Beit Avi Chai presents "Demons and Spirits: The supernatural in Jewish tradition, psychology, and Hebrew poetry," with Talmud scholar Dr. Ruchama Weiss and clinical psychologist Avner Hacohen.
Demons and evil spirits, witches and magicians, mediums and necromancers-the supernatural has intrigued humanity since the dawn of its existence and continues to terrify us at night even today. Why are we drawn to the supernatural? Why did humanity create worlds outside their own? What is their importance to spiritual life and society?
A one-on-one encounter between the forces of darkness and modern psychology
Part 1: Lilith
Lilith, Adam's first wife and later the wife of Asmodeus, rebelled against her human husband and ran away from him, and she has endangered the lives of infants ever since. A literary and scholarly journey in the footsteps of Lilith, the first demoness, and of the angels that protect children from her. On amulets, spells, and modern feminism.
Tuesday, January 19, 8 PM
Part 2: Blessing and Curse
The world was created with words, according to the teachings of mysticism, and Sefer Yetsirah is entirely devoted to the creative power of the letters. The Bible and Talmud are full of stories and techniques that use words to create something or to influence reality for better or for worse. Can words really have an impact? On the relationship between magical faith in words and obsessive-compulsive disorder, psychosis, and child development.
Tuesday, January 26, 8 PM
Part 3: Leviathans
The sea and its depths were perceived in the mythology of the ancient east and in Biblical texts as an alternative divine force. There are many legends about sea monsters and encounters with them. Why did man invent monsters? Why do they exert such a powerful pull on children's imagination and appear in their dreams? And why does the sea draw people in with magic bonds-even people who have never seen it?
Tuesday, February 2, 8 PM
Part 4: Body
"The ego is first and foremost a bodily ego," Freud wrote. The scent of the body, its discharges, hair, and nails all arouse powerful reactions-both attraction and repulsion. On coping with bodily discharges, outhouses plagued by demons, and the slow decay of the body.
Tuesday, February 9, 8 PM
Part 5: Witches
The Torah commands us to kill them. The Talmudic tradition tells of the killing of eighty of them by Shimon ben Shetah and exposes the daughters of Rav Nahman, one of the greatest sages of the Babylonian Talmud, as members of their order. Who are the witches? What power do they have? Whom do they scare? On the universal impulse to persecute and burn witches and the connection to womb envy, racism, and xenophobia.
Tuesday, February 16, 8 PM
The series will be broadcast live, and a simultaneous event will be held as part of Zayit (Jewish Cultural Identity) in Emek Hefer.
This is a Hebrew-language only event.
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