Shedim and Belief in the Words of the Sages

Shedim are demonic creatures that were supposedly created during twilight on the sixth day of Creation.

The Radbaz (Responsa, vol. 3 no. 405) dealt with people who were worshipping shedim. He wrote:

I subsequently found in the Meiri who wrote: "Those who believe in the existence of the shedim and their action are prohibited to ask from them, even during the week..." This agrees with what we wrote [above]...

But do not suspect me, because I wrote the words of Meiri, that I deny the existence of shedim. I believe all the words of the Sages, even their minor discussions. Even more so that the simple understanding of the Scriptures teach their existence: "They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons..." (Lev. 17:7), "They sacrificed to demons..." (Deut. 32:17).

There are two things to be inferred here:

1. The Radbaz believed in the existence of shedim and considered it proper to believe everything that the Sages said.

2. The Meiri did not believe in the existence of shedim.

However, it is difficult for me to understand why the Radbaz believed that the Meiri rejected the words of the Sages. The Meiri wrote a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud in which he explained, rather than rejected, all of the references to shedim. Thus, in his commentary to Avos (5:5), the Meiri says that the mazikin, that was said to have been created during twilight on the sixth day of Creation, refers to the yetzer ha-ra (evil inclination). In Gittin (66a), where we are told that someone who is in a pit and shouts out to write a divorce document for his wife, is not listened to because he might be a shed, the Meiri explains that the voice might be coming from a troublemaker, not necessarily a demon. On Berakhos (4b), the Meiri tells us that reciting the Shema on one's bed protects from mazikin--heretical thoughts. And on Berakhos (3a), he says that one does not enter a ruin because of mazikin, ruffians who might hurt you.

Perhaps the Radbaz had not seen these passages in the Meiri's commentary to the Talmud. Otherwise, I am at a loss.