#sheydim

[sheydgarden]

a really fun recent commission: this custom bookplate for the curator of Judaica at the Museum of the Bible! it's based on a variety of texts that describe (at least some) sheydim as observantly Jewish - especially the Talmudic stories of Yosef Sheyda, a demonic scholar or possibly even a rabbi himself. the quote in the window is from Psalm 24, "the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it" which is often written above an owner's name in Jewish books, but provides double meaning here for the fact that sheydim too are divinely created. Jesse shares my love for sheydim as transgressive, marginalized figures who are nevertheless deeply Jewish, so this was an ideal collaboration & a delight to make!

also done entirely in Procreate, inked with True Grit Texture Supply's "Rusty Nib" engraver brushes - totally in love with this new process & the relative ease of accomplishing this type/level of hatching vs. traditional media (giving me added respect for the 17th century printmakers I've been studying). i will always love working traditionally but adding more digital techniques to my repertoire has been super useful.

[freespiritlilith]

i see people are talking about this again so, from a queer trans jew:

LILITH IS OPEN! IF YOU WANT, YOU CAN WORSHIP HER! BE YOU JEWISH OR GENTILE 💖

Four points:

lilith is open, but making ancient levant pregnancy protection bowls with botched hebrew and saying its idk a modern michigander witch invention, THAT is appropriation. Just saying a prayer to Lilith as a gentile is, can’t believe i have to say this, not appropriation.

lilith is jewish, as known from oral tradition, ancient and medieval apotropaic artifacts, Zohar, and of course the Alphabet of (falsly attributed) Ben Sirach ~ she’s jewish but, just like judaism, she’s is an amalgam of common experiences witnessed by peoples in antiquity

lilith is actively worshipped, observably, in reality, by jewish and gentile women and queers for decades. My friends aren’t antisemitic just for me inviting them in, that’s batshit talk.

don’t tell anyone who to worship. this includes unsolicited suggestions to “swap” Lilith with anyone else. Imposing your religious beliefs on others is very, very culturally christian, so stop that. please.

[mightyostanes]

Against the Uwuification of Sheydim

"'I've upset you. I see that. But you know what it is to carve out your place in the world, to have to fight for your life at every turn. You can't imagine how much worse it was in my time. Women were sent to madhouses because they read too many books or because their husbands tired of them. There were so few paths open to us. And mine was stolen from me so I forged a new one.' Alex Jabbed a finger at Belbam. 'You don't get to turn this into some kind of feminist manifesto. You forged your new path from the lives of other girls. Immigrant girls. Brown Girls. Poor Girls.' Girls like me. 'Just so you could buy yourself another few years.'" -Galaxy Stern shutting up a soul eating revenant Source: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

First off this is my first post on Tumblr so please forgive any issues with formatting. I'm still getting used to this site's layout let alone writing anything that isn't solely for my own addled and deranged mind. Still, I hope that this is at least somewhat insightful.

Over the last few years I've noticed that there has been a tendency among young Jews online to make our folklore and mysticism 'cuddlier'. To suggest that not only do we have a hell but that quite literally everything in our cosmos is friendly and misunderstood. Sheydim become relatable mascots of groups traditionally marginalized within the Jewish community. The leviathan is treated as G-d's pet who isn't dangerous whatsoever and is instead merely a big fish. Malachim generally like humans and are on good terms with the Jewish Community. And Lilith becomes an empowered girl boss with her malewife Ashmedai. A lovely story that makes great fanfiction and Jewish aus, the only problem is that it's completely ahistorical and utterly misses the point of these stories.

Sheydim while not exactly ontologically evil were usually depicted as predatory, amoral and capricious. A good portion of Bava Batra 74-75 is dedicated to describing how pants shittingly terrifying the Leviathan is and how it could theoretically destroy the world. Malachim are often depicted as threats and enemies of Israel especially in narratives regarding the revelation of the Torah at Sinai (Exodus Rabbah (41.7; 44:8), Tanhuma (Ki Tissa 20), PdRE 45, and Deut. Rabbah (3.11). And Lilith as well all know kills newborn children and was the terror of expectant Jewish Mothers for centuries. With the origin of her being 'Adam's first wife' coming from the Alphabet of Ben Sirach. A satiric work written in the late Middle Ages centuries after the first attested use of amulets and incantation bowls to ward of Lilith or lilin in Mesopotamia. Even Ashmedai for all his honor and piety was still treated as an enemy of mankind on average even if he was by no means an enemy of G-d. Of course, that is not to say that Jews haven't worked with spirits in fact the opposite is true. Merely that these spirit workings were often treated as incredibly dangerous works that were a mixture of lion taming and nuclear engineering. Descenders of the Merkavah had to battle through throngs of angels to reach the throne. Sar Torah mystics had to gird themselves with spiritual armor not to be annihilated by the angels for the crime of existing in a similar dimension to them. Even the act of Indulcio or sweetening the spirits often performed by wise women in many Sephardic communities was very much akin to paying off the mafia or in more historically accurate terms, paying Jizya.

My personal opinion on the reason for this trend is specifically because most Jewish content creators have been immersed in culturally Christian environments their whole lives. So, it would make sense for them to want to participate in the modern trend of telling things from the monster's side of the story. Something that is intrinsically tied to the fact that most of these monsters were metaphors for or linked to the powerless and the marginalized. In these scenarios, to show the story from the monster or demon's perspective would be an easy way of challenging societal narratives that do have real harmful impact even if very few people use the literal threat of werewolves and Medusa as bludgeons against marginalized communities.

Second of all there has been a major trend in making Judaism 'the leftist religion'. The religion without the fire and brimstone ideas of sin and hell that turned so many people to secularism. Progressive Judaism often advertises itself as the religion where evil is simply a misunderstanding and that's all cleared up there will be no more evil. We prided ourselves for years for fighting people who wanted to annihilate use with compassion and understanding. That surely rather than being bad they were merely tragically misguided souls who needed our help.

The problem with this in a Jewish context is that from the destruction of the Second Temple onwards our monsters were usually much more powerful than us in every sense of the word. In our stories, the were-panther who preyed on children was not the despised woodsman but the local bishop who no doubt incited very real pogroms against us. In our folklore, the heretical necromancer wasn't some liberated free thinker but someone who converted to the dominant religion and helped to persecute their former compatriots. Even Lilith who has become the mascot for a sort of 'persecuted heterodox' Judaism was by no means persecuted on the world stage in most Kabbalistic Treatise. In these works, Lilith was not the despised vagabond crushed by a patriarchal power system but the consort of Samael and the Princess of the realm of Edom. Symbols of the Christian and Islamic empires that have persecuted us for thousands of years. Or to put it in a snappy manner, the Lilith of the Zohar has much more in common with Margaret Thatcher than Rosa Luxemburg.

Now is there sexism and xenophobia in our own stories of monsters and demons? Unfortunately, yes. The amount of sexist and ethnically chauvinist tropes applied to Lilith in the Zoharic corpus alone are almost impossible to count and deeply troubling for modern readers. But that doesn't change the fact that Lilith was first and foremost a metaphor for SIDs and later on the non Vatican sanctioned medieval Marian Cults that replaced the drinking of sacramental wine with the spilling of Jewish blood as their main devotional acts.

Nor do I think that having progressive or universalist values in Judaism is at all a bad thing. I fully believe in the inclusion of those marginalized by the Rabbinic establishments in the past and do not wish to see us delight in cruelty. In fact, one of my biggest fears is that we might begin to ignore the suffering of gentiles because we rightly or wrongly assume they hold strong antisemitic biases. It's just that now, in an era of increasing antisemitic violence from all sides of the aisle it doesn't seem like a good idea to try and fight people who want to destroy us with beatific compassion and understanding.

[thegayhimbo]

I already answered this in one of my reblogs, but this is something that needs its own post because I am truly sick of people like this:

Seriously? 😒

"Hammers is not a great answer to that IDK." You're really being wishy-washy about someone claiming a traumatized man deserves to be killed with hammers? Do you hear yourself? 🤮

Also, you think there's a "whiff of blood libel" behind the child-stealing allegations (Gee, I wonder why? 🙄) but you're "not ruling it out at all" because you allegedly claim to have seen an example of something like this, which we're supposed to take your word on while you provide zero evidence in the tags to back this up?

Are you kidding me?

For future reference, if you post crap like this, you're getting blocked automatically (as I did to this person). I don't have the time or patience for people who have a moral compass that's either broken or non-existent, and choose to indulge in this kind of bullshit.

[shtetlcore]

Shtetl Swag Competition Round 1

Masterpost

ROUND 1:

1. The Golem of Prague vs. The Tavernkeeper WINNER: GOLEM

2. Lemml (Indecent) vs. The Little Goat WINNER: LITTLE GOAT

3. The Rabbi vs. Fruma Sarah WINNER: THE RABBI

4. Leah (The Dybbuk) vs. The Shadchan WINNER: LEAH

5. Sheydim vs. Manke (God of Vengeance) WINNER: MANKE

6. Menachem Mendel vs. Tevye WINNER: TEVYE

7. The Wooden Shul vs. Mirke (Hereville) WINNER: THE WOODEN SHUL

8. Miryem Mandelstam (Spinning Silver) vs. The Klezmer WINNER: THE KLEZMER

9. Dybbukim vs. The Shnorer WINNER: DYBBUKIM

10. Yentl vs. Asa Heshel (The Family Moskat) WINNER: YENTL

11. Little Ash vs. The Feldsher WINNER: THE FELDSHER

12. Joseph’s Grandfather (Something From Nothing) vs. The Zogerke WINNER: THE ZOGERKE

13. Hershel of Ostropol vs. The Klogerin WINNER: HERSHEL

14. The Shammes vs. Anon’s Great-Grandma Babushka Riva WINNER: BABUSHKA RIVA

15. Shomer Dapim vs. The Wise Men of Chelm WINNER: THE WISE MEN OF CHELM

16. And They Were Chrevrusas vs. Shretlech WINNER: THE CHEVRUSAS

[urielthegolem]

Having a really witchy day.

☕️ This morning, when I added creamer to my coffee and stirred it in, I stirred clockwise to bring the intention to fruition and I just asked for a good, positive day.

🍓 For dinner, I went over to my partner’s new apartment and brought a jar of strawberry jam which I read was a Sephardic tradition upon moving to a new place. My partner took a spoonful of the jam and placed it in a small dish I picked out. It was for the sheydim of the house to snack on as a sort of introduction and to prevent negative feelings from the sheydim.

❌ Then I looked into curses and hexes. I don’t think I’m quite ready to do that yet and I’m a little hesitant karma-wise, but there’s some politicians and transphobes that really have it coming, so I’m studying it and on the lookout for a good beginner one.

⚧ When I got home, I cleaned and organized my space lightly. I carved the trans symbol into my candle and lit it with the intention that it should strengthen the trans community (myself included).

🎵 Now I’m listening to one of the songs on my witchy playlist, watching the candle, and reading up on some low energy magic for spoonies.

🧿 I’m also wearing my new evil eye necklace and it’s so comforting and makes me feel powerful and safe and connected to my ancestors

[ouroboros8ontology]

The tendency to push into the background those demons that are named in the Talmud, to deny them an important rôle in the contemporary demon world, is demonstrated by the comparatively few references to them, and by the nature of these comments. The demon Shibbeta, for example, who strangles people, and especially children who eat food touched by unwashed hands… this demon no longer frightened medieval Jewry. “The reason why people no longer observe the precaution of washing before feeding their children is that this evil spirit is not to be found in these lands.” This attitude was applied to many of the Talmudic superstitions which lacked the element of contemporaneity.

Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion; The Powers of Evil: “Jewish” Demons

​

[negative1humans]

Costume idea: shirt that says “Sheydim” with a picture of chicken feet on it except you’re wearing clown shoes so no-one can tell if it’s true without trying the weird ashes thing

[fallen-sams-blog]

Somehow this manages to turn heads of creepy old men that insist I have a drink with them. Gotta be careful out there with my charms ✨️

[garvgoyle]

Angel and Demon for inktober

[haymarketvtubestuff]

Me, a shadow worker who works with spirits, holding up a picket sign: LET SHAPESHIFTING DEMONS BE TRANS

[phoukanamedpookie]

If you want a lot of stories about sheydim and Jews interacting over the centuries, get your hands on a copy of LILITH'S CAVE.

I feel like the reason there aren’t any ‘Jewish hero fights the Fair Folk’ stories is because we’d easily get out of that situation.

Like, put Hershel of Ostropol in any situation involving the Fair Folk and bro would talk his way out.

[freespiritlilith]

Yes, it is ok for gentiles to worship Lilith

[shtetlcore]

Manke is a sex worker who falls for Rivke, the daughter of her brothel’s proprietor. Can she convince Rivke to run away with her, or will she have to watch Rivke be married off to some man she doesn’t love?

Sheydim are demons. A thousand on your left side, ten thousand on your left! If you want to see evidence of their presence, sprinkle flour on the floor, and in the morning you’ll see their footprints, which resemble those of chicken feet.

[ouroboros8ontology]

It is difficult, of course, to judge the emotional tone, the intensity of the terror which the medieval Jew experienced in braving such a demon-ridden world. Our sources are wholly impersonal; writing of an introspective nature was altogether unknown. We can only conjecture on the basis of the chance personal comments that wormed their way quite incidentally into a literature which was primarily legalistic and exegetical. It is significant, for instance, that a homely little book like the Yiddish Brantspiegel, intended for the intimate instruction of womenfolk, a book which certainly came closer to the folk psyche than did the more formal writing of the period, singled out as the foremost dangers to life and limb demons, evil spirits, wild animals and evil men. 

Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion; Man and the Demons: Attack

[punchyfeeley]

If you want a fun podcast about Jewish Demonology I highly recommend Throwing Sheyd!!

Hi Mr Gaiman! What do you think of Good Omens being rewritten from a Jewish perspective instead of a Christian one? (not for profit or anything just a fun idea to explore the theological differences through a work I adore)

If by "a Jewish Perspective" you mean, not using any material from the New Testament, you'd need to tell a very alternate universe version in your version of the story. Demons (and dybbuks) would exist, although there are different Jewish traditions about what they are -- but the concept of Fallen Angels isn't ever part of the story, so the Crowley and Aziraphale story might be a little harder to pull off. You'd lose the Four Horsemen, of course.

Here's a lovely article on Demonology from a Jewish perspective over the centuries: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/demons-and-demonology

You still have the apocalypse, of course (lots of lovely apocalypses predicted) but they tend to tie in to messianism. So you'd probably have Crowley and Aziraphale working to stop the Messiah from turning up and ending the world.

(Here's a great set of essays on Jewish Apocalypses: https://www.associationforjewishstudies.org/docs/default-source/ajs-perspectives/ajsp12fa.pdf?sfvrsn=17fadb06_2)

It's not really theological differences, though. Both Good Omens and your hypothetically More Jewish version would primarily be leaning into cultural myths and stories and stuff that aren't anywhere in the Bible anyway.

(And the original Good Omens was at least half-written from a Jewish perspective: mine.)