It turns out that the dark forces do not only exist in fairy tales, and are enemies of many of us.
• Magic, witchcraft and darkness: what is Judaism's opinion on the existence of supernatural powers?
Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid recently used the description of the "dark forces" as negative forces that motivate the groups of his political opponents on the right, which raised a sharp discourse on the issue of the place of expressions of this kind by a high-ranking state figure.
Even after he clarified his words and concluded the storm did not forget, since the "dark forces" express strengths coming from negative and destructive places that threaten the existence of the world.
It turns out that the issue preoccupies humanity a lot, and the war against these forces was also the basis for the best-selling series "Harry Potter", where the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is described, which trained its students to fight the dark forces.
So what exactly are these forces?
Do they exist in reality, and how are they expressed in the sources of Judaism?
He also learned about the dark forces.
Harry Potter, photo: PR
The Maimonides in his book "Teacher of Confusion" (3:22) illuminates the concept with rational vision and understanding.
According to him, the negative forces originate in the human soul, and are not an independent mystical entity that tries to destroy everything in its path.
This explanation comes after the event that appears in the Torah, where Balaam came to curse the people of Israel while they were in the desert, and encountered an angel who stopped him on his way and said to him: "Behold, I have gone out to Satan."
The Rambam explains the meaning of the name Satan: "Know that Satan is derived from 'he strayed from it and passed away', that is: he is interested in removal and removal, because he diverts from the path of truth without a doubt, and leads away in the ways of error" - the so-called - the inner voice that misleads us with advice worse during our lifetime.
The Babylonian Talmud explains that all dark forces come from the same source: "He is Satan, he is the creature of evil, he is the angel of death."
And on these words the Maimonides explained that the instinct for evil is created in each human being at birth, and in contrast the instinct for good is manifested only after there is perfection in a person's thought and intellect. The Maimonides concludes his explanation: "And therefore they said that the instinct for evil is called a great king, And a good creation is called a poor and wise child."
The embodiment of evil at its peak.
Illustration of Satan, photo: Getty Images
Rambam's view is that the evil instinct and dark forces are not a mystical entity that floats in the space of the world, but one that comes from the human soul and his thought and intellect, and that it is man who chooses to use these negative forces that are manifested in malicious, impure or forbidden thought.
However, in the mystical and Kabbalistic view, it seems that the dark worlds in Judaism are attributed to a complex and ancient world.
The Babylonian Talmud in tractate Nada (SA) tells about the people of the ghosts who were descendants of the Nephilim, who are two angels named Shimchazai and Ezal, who rebelled against God and fell into the world during the human generation, committed adultery with human women and their offspring were born with unnatural qualities and grew up to be giants. In the appendix to the Zohar book (Part 1, 19, 2) It is described that as soon as they arrived from the upper and spiritual worlds to our world, their bodies became material and their appearance changed.
According to the description of the Book of Zohar, they maintained intimate relations with the field "Naama" and gave birth from it to "Rohin Bishin and Shedin" in the world.
They taught the humans sorcerers, magic and the creation of weapons, and gave birth to the Nephilim and the heroes.
The Torah describes how "Kedral Omar, king of Elam, and the kings who were with him beat them (the people of the ghosts - 14) and slaughtered them" (Genesis 14:5).
A few of them remained, such as the refugee Og King of Bashan who was exceptional in size and strength and survived.
In several places in the Bible, other ghosts are described that are similar to giants: "The ancients will dwell in it, a great and numerous people, and they will rise like giants. The ghosts will think of them as giants, and the Moabites will call them giants." (Deuteronomy, 2:10-11). Think about it, ghosts will sit in front of it, and the Omanis will call them Zamzumim.
A great and numerous nation, and lifted up like giants, and the Lord destroyed them from before them, and they were enslaved, and they sat under their seal." (ibid., Shem 20-21).
According to the description in the Bible, it seems that they were mighty in power and terrorized mankind, as Rashi explains that the origin of their name (ghosts) comes from the language of laxity and weakness - "the mind that sees them - its hands weaken", and that is why they are also called terrors - "whose terror falls on mankind" Some have attributed the giant Goliath who fought with David before he was king in the Elah valley to a descendant of the ghost people, and as one who drained his strength from the forces of evil and impurity.
Evil forces, photo: Getty Images
The forces of ghosts in the gates of hell have become synonymous with death and hell as appears in the Bible several times, and have been described as those who are waiting for the time when they will receive renewed powers to have a bad effect on the world. It seems that Ezekiel prophesied about them in the description of the vision of the chariot. A source of sucking the forces of evil and evil in the world. The unclean shell sometimes looks beautiful and respectable, but it hides a dangerous fruit that causes serious environmental damage.
Evil and the forces of darkness suck and receive their powers to destroy the world from those who use them, and when they are left without powers - they will have no meaning at all.
The world itself is not inherently bad, but some sometimes use it for negative things.
Contrary to this, the dark forces are essentially negative, and everything that draws from them, even if it seems positive and good, carries danger, strife and discord.
The ability to examine if the evil forces are involved in our lives is simple: are we using something that is meant for the repair of the world or our destruction?
When a person does any act, he must ask himself what motivates him, building the world out of striving for a purer and better world or using all means in order to humiliate, kill, hurt and humiliate others.
The best war against the dark forces is to completely ignore them on the one hand and enlighten the world with good deeds that come from the positive and good forces of the soul on the other hand, thus the forces of evil become irrelevant and slowly degenerate.
According to the verses of the Bible and the Sages, when the world is reformed and filled with goodness, all evil will disappear from the world, as mentioned in Zechariah (3:2) "And I will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth", and following this, death will also depart from the world in the future: "Swallow Death is forever and the Lord God has wiped away a tear from every face" (Isaiah 28:8).
With the help of good deeds we will enlighten the world.
A woman donating blood, photo: Gideon Markovich
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