Comments on: Reality and Hallucination: Towards a Talmudic Ontology of Consensus (by way of demons)

By: yechiel

yechiel — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 16:51:02 +0000

I did this and it worked! You see little foot prints in the ash the next morning. They look like tiny chicken feet only they have two toes on each foot.

By: PB

PB — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:31:51 +0000

Yeah, “hand” was really not necessary to get Rav Huna’s point across. But since the 10:1 ratio still applies, the demons perceived may still be very small.. or of many sizes, fractal-like, and perceived assymetrically by each hemisphere of the brain… who knows?!

By: Aharon

Aharon — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:16:50 +0000

Over at the Sefer Ha-Bloggadah, contributor Howard, writes about a teaching of Rabbi Yose concerning a blind man carrying a torch:

R. Yose said: All my life I have been perplexed by the verse "And thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind gropeth in darkness" (Deut. 28:29). What difference [I asked], does it make to a blind man whether it be dark or light? [Nor did I find the answer] until the following incident occurred. I was once walking at the darkest time of the night when I saw a blind man walking on the road with a torch in his hand. I said to him, "My son, what need have you for this torch?" He replied, "As long as I have this torch in my hand, people see me and save me from holes, thorns, and briers."

My comment on his post: Harmful spirits will manifest as dangerous objects... The exceptional case of a blind man traveling alone helps explain the teaching since the "virtual companion" provided by the torch obviously cannot see for him. But the case of two traveling together and avoiding harm should still apply to him, per the blind man's explanation -- we are enjoined to look out for each other. Just as the Torah forbids us to place a stumbling block before the blind, here the rabbis appear to enjoin us to also make certain to remove harmful obstacles that might bring travail to travelers.

By: Aharon

Aharon — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:02:28 +0000

Self-righteous indignation is only a short term remedy for that which annoys you so. If you really want to change someone’s mind the best place to start is by being intellectually honest, humble, and civil (ie., not chastising people you disagree with in the name of God). Like you, I don’t doubt that “demons” exist… I just wonder what they are. In my tradition, they are not called “demons” — the latter is a rather pejorative and admittedly misleading translation of the Talmudic terms I introduced above: sheydim and mazikin. I much prefer to translate these as “animistic spirits” and “harmful spirits” respectively. That the mazikin cause harm I don’t doubt either, but I am curious as to the nature of the harm. Is the harm due to damage caused by the mazikin themselves or does harm come to the observer simply because seeing the mazikin is disorienting and might welcome madness? Again, I don’t know the answer, so I can only speculate, observe from the world and human experience, and read these ancient texts with respect. And by respect, I mean, by trying to read them with understanding, in their original language, and in the context of the time in which they were written.

By: Tamara Adama

Tamara Adama — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 06:15:24 +0000

I get annoyed when I see explanations like this. Deducing the unseen world to a trick of the eye, brought on by a condition, just serves to make people who do see such things hysterical. This is not the case. Demons are as old as time. They were spoken of before the written word. I doubt every incident or sighting can be explained away by an eye condition. This is why the world is fated to succumb to the stupidity of those who choose to explain everything away so simply, even those things that have NO explanation. There is a world unseen within this world, and classifying such things as a matter of bad eyesight is just making it that much easier for the dark things that reside in the shadows, amongst us, to take this world when we’re too busy trying to assuage our fears with stupid ideas.

You keep making up excuses for the devil and God will never excuse YOU!

By: Yonah

Yonah — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:47:47 +0000

I just saw his website, and wow. That’s insane – such beautiful calligraphy, and the people are like calligraphy, too.

Re: dead trees – maybe, b’ezrat Hashem, but I’m too much of a pessimist to believe things will actually work out despite some kind publishers.

By: Aharon

Aharon — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:35:12 +0000

Yonah: I love your comix! Have you seen J.T. Waldman’s Megillat Esther graphic novel? Are you planning on publishing a dead-tree edition of your work?

By: Aharon

Aharon — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:33:03 +0000

bilbul: wow, that IS really odd. I looked at some of the other articles at come-and-hear and it seems you’re correct. I do think that it’s neat that these folks are helping me learn and share Torah though, regardless of their ulterior motive. Bizarre!

By: Old in the New » Blog Archive » Seeing demons in the Talmud

Old in the New » Blog Archive » Seeing demons in the Talmud — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:23:58 +0000

[...] Pescovitz at BoingBoing draws attention to Aharon Varady’s post linking ‘demons’ in rabbinic literature to “Charles Bonnet Syndrome, a disease [...]

By: Yonah

Yonah — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:34:19 +0000

I love this passage! I even made a comic out of it as part of a larger artistic project to comic-ise Tractate Berachot. There are tons of amazing demon stories in there. My favourite involves Raba and his wife warding off bathroom demons - wacky but cute. The interesting thing about 6a, though, is just how closely it resembles some folk methods in Ireland for seeing demons - right down to the iron container and putting the ashes in your eye.

By: bilbul

bilbul — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:02:16 +0000

Interesting ideas. I find it very unfortunate that you were duped by come-and-hear.com. They seem to have put a less offensive front recently, but their ultimate purpose is still vicious anti-semitism. They still have Elizabeth Dillings work (look her up on Wikipedia) http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling/dexhibits.html.

In their bibliography they include Schramm, Hellmut, Ph.D., Jewish Ritual Murder, a Historical Investigation, 1941, English translation by R. Belser, available at http://www.regmeister.net/schramm/schramm.htm. This website doesn’t work, but it still seems to be other places on the web. This book is solely blood-libel.

I hope you can find another source online.

By: Aharon

Aharon — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:04:52 +0000

By: Joe in Australia

Joe in Australia — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 10:46:34 +0000

“R. Huna says: Every one among us has a thousand on his left hand and ten thousand on his right hand. ”

You were misled by a bad translation. This means “a thousand to his left and ten thousand to his right”. The Aramaic (or the Hebrew original) doesn’t even use a word that could be translated as “hand”. This doesn’t damage your main argument, just the bit about the demons being really small.