There’s an “Aggadita (narrative portion of the talmud)”, in the first three pages on the entire talmud tgat is very interesting. It details the adventure of Rabi Yosei, as he walks through Jerusalem after the destruction of the temple. He hears a voice – that of a dove cooing- that is seemingly from heaven, beckoning him to enter a nearby ruin and pray. He stops and prays and Elijah the Prophet watches over him. When he leaves the ruin, he is told that it is forbidden to enter a ruin for three reasons: 1. it is suspicious, 2. it is dangerous, 3. because demons reside in them.

Now I’m a rationalist. I believe in Torah and Mitzvot and Halacha and a relationship with the creator of the world. But for the life of me I’m lost on two pieces of this particular story: 1. A dove called out from heaven? and 2. I reject the idea of demons! it doesn’t fit into a Maimonidean belief structure!  I take a rationalist approach to the Torah and the machinations of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so how do I reconcile this passage of the Talmud with my belief structure?

In order to answer that, we have to understand a deep, kabbalistic concept: there is an aspect of us that is inherently Godly. we all have a tiny spark of God inside of us that makes us “someone”- as my Rebbe says- some of the one. It seems to me that’s where this “Bat Kol” comes from, in a way, the heavenly voice Rabbi Yosei hears come from his deepest self/aspect of God, and beckons him into the ruin to pray.

I think that we gain an understanding of demons by understanding that an Aggadita doesn’t have to be literal, rather we must take it seriously. What actually happens in this story? Rabbi Yosei hears the call to pray from his highest/deepest self and begins to pray. The demon is the double edged sword of understanding that there is an aspect of God inside of us, not that we are God. The demon that awaits us when listening to our deepest self is when we begin to lack humility and believe that the greatness that we are capable comes from ourselves and not from God. When we forget that we believe God is in everything, but not everything is God, we allow our demons to overtake us.

This in fact was the pitfall of many civilizations and their relationships to idolatory, according to Maimonides. In the beginning of Hilchot Avodah Zarah, Maimonides teaches that the worshippers of different sects of idolatry all began with serving the God that we do. Then they began to see God in everything else: Trees, Mountains, the Lumuniaries, etc. and forgot that those things were PART of god, not actually God.

I want to leave you with the message, that it’s not hard to walk the correct path in this case, we live in an enlightened age, where Rav Google, and MoHaran Wikipedia can help us understand the world. But we should never forget that our charge in this world is to understand our place in it, and take the aspect of Godliness within us and bring light to the world.

Shabbat Shalom!

Zach Morrow

JSU Club Coordinator