[Avodah] The Talmud"s Many Demons

[David Riceman]

Hiding behind the camera bag in a bookcase in a corner of my study I 
found a copy of Rabbi Movshowitz's commentary on the Gaon's commentary 
on the aggadta of Masseches Berachos.  even with the supercommentary 
it's much terser than the Maharal's Hiddushei Aggados, and I don't 
understand the details, but he does comment on two of the topics we've 
been discussing:

1.  God getting angry every day: He seems to treat this as a discussion 
of how Bilam is the anti-Moshe.  I could try to elaborate, but I'm not 
sure my speculations are worthwhile.

2. Ground up cat placenta: he cites the gemara in BK (60b) about dogs 
barking when the Malach HaMaves comes to town and says that cats are the 
opposite of dogs.  He says that black is a form of red (a gemara in 
Nidda), and that red and the angel of death correspond to the alafim and 
revavos in the pasuk the gemara cites "yipol mitzidcha elef v'rivvah 
miyminecha".

In general I think he takes the Maharalian attitude that the gemara 
talks "l'fi hatzurah v'lo lfi hahomer".

I also think that we've been too easy on ourselves in this discussion.  
We have many popular attitudes today which Hazal would have instantly 
recognized as nonsense.  A few examples:

Democracies never go to war with each other.

The state of the brain determines human behavior.

College education is the most effective entry to the middle class.

In the long term the stock market must go up.

I can well imagine someone who knows better nonetheless using one of 
these myths as an analogy to persuade his listeners of a true 
conclusion, rather than wasting time and effort on analyzing the fallacy 
of the myth in excruciating detail and thus losing the point he's he's 
trying to make.

David Riceman