Editing Shedim (section)


{{Short description|Intermediary beings in Jewish lore}}
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[[File:Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae. Wellcome L0027769.jpg|thumb|The sheyd [[Asmodeus|Ashmodai]] ({{lang|he|אַשְמְדּאָי}}) in birdlike form, with typical rooster feet, as depicted in ''Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae'', 1775]]
[[File:Foster Bible Pictures 0074-1 Offering to Molech.jpg|thumb|[[Child sacrifice]] to the sheyd [[Moloch|Molekh]] ({{lang|he|מֹלֶךְ}}), showing the typical depiction of the [[Ammon|Ammonite]] deity ''Moloch'' of the [[Old Testament]] in medieval and modern sources (illustration by Charles Foster for ''Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us'', 1897)]]
{{quote box|width=30%|35. And they mingled with the nations and learned their deeds. 36. They worshipped their idols, which became a snare for them. 37. They slaughtered their sons and daughters to the demons [(shedim)]. 38. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters whom they slaughtered to the idols of Canaan, and the land became polluted with the blood. 39. And they became unclean through their deeds, and they went astray with their acts.|Tehillim (Psalms), 106.35-39<ref>[http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16327/showrashi/true ''The Complete Jewish Bible'']. Chabad.org.</ref>}}
{{quote box|width=30%|17. They sacrificed to demons [(shedim)], which have no power, deities they did not know, new things that only recently came, which your forefathers did not fear.|Devarim (Deuteronomy), 32.17<ref>[http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9996 ''The Complete Jewish Bible'']. ''Chabad.org''.</ref>}}
'''''Shedim''''' ({{langx|he|שֵׁדִים|šēḏim}}; singular: {{lang|he|שֵׁד}} ''šēḏ'')<ref>Russell, J. B. (1987). The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity. Vereinigtes Königreich: Cornell University Press. p. 215</ref> are spirits or [[demons in Judaism|demons]] in the [[Tanakh]] and [[Jewish mythology]]. Shedim do not, however, correspond exactly to the modern conception of demons as evil entities as originated in [[Christian demonology|Christianity]].<ref>Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum. ''The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence''. BRILL, 2015. {{ISBN|9789004306219}}. p. 127.</ref> While evil spirits were thought to cause maladies, shedim differed conceptually from evil spirits.<ref>Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum. ''The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence''. BRILL, 2015. {{ISBN|9789004306219}}. p. 128.</ref> Shedim were not considered evil [[demigod]]s, but the gods of foreigners; further, they were envisaged as evil only in the sense that they were ''not God''.<ref>Benjamin W. McCraw, Robert Arp. ''Philosophical Approaches to Demonology''. Routledge, 2017. {{ISBN|978-1-315-46675-0}}. p. 9.</ref>

They appear only twice (and in both instances in the plural) in the Tanakh, at [[Psalm 106]]:37 and [[Song of Moses|Deuteronomy]] 32:17. In both instances, the text deals with [[child sacrifice]] or [[animal sacrifice]].<ref>W. Gunther Plaut, ''The [[Torah]]: A Modern Commentary'' (Union for Reform Judaism, 2005), p. 1403 [https://books.google.com/books?id=wCTfI2rpvXEC&dq=shedim&pg=PP1422 online]</ref><ref>Dan Burton and David Grandy, ''Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization'' (Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 120 [https://books.google.com/books?id=vSWSSBU7EdwC&dq=%22The+Hebrew+term+for+demons%22&pg=PA120 online].</ref> Although the word is traditionally derived from the root {{sc|šwd}} ({{langx|he|שוד}} ''shuḏ'') that conveys the meaning of "acting with violence" or "laying waste,"<ref>{{cite web |title=Old Testament Hebrew Entry for Strong's #7700 - שֵׁד |url= https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&strongs=h7700 |publisher=BlueLetterBible.org |access-date=8 March 2019}}</ref> it was possibly a [[loanword]] from [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], in which the word ''[[shedu]]'' referred to a spirit that could be either protective or malevolent.<ref name="EliorSchäfer2005">{{cite book|author1=Rachel Elior|author2=Peter Schäfer|title=על בריאה ועל יצירה במחשבה היהודית: ספר היובל לכבודו של יוסף דן במלאת לו שבעים שנה|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Fg2TiVGRQ0C&pg=PA29|year=2005|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|isbn=978-3-16-148714-9|page=29}}</ref><ref>''Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses''. Judika Illes. HarperCollins, Jan 2009. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jDr51XX_YjEC&dq=shedim&pg=PA902 p. 902].</ref><ref name = PA21>''The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology''. Rosemary Guiley. Infobase Publishing, May 12, 2010. [https://books.google.com/books?id=NHosWhaeWDQC&dq=sedim%2C+assyrian+guard+spirits&pg=PA21 p. 21].</ref> With the translation of Hebrew texts into Greek, under the influence of [[Zoroastrism|Zoroastrian]] [[Dualistic cosmology|dualism]], "shedim" was translated into Greek as ''[[daimon]]ia'' with implicit connotations of negativity. Later, in Judeo-Islamic culture, shedim became the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] word for the [[jinn]], conveying the morally ambivalent attitude of these beings.<ref>Jan Dirk Blom, Iris E. C. Sommer. ''Hallucinations: Research and Practice''. Springer Science & Business Media, 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-461-40958-8}}. p. 237.</ref>