than us, and they stand about us like a 
ditch around a mound.” “Rav Huna said: Each one 
of us has a thousand to his left and ten thousand to his right.”

The idea that we see only a fragment of reality, 
that our senses are not designed to perceive 
everything that is, has a surprisingly modern 
ring to it. Abba Benjamin’s dictum <Snip> Taken 
as metaphor, the idea that we are surrounded by 
invisible powers is not hard to accept.

The problem is that the rabbis did not intend it 
as a metaphor. This becomes clear from the 
ensuing discussion of the effects of demons and 
the ways of making them visible. The evil these 
demons work is not metaphysical or catastrophic; 
it is trivial and bothersome, making them seem 
more like naughty sprites than devils. When your 
knees become tired, when your clothes wear out 
from rubbing, when you feel squeezed in the crowd 
at a public lecture­this is all, according to 
Rava, the work of demons. And there are magical 
ways of making demons show themselves. All you 
have to do is find a black female cat who is the 
firstborn daughter of a firstborn mother, burn 
her placenta to ashes, grind the ashes, and put 
some of them in your eye, and you will be able to 
see the demons. Be sure, however, to place the 
remainder of the ashes in a sealed iron tube, 
lest the demons steal it from you.

See the above URL for more.

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Rabbi A. Miller spent years giving shiurim that 
went through all of Shas.  He was not deterred by 
topics that some might feel should not be 
discussed in public due to their "delicate" 
nature.  However, there were times when he did 
skip some topics.  He would say, "I cannot teach 
what I do not understand, so now turn the page to 
......"   IIRC some of the topics that he skipped 
were the Gemara's discussion of Zugos and 
discussions like the one referred to about demons.

YL

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