Q&A: The Reality of Demons and the Question of Rationality
The Reality of Demons and the Question of Rationality
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In recent days, a sharp and pointed polemic has been going on between Rabbi Navon and Rabbi Rot about the reality of demons—were they real or not? Honestly, whether they were or weren’t interests me less. But the question of rationality bothered me more.
At first glance, intuition seems to side with Rabbi Navon, who is skeptical of these things (like Maimonides), but Rabbi Rot presented convincing arguments. So many people said they experienced it, the Talmud is full of stories, etc. etc. I’d be happy to hear your opinion… If possible, I’d be glad to see a post about it; I haven’t seen that you wrote on this…
P.S.
I’m trying to send a link to the debates, but I can’t manage it. See online. I’d appreciate it if you’d address it. Thanks.
Answer
It’s hard for me to address such a general question. In principle, there’s no way to deny the existence of demons, but I’m very skeptical about testimonies concerning them. Rabbi Abraham son of Maimonides was already asked about this, and he said that reality had apparently changed from the time of the Talmud to his own time. That too is, of course, a possibility. In any case, the testimonies about encounters with demons are always about other people and never about the person speaking with you. In many cases, rational explanations can be offered. In short, very suspicious.
Discussion on Answer
There is indeed some connection. As far as I remember, I don’t. It’s in the books, of course.
So come on, Rabbi. I’m inviting a post 😉
With God’s help, 16 Tammuz 5780
To G. — greetings,
If in the time of the Sages of the Talmud and the medieval authorities it was hard to see the harmful agents found among us in huge numbers, “like the ridge around the pit,” and causing illnesses and weakness to “those scholars’ worn-out knees”—today they can be seen under a microscope (these are called “microbes”), or under an electron microscope (these are called “viruses”).
And just as the Sages described, these harmful agents, which cannot be seen with the naked eye, are found in places of filth and decay, and one of the effective ways to protect oneself from them is to be careful about washing one’s hands frequently, especially after sleep, contact with dirty places, and before eating and handling food.
And as they say in the Kaddish: “and rescue, healing, relief, and deliverance”—for keeping distance between people saves one from harmful agents.
With blessings, Donald-Hai Dak
Paragraph 2, line 3
…dirty places and before eating…
At one time I heard from Prof. Ezra Fleischer of blessed memory that Rabbi Prof. Shaul Lieberman of blessed memory did not accept the scholars’ claim that there was a difference between Babylonia and the Land of Israel regarding belief in the existence of harmful agents, because matters relating to them are mentioned less in the sources from the Land of Israel.
R. Shaul Lieberman’s argument was: Were the Jews in the Land of Israel not cultured people? Did they not accept in the Land of Israel the conclusions of the science of their time?” After all, even today’s “science” will, in a few hundred years, be considered “superstitions” 🙂
With blessings, Shai Tzai Rowling (with the letters transposed)
I asked a Haredi neighbor who wasn’t wearing a mask over his face to prove to me that he wasn’t a demon…
The claim that natures changed, or that reality apparently changed from the time of the Talmud, is a somewhat weak claim. Isn’t there a more satisfactory explanation?
I said that I’m not inclined to accept that. I assume it’s part of the conceptions that prevailed then, which saw demons where we see natural phenomena. See my mythological demons thread on my old site, and Column 22.
Correction: Column 7
It is impossible for a person to believe in demons unless a demon has entered him and scrambled his mind.
And I heard from behind the curtain that even demons who are insane are so only because of the shadunkolos within them, for horror within horror dwells there and terrors are with them, and this is the aspect of a demon within a demon inside itself, and that is the primordial serpent whose mouth is in its tail, and that is Leviathan the twisting serpent. That is to say, the righteous who eat of Leviathan have the power to identify the serpent by means of smell, as with King Messiah, who “smells and judges”; that is, “all the people shall know Me,” and madness will be removed from creation, and consequently there is no serpent—that is, no demon within itself, as explained above, for that is the absence of knowledge. This is clear.
Do you have a post about “taking a stand based on the familiar”? It seems to me there’s a connection to this question.