[Avodah] The Talmud's Many Demons

[Rich, Joel]

On 8/14/2012 12:48 PM, Prof. Levine wrote:
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

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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.
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There's a big difference between skipping the topic and ridiculing it the way this guy does.

Lisa
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I'm not sure he was ridiculing, but the issues raised in this paragraph are excellent Avodah topics:
"To my modern mind, there is something not just strange but scandalous about this. It shows that the rabbis of the Talmud could be at the same time geniuses of jurisprudence and men of their age, which was a pre-scientific and superstitious age. Most troubling, perhaps, is the way the rabbis never try to explain how these countless demons fit into a world picture where God is the source of all law and power. Did he create them, and if so, why? It is the taken-for-grantedness of demons and magic, the way they present no theological challenge, that seems most foreign to me in this Talmudic discussion. Perhaps I will discover a deeper treatment of the subject as I read."
1. I don't know why it would be scandalous at all - they were dealing  (according to my mesorah) with the "science" of their times.
2. HKB"H creating demons, angels etc..  Other than the mussar of "Let us make man", I have often wondered about the theology of angels and demons-perhaps they are psychological drives etc. but there is certainly what to talk about!
KT
Joel Rich
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