Pesachim 111 a, b

Just noticed that this was filed as a 'draft'.  Whoops.


Daf 111 is a treat.  We learn more about the belief system of our ancestors - and not about 
G-d and G-d's power.  Instead, we learn about demons and witchcraft.  These are the daily scourges of our rabbis and their communities.  One after another, facts are shared on how to avoid demons and how to put oneself at risk.  As a reader in the 21st century, it is overwhelmingly clear that the rabbis are telling us how they managed to feel some semblance of control over their chaotic lives.

We learn about the dangers of urinating between things where demons might walk; the dangers of women sitting across from each other, facing each other - where they most certainly are practicing witchcraft.  We are told about Reish Lakish's avoidance of four things: drinking borrowed water, stepping over spilled water, walking between two palms or between a palm and a wall.  The rabbis provide us with many caveats lest we avoid all travel and/or drinking.  We learn about the dangers of a dog, a palm tree, a woman, a pig and a snake.  All of these are associated with witchcraft.  

Women are particularly demon-provoking, it would seem... or perhaps their penchant for witchcraft, mentioned at least twice in today's daf, is more powerful when a person's defenses are weakened by demons.  We are told that a person at the beginning of her monthly menstruation can kill one of two men if she walks between them.  At the end of her period, she will only cause one to fall ill.  

Amulets and incantations can be used to mitigate the effects of the predatory demons.  Men can recite the names of demons with a reminder that they carry no power, reciting text that begins and ends with "G-d" or "lo" (no).  Men can switch places with each other to throw off the demons.  They can find protection at times by riding on a donkey while wearing shoes. Thank goodness there are effective remedies.

Amud (b) describes different demons and where they live.  Different trees can house different demons.  Hard wood trees are different than soft wood trees; the shadows of trees can be particularly dangerous.  The Gemara tells the story of sixty sheidei demons living in a tree.  When an amulet is written to guard against one demon, a celebration was heard from within the tree: "The Master's scarf is like that of a Torah scholar, but we checked the Master and he does not know the blessing [over the scarf]".  Another Sage knew that a sorb tree would hold sixty sheidei wrote a new amulet against sixty demons.  He then heard "Clear your items away from here".  

As an aside, Steinsaltz explains in a note that Torah scholars wore scarves on their hats to demonstrate that they were married.  Interesting that men might show their marital status along with women.

We learn that some demons, like the ketev, come in two types - one that comes out before noon, swirling in kutach, and the other that emerges in the afternoon, circling in a goat's horn. Different demons appear at different times of the month; some are particular to certain months.  When Abaye sights a demon and trades places with his colleague, he is called to task.  Abaye explains that it is not time for the other rabbi to be harmed -- Abaye is poor and struggling while his colleague is prosperous.  It seems that demons are particularly interested in things that are holy, in people that are disadvantaged, in those who are weakened in some way.

At the end of today's daf, we move into warnings that seem to be straight-up superstitions, not connected even to demons.   Some of what we learn: Rav Yosef teaches that blindness is caused by combing dry hair, drinking from a dripping barrel, and putting on shoes while one's feet are still wet from bathing.  Hanging food in the home causes poverty, but not meat or fish (as that is customary).  Keeping bran in the house does the same, and leaving crumbs in one's home, particularly sprinkled about on erev Shabbat or on Tuesday nights, invites demons (not to mention mice).

Our final paragraph offers a few choice tips: Nakid is the administering angel over foods.  Naval is the administering angel over poverty.  A dirty home invites Naval, while a clean home invites Nakid.  A plate placed over a jug causes poverty.  Drinking water from a plate causes eye pain.  Eating cress without washing one's hands will cause a person to be afraid for 30 days.

All of these advisements, these words of wisdom, seem ridiculous to a modern student of the text.  And yet this was just as real as other halachot that our Sages shared.  This text is said to be the oral Torah, the word of G-d given to Moses at Sinai and passed down to all of us.  How do we decide which passages are valid and true and which passages are ancient superstition?  To pretend that every word is holy, G-d given, seems to be silly.  But to throw away everything seems equally wrong.  But how to choose what to keep and what to leave?  Liberal Jews around the world ask these questions every day... with very different answers.