[Avodah] The Talmud"s Many Demons

[cantorwolberg at cox.net]

Chaza"l failed in their attempts to see them because they 
didn't have the tools.  Today, we have the tools to detect 
them and have given names to many of the demons, e.g., 
germs, microbes, bacteria, microorganisms, viruses, etc. 
We've even found them in water. all kinds of usually 
invisible single or multiple cells, amoeba, paramoecia, 
etcetria and etcetria.

We even have found some of the good demons, yehudain, and 
they are added to our yoghurt and called probiotics that 
improve digestion.

Very brilliant of chazal to have figured out the existence 
of invisible demons and differentiating between types, from 
noting the results of their activities without any further 
knowledge of how to see them or control their actions.

As has been already pointed out, that's definitely not what chazal 
meant by demons. They were not speaking metaphorically. 
However, I've given the following analogy which seem to resonate 
well with my students:  If someone were told in the 18th century that 																										         there was a machine which gave invisible rays, and if you stood in front 
of it, and allowed the invisible rays to penetrate your body, within a few 
hours or days (exact time is irrelevant for the analogy), you would be dead,
you would say the person was mentally deranged and demented. Then
if the same person continued and said that a similar machine also gave 
off invisible rays and if you had cancer and allowed the rays to penetrate
the tumor, you would be healed, you would "KNOW" with certainty that 
your original analysis of this person's mental state was validated. 
Get the point??  Context is everything! 

The closer one comes to context, the closer one comes to truth
rw  Aug. 16 2012

For me context is the key - from that comes the understanding of everything.
Kenneth Noland (1924-2010)  One of the best-known contemporary American Color field painters




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