In this piece, I will examine and discuss the nature of popular culture and myth when it comes to the dark side specifically the realm of devils, demons, vampires and ghouls.
Many legends were prevalent in Europe and Judaism has a belief in a being called the Golem which is a clay construct brought to life by means of Jewish mysticism or Kabbalah. There was also an old movie done in Germany based on it. In fact, the Frankenstein monster by Mary Shelley is supposedly based on the concept of the Jewish monster.
The Jewish Press has a column every week based upon the Golem and it always revolves around the same thing: The evil Priest, Thaddeus, tries to hurt the Jewish people in Europe and Rabbi Yehudah Lowe of Prague, aka the Maharal of Prague, activates his powerful creation, Yosseleh the Holy Golem, every time Thaddeus tries to kill the Jews.
And the craziest thing is that the last time I was in Israel, one of my oldest friend's sons tried to turn me into a golem to fight anti-Semitism. Talk about messing around with my head!
I started to become involved in reading monster magazines and watching movies in that genre over 40 years ago. I even helped stage a Frankenstein play when I was child over 40 years ago, too.
My family allowed me to watch movies and TV shows of this genre. I used to watch Fright Night with my sister and we enjoyed the movies so much we never fought during that time slot even though we usually were killing each other.
To be sure, not everyone I know approves watching movies about the supernatural including shows about so-called white witches like Charmed, Bewitched, I Dream of Genie or Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Once my paternal grandmother once told me off when she saw that I brought several copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland over to her house once.
In fact, Yael Dayan, the daughter of late Israeli general, Moshe Dayan, once got slammed across the room when she was caught reading a copy of a monster book.
I used to get the magazines and also heard about The Monster Times and owned other books like Dark Shadows and similar comics like Eerie and Creepy.
My experience is based on empirical evidence that quite a few people read these books and people are very enthralled about examining the side of what is called the Sitra Achra or the “other side” in Judaism. It's a means of coping with the idea that this life is not eternal and one day, we will all check out of here.
In fact, Chabad Lubavitch - a Chassidic organization - and many Christian publications discuss the nature of the realm of the Devil and how to wage war against it. Chabad's Bible the Tanya, talks about the nature of what's called the Yetzer Hara or “the Evil Inclination.” According to the Tanya, the Devil or Hashatan (“the adversary”) lives in the realm called the Sitra Achra or “The Other Side.”
I also know a Christian minister who told me that he has books on how to recognize demons and their appearance as they manifest themselves in people as a host body. I'm still looking for books about all of this.
According to the Kabbalah, the Yetzer Hara is lodged inside the left ventricle of the human heart. Even the ancient Romans knew that the left side was “sinister”.
Judaism also has a belief about Adam's first wife who he rejected because she demanded equality with Adam and became a demon called Lillith. The ancient Babylonians had a female demon called Lillutu.
Judaism also believes in the concept of night demons like the male incubus and the female succubus which; alight on a person as he or she sleeps. Other beliefs include the dybbuk (see The Dybbuk by Gershon Winkler) and the so -called nezikin, which are demons that come out every Erev Shabbat or Sabbath Eve on Friday night before it gets dark. Good orthodox Jews are praying in a temple during that time and are afforded divine protection as a result. And with our culture being so youth oriented, look at how much trouble people get into Friday night.
Some people believe in metempsychosis or the evolving or devolving from a higher order being to a lower order one like going from a man to a wolf in a subsequent incarnations or vice versa. Hinduism has the belief that a soul doesn't necessarily start out as a human being but may have to work its way up the ladder over several incarnations by accumulating good karma in several incarnations. A person can also go back down the ladder if not careful.
