hey there!! ive found myself in a research-hole and wondered if i could get some other views- could jewish witches incorporate demons into their craft?? i assumed the answer was a straight up no but now im doing research into jewish demonology and its (somewhat unsurprisingly) a lot more complicated :')
hi! just to clarify - are you looking for the opinions of contemporary Jews who self-identify as witches, or are you trying to find historical evidence of Jews interacting positively with sheydim?
if it’s the first one, i think the answers are going to be highly varied! but i’m sure there certainly ARE Jewish witches who incorporate demons/sheydim into their practices, though they may not be a majority.
from what i’ve read, Jewish historical views on sheydim have ranged from total fear/rejection of them as dangerous or “evil” (though our concept of evil is decidedly not the Christian one - sheydim are part of the divine universe & have a distinct role to play, they aren’t in opposition to divinity or enemies of divinity), to considering them more like faeries in other cultures - something to be wary of, certainly something that could hurt you if angered & therefore something you should at least try to avoid or appease, but potentially useful in certain situations. the legendary relationship between King Solomon & Ashmedai (king of demons) seems to fall into this latter category.
there’s also a story about 2nd century sage Shimon bar Yochai collaborating with a sheyd (some sources say “Ben Temalion”, some say Ashmedai again) in order to favorably influence the Roman emperor - the sheyd agreed to possess the daughter of the emperor so that bar Yochai could exorcise her & receive a reward, which was the abolishing of a decree against Jewish observance!
so there’s precedent for sheydim being not-totally-antagonistic towards Jews, and also going out of their way to help us against greater enemies. on a personal note, i’m moving more & more towards considering sheydim a kind of patron of queer/trans/otherwise-marginalized Jews in my own spiritual practice, so you can mark me up on the “yes” side. - Ezra