History of Judaism in the context of "Demon"

A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in media includingfiction, comics, film, television, and video games. Belief in demons probably goes back to the Paleolithic age, stemming from humanity's fear of the unknown, the strange and the horrific. In ancient Near Eastern religions and in the Abrahamic religions, including early Judaism and ancient-medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered a harmful spiritual entity that may cause demonic possession, calling for an exorcism. Large portions of Jewish demonology, a key influence on Christianity and Islam, originated from a later form of Zoroastrianism, and was transferred to Judaism during the Persian era.

Demons may or may not be considered to be devils: minions of the Devil. In many traditions, demons are independent operators, with different demons causing different types of evils (destructive natural phenomena, specific diseases, etc.) in general, while devils appear more often as demons within a theologial framework; demons opposing the Divine principle. As lesser spirits doing the Devil's work, they have additional duties— causing humans to have sinful thoughts and tempting humans to commit sinful actions.

Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire corpus of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writings. It aligns with the Hebrew term Sifrut Chazal (Hebrew: ספרות חז״ל), which translates to “literature [of our] sages” and generally pertains only to the sages (Chazal) from the Talmudic period. This more specific sense of "Rabbinic literature"—referring to the Talmud, Midrashim (Hebrew: מדרשים), and related writings, but hardly ever to later texts—is how the term is generally intended when used in contemporary academic writing. The terms mefareshim and parshanim (commentaries and commentators) almost always refer to later, post-Talmudic writers of rabbinic glosses on Biblical and Talmudic texts.

Merkabah (Hebrew: מֶרְכָּבָה, romanized: merkāḇā, lit. 'chariot') or Merkavah mysticism (lit. Chariot mysticism) is a school of early Jewish mysticism (c. 100 BCE–1000 CE), centered on visions such as those found in Ezekiel 1 or in the hekhalot literature ("palaces" literature), concerning stories of ascents to the heavenly palaces and the Throne of God.

The main corpus of the Merkabah literature was composed in the period 200–700 CE, although later references to the Chariot tradition can also be found in the literature of the Hasidim of Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages. A major text in this tradition is the Maaseh Merkabah (Hebrew: מַעֲשֵׂה מֶרְכָּבָה, romanized: maʿăśē merkāḇā, lit. 'Work of the Chariot').