The Shedim are the demons of Jewish tradition: the general class of malevolent (and ambivalent) spirits that populate the unseen world alongside humankind, dwelling in deserts, ruins, and lonely places, capable of harm and mischief, against whom much of Jewish folk-practice and protective ritual was directed. They are the demons proper of the Jewish supernatural world.
The Demons of the Hidden World
The shedim (singular shed) are the principal class of demons in Jewish tradition — spirits of the unseen world who dwell alongside humankind in the wild and lonely places: the deserts, the ruins, the wastelands, the dark corners, and the places of impurity. The word appears in the Hebrew scriptures (where it is used for the false gods or idols to whom the wayward sacrificed, and for malevolent spirits), and in the rabbinic and later tradition the shedim became the general demons of folklore and demonology — the host of dangerous spirits that the living must guard against.
Between Angels and Humans
The rabbinic tradition gives the shedim a fascinating intermediate nature: they were said to share three traits with the angels (they have wings, they fly through the world, and they know the future) and three traits with humankind (they eat and drink, they reproduce, and they die). Created, in one account, at the twilight of the first Sabbath eve (when God ran out of time to give them bodies, leaving them as spirits), they are beings poised between the celestial and the human. They can be invisible or take various forms, especially that of unclean animals (goats, in particular — the word shed is related to the “hairy ones” or goat-demons), and they haunt the night and the unclean places.
The Warding of the Demons
The shedim are bringers of harm, illness, madness, misfortune, and mischief, and much of Jewish folk-practice — amulets, charms, the mezuzah on the doorpost, blessings, the careful observance of purity, and the avoidance of dangerous times and places — was directed at warding them off and protecting against their malice. King Solomon, in the legends, had power over the shedim and compelled them to serve him (as he did the demon-king [asmodeus]). They range from the dangerously malevolent to the merely mischievous, and they include the host of night-demons such as the [lilin]. As the general class of Jewish demons, the shedim populate the dark and threaten the order of human life. In the Shedim, Jewish tradition gave form to the demons proper — the host of spirits between angels and humans who dwell in the deserts and ruins, bring harm and mischief to the living, and against whom the amulets, charms, and protective rites of the tradition stood guard, the demons of the hidden world.