Shedim
Romanized name: Sedim; singular: Sed.
These are spirits or demons in Tanakh & Jewish mythology. Shedim weren’t considered evil demigods. But the gods of foreigners. They were envisaged as evil only in the sense that they weren’t THE Hebrew god.
They show up 2x in the Tanakh (Psalm 106:37 & Deuteronomy 32:17). In both passages, the text deals with child or animal sacrifices. With the translation of Hebrew texts into Greek, with the influence of Zoroastrian dualism, shedim was translated into Greek as daimonia with negative connotations. Later, in Judeo-Islamic culture, shedim became the Hebrew word for jinn.
According to 1 legends, the shedim are descendants of serpents, or of demons in serpent form. This may be an allusion to the story of the serpent in Eden as told in Genesis. Another view is that they’re the offspring of Lilith. This is from her union with Adam or with other men.
While a 3rd version says that God created them on the 6th day, starting to fashion their bodies but failed to finish the job because he was observing the Sabbath. Even after the Sabbath, He left them as they were to show that when the Sabbath comes, all work still unfinished at the beginning of the Sabbath must afterward be viewed as complete.
As a result, the shedim have souls like humans, but don’t have bodies to contain them. Yet a 4th story says that the shedim have their origins with the builders of the Tower of Babel. In this 4th story, these beings were divided by their motivations into 3 groups of which the 3rd & worst comprised of those who sought actively to wage war against God & were punished for their sacrilegious hubris by transforming into the shedim. Finally, the Zohar describes them as offspring of the demons Azazel & Naamah.
According to Rashi, shedim like lillin (We mentioned these entities in our post about Lilith.), has a human form. Although no human body. They eat & drink as mortals do. They can cause sickness & misfortune, follow the dead, & fly around graves.
1 is admonished not to do anything that could invoke the shedim, such as whistling or even saying the word: shedim. The shedim aren’t always malicious creatures. They can be helpful. Some are said to be even able to live according to the Torah, like Asmodeus.
Conjuring shedim isn’t necessarily forbidden. Depending on whether the theologian discusses the topic views such as summoning to constitute sorcery. Even if summoning shedim is an act of sorcery & thus forbidden, consulting shedim conjured by a non-Jew would be permissible.
In early midrashim, shedim are corporeal beings. They take the form of men, but have no shadow, 7-headed dragons. If a man could see them, he would see them he would lack the strength to face them.
Although he can see them by throwing the ashes of the fetus of a black cat around his eyes, or by scattering ashes around his bed he can trace their footprints similar to those of roosters in the morning.
To see if the shedim were present, ashes were thrown to the ground or floor, which rendered their footsteps visible. Shedim can shape shift. Sometimes assuming a human form, the Talmud tells how Asmodeus assumed King Solomon’s form & ruled in his place for a time.
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