Maoz Kahana
Tablet, May 31, 2023
“According to the Hatam Sofer, therefore, the verses in Leviticus that allude to the salamander cannot indicate a creature that is not part of the natural order, even if all the details of its existence are wondrous and magical.”
In 1651 the rabbi-politician-philosopher and ex-converso Menashe ben Israel (1604-57) published Nishmat chaim—a polemic treatise proving the immorality of the soul from almost every possible aspect. The course of the discussion led the author to look into the possibility of the existence of “mixed” human-demonic hybrids: “And indeed, if, as investigation shows, it is possible for women to have sex with demons, we must ask whether they [the demons] have reproductive organs.” To investigate the issue, ben Israel reviewed the opinions of “the great Christian sage Augustine,” alongside the words of R. Simon bar Yochai, and referring also to his own lived reality: “Now, all of Germany, Alsace, and France … know of the craft of witches … who are women who have made covenants with demons … They assemble in groups in a designated place where they dance and hop in the night, and they have intercourse with satyrs, that is, with spirits.”
As the discussion continues, Menashe embarks on a scientific description of such creatures, and questions the necessity of judicial actions against the human participants of such strange interactions, namely, the witches.
Nishmat chaim was part of an early modern process that saw an increased scholarly interest among Hebrew writers in novel intellectual regions and domains. As such, its use of intertwining scientific, demonological, and kabbalistic language closely corresponded with the literature of its age, such as Rabbi Aron Modena’s Ma‘avar Jabok (1626), or the more homiletic-theoretical works of kabbalists like Rabbi Isaia Horowitz’s Shney luchot ha-brit (1648), as well as the later, and more scientific-medical approach taken by Tuvia Ha-Cohen in his Ma‘ase Tuvia (1707), which was devoted to enriching Jewish knowledge with detailed scientific descriptions.
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