Q&A: Angels and Demons
Angels and Demons
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I noticed that while Maimonides denied the existence of demons, he did not see fit to deny the existence of angels, as is explained at the beginning of the Laws of the Foundations of the Torah. At first glance, what is the difference? After all, if he denied demons because he had not seen them, then he had not seen angels either—and perhaps from this one could prove that he did see angels? Especially since in the story of Abraham and the angels, he explains in the Guide that these were not actual angels.
I thought perhaps this is because of his belief that the stars have souls, and from there the distance to angels is not so great.
As someone who has presumably seen quite a few angels in his life, could you explain this?
Answer
What you said is certainly a possible explanation. If the Holy One, blessed be He, exists, then it is also possible that His spiritual agents exist. Moreover, in chapter 2 there he says that references to angels are in metaphorical terms, and perhaps they are entirely a metaphor for what Plato calls Ideas—forms without a body. And as for the Ideas, their existence is part of nature and is included within the philosophical picture of the world (without horseness there is no horse, and if there is a horse then there is horseness), so there is no reason to deny it. That is not the case with demons, which are spiritual devils that have no role in the management of reality itself.
Discussion on Answer
Maimonides definitely believes in demons. See Guide of the Perplexed, Part I, chapter 7.
For heaven’s sake, this topic was chewed over at length long before Passover, but in any case see the Vilna Gaon’s commentary on Yoreh De’ah 179. I’m sure that with a quick online search you’ll find many more sources. (Also see Guide of the Perplexed 3:46, s.v. “And know”).
Maybe the demons can be explained as the idea of evil