[Avodah] The Talmud's Many Demons

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 01:24:04PM +0300, Eliyahu Grossman wrote:
: It is also interesting to note that while the Bavli seems to have a lot of
: such references, the Yirushalmi takes an opposite approach. 

I think it should be noted that demons figure significantly in Zoroastrian
scripture. The Avestan word is daeva, "being of shining light". The
word actually evolves for the pre-Zoroastrian term for gods -- the pre-Z
gods worshipped by the "false priests" are thus identified with demons
(Yasna 32:4) Anyway, later Zoroastianism, once their monotheism split
into a war between good and evil, relies heavily and battles between
angels and devils.

Whereas the idea plays little to no role in Roman religion.

So, the difference REG notes is also true of the surrounding cultures
of the two groups of amoraim. Although Josephus writing in EY for
a Roman audience (Wars 7:6:3) mentions sheidim and their ability to
posess someone.

That said, Moshe Rabbeinu (as recoded by HQBH -- Devarim 32:17) and
David haMelekh (Tehillim 106:37) mention sheidim as things people would
make sacrifices to. The similarity of the evolution of the word "daeva"
is striking. The word "sheid" appears to be cognate to shedu, the 7 evil
storm demons of Chaldean religion, winged bulls.


As I see it, there are three possible approaches to understanding the
gemaros about sheidim:

1- Chazal were discussing actual metaphysical entities. After all, Tanakh
mentions numerous kinds of mal'akhim. Why can't there be parallel entities
created by sin which are the embodiment of the metaphysical forces that
bring about sin's negative consequences?

But then we're stuck explaining the gemara's means of handling sheidim
that don't involve teshuvah for the initial offense. Mnemonic tools
that teach lessons and thus create an atmosphere condusive to teshuvah,
perhaps?

In any case, Bavli Jews would more naturally discuss sheidim more often,
so they come up in their shas more.


2- Chazal were using existing natural philosophical theories. In which
case, we could replace references to sheidim with current scientific
theories that explain the same phenomena. Which tend to involve virii (R'
Aharon Soloveitchik mentions this) or pyschological theories (as per R'
Aharon Lichtenstein about why they attack at night).

In which case they show up in the Bavli far more often because the amoraim
of EY were working with Greek natural philosophy. And would empower the
Rambam to "kill off" the shedim by showing why Greek thought is a better
choice than Persian.


3- It's aggadia -- assume metaphor. This doesn't rule out #2; even today,
people use popularized versions of scientific ideas as meshalim to make
metaphysical points. But it doesn't require that sheidim exist outside
the metaphoric, either.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
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