<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><i>Chaza"l failed in their attempts to see them because they <br>didn't have the tools. Today, we have the tools to detect <br>them and have given names to many of the demons, e.g., <br>germs, microbes, bacteria, microorganisms, viruses, etc. <br>We've even found them in water. all kinds of usually <br>invisible single or multiple cells, amoeba, paramoecia, <br>etcetria and etcetria.<br><br>We even have found some of the good demons, yehudain, and <br>they are added to our yoghurt and called probiotics that <br>improve digestion.<br><br>Very brilliant of chazal to have figured out the existence <br>of invisible demons and differentiating between types, from <br>noting the results of their activities without any further <br>knowledge of how to see them or control their actions.</i><div><br></div><div>As has been already pointed out, that's definitely not what chazal </div><div>meant by demons. They were not speaking metaphorically. </div><div>However, I've given the following analogy which seem to resonate </div><div>well with my students: If someone were told in the 18th century that <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> there was a machine which gave invisible rays, and if you stood in front </div><div>of it, and allowed the invisible rays to penetrate your body, within a few </div><div>hours or days (exact time is irrelevant for the analogy), you would be dead,</div><div>you would say the person was mentally deranged and demented. Then</div><div>if the same person continued and said that a similar machine also gave </div><div>off invisible rays and if you had cancer and allowed the rays to penetrate</div><div>the tumor, you would be healed, you would "KNOW" with certainty that </div><div>your original analysis of this person's mental state was validated. </div><div>Get the point?? Context is everything! </div><div><br></div><div><i>The closer one comes to context, the closer one comes to truth</i></div><div><i>rw Aug. 16 2012</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px; "><span class="huge" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 15pt; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; ">For me context is the key - from that comes the understanding of everything.</span><span style="font-style: normal; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 18px; "><br><b>Kenneth Noland (1924-2010) One of the best-known contemporary American Color field painters</b></span></span></i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i><br></i></div></body></html>