Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Seymour Feldman on Levi ben Gershom (Gersonides) on the topic of Demons and Magic

Commenting on the demonology of Levi ben Gershom (Gersonides), Seymour Feldman wrote that:

 

In Leviticus 17:17, the Israelites are explicitly forbidden to offer any sacrifices to se’irim, which are usually taken to be some kind of demon represented by or manifested in goats. In ancient Greece they were called “satyrs.” A literal reading of this verse can yield the conclusion that at one time the Israelites believed in such things and made expatiatory offerings to them, but then the Bible prohibited these sacrifices without, however, denying the belief in satyrs. Levi will have nothing to do with this interpretation.

 

The word se’irim connotes demons, which are false imaginations that caused the Israelites to believe that things which are not really divine are divine. I think that because the planet Saturn was believed to have control over demons . . . and the goat is the animal representing Saturday (as is maintained in astrology), demons were called se’irim, or goats. . . . (Commentary on the Torah, 158b.)

 

In this passage Levi clearly connects the belief in demons to some astrological doctrine about the symbolic representation of Saturn by goats. The ancient Israelites, uncritically, believing in some false theory that attributed divinity to the planets, sacrificed to Saturn via his “sacred” animals, the goats. But this is nonsense, as his commentary upon Deuteronomy 32:17 reveals:

 

They sacrifice to imaginary entities that they believed were divine . . . i.e., these [entities] were thought to be gods, but in reality they didn’t even exist. They were only vain fantasies. . . . Demons don’t exist at all (Ibid., 242b).

 

It is not merely that sacrifices to demons are forbidden; they are forbidden because demons do not exist, and a sacrifice to or blessing over a nonexistent thing is a “vain” sacrifice or blessing. (The Mishnah explicitly proscribes vain blessings [Mishnah, Berakhot 9:3])

 

If, then, demons are not the causes of the various kinds of divination, all of which are proscribed by Scripture, what kind of analysis are we to give of these phenomena? This question is aggravated by the apparent acceptance of the phenomenon of divination throughout the Bible. Remember that the Egyptian wise men also perform several “wonders,” and the Witch of ‘Ein Dor is described as actually conjuring up Samuel from the grave. Again, it would seem not that the Bible denies these phenomena but that it just does not approve of them. On the story of the Egyptian wise men, Gersonides comments as follows:

 

I think that these wise men were people, who were well versed in Egyptian wisdom. This wisdom consisted of magic, whereby strange deeds were performed that natural methods cannot accomplish. This was done either by trickling the audience with optical illusions . . . or using natural devices to produce strange things, which seemed to be like those that are done by magic; or they actually performed these strange things by magic. . . . To this very day we don’t know very much about magic, so we don’t think it proper to say much about it . . . (Ibid., 58c-d).

 

This passage is interesting if only because it reveals Gersonides’ uncertainly about magic. He is prepared to admit that the Egyptian wise men did have some special skill and that it had to do with magic, but he was not clear on the nature of magic. At any rate, however, he is inclined to interpret this ability as optical illusion: the Egyptian magicians were able to deceive the onlookers into thinking that their rods had been magically transformed into snakes. Nevertheless, the vanity of their pretension was proved by the fact that Aaron’s rod really turned into a snake, which then proceeded to devour the wooden wands of the Egyptian magicians. (Commenting on the demonology of Levi ben Gershom (Gersonides), Seymour Feldman wrote that:

 

In Leviticus 17:17, the Israelites are explicitly forbidden to offer any sacrifices to se’irim, which are usually taken to be some kind of demon represented by or manifested in goats. In ancient Greece they were called “satyrs.” A literal reading of this verse can yield the conclusion that at one time the Israelites believed in such things and made expatiatory offerings to them, but then the Bible prohibited these sacrifices without, however, denying the belief in satyrs. Levi will have nothing to do with this interpretation.

 

The word se’irim connotes demons, which are false imaginations that caused the Israelites to believe that things which are not really divine are divine. I think that because the planet Saturn was believed to have control over demons . . . and the goat is the animal representing Saturday (as is maintained in astrology), demons were called se’irim, or goats. . . . (Commentary on the Torah, 158b.)

 

In this passage Levi clearly connects the belief in demons to some astrological doctrine about the symbolic representation of Saturn by goats. The ancient Israelites, uncritically, believing in some false theory that attributed divinity to the planets, sacrificed to Saturn via his “sacred” animals, the goats. But this is nonsense, as his commentary upon Deuteronomy 32:17 reveals:

 

They sacrifice to imaginary entities that they believed were divine . . . i.e., these [entities] were thought to be gods, but in reality they didn’t even exist. They were only vain fantasies. . . . Demons don’t exist at all (Ibid., 242b).

 

It is not merely that sacrifices to demons are forbidden; they are forbidden because demons do not exist, and a sacrifice to or blessing over a nonexistent thing is a “vain” sacrifice or blessing. (9)

 

If, then, demons are not the causes of the various kinds of divination, all of which are proscribed by Scripture, what kind of analysis are we to give of these phenomena? This question is aggravated by the apparent acceptance of the phenomenon of divination throughout the Bible. Remember that the Egyptian wise men also perform several “wonders,” and the Witch of ‘Ein Dor is described as actually conjuring up Samuel from the grave. Again, it would seem not that the Bible denies these phenomena but that it just does not approve of them. On the story of the Egyptian wise men, Gersonides comments as follows:

 

I think that these wise men were people, who were well versed in Egyptian wisdom. This wisdom consisted of magic, whereby strange deeds were performed that natural methods cannot accomplish. This was done either by trickling the audience with optical illusions . . . or using natural devices to produce strange things, which seemed to be like those that are done by magic; or they actually performed these strange things by magic. . . . To this very day we don’t know very much about magic, so we don’t think it proper to say much about it . . . (Ibid., 58c-d).

 

This passage is interesting if only because it reveals Gersonides’ uncertainty about magic. He is prepared to admit that the Egyptian wise men did have some special skill and that it had to do with magic, but he was not clear on the nature of magic. At any rate, however, he is inclined to interpret this ability as optical illusion: the Egyptian magicians were able to deceive the onlookers into thinking that their rods had been magically transformed into snakes. Nevertheless, the vanity of their pretension was proved by the fact that Aaron’s rod really turned into a snake, which then proceeded to devour the wooden wands of the Egyptian magicians. (Seymour Feldman, The Wars of the Lord, 3 vols [Jerusalem: The Jewish Publication Society, 1987], 217-18)

 

 

 

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 , The Wars of the Lord, 3 vols [Jerusalem: The Jewish Publication Society, 1987], 217-18)

 

 

 

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