Q:
In the time of the Gemara people suffered from mazikim and sheidim. Where are all those mazikim today?
A:
What happen to the mazikim? First I’ll quote Rav Hutner zichrono levrachah. Rav Hutner said the Rambam came along and he gave an order that mazikim should disappear. That’s what he said. I heard him say it. He said that’s when mazikim stopped.
Without that, I can say a pashute sevara. Once upon a time, there were malachim. In the times of the nevi’im malachim appeared to people. In the Bayis Sheini malachim didn’t appear to anybody. So you see that as the madreigos went down, they didn’t have the same privilege of having contact with spiritual beings, ruchniyusdike creatures.
A sheid is also a minor form of a malach. A sheid is a minor form of a malach. And in the greater generations of old even though they didn’t have malachim any more, they still had sheidim. And some sheidim were even talmidim of the chachamim. Yonasan Sheidah was known. Yonason Sheidah was a talmid of the chachamim.
There are other sheidim who are like germs. They’re harmful. And you have to know how to avoid them.
But then the time came when we sank down so low that we’re not deserving to have sheidim either. We lost that privilege too.
TAPE # E-231 (May 11, 2000)
