RAV YOEL BAAL SHEM AGAINST THE FORCES OF EVIL & DARKNESS IN POZNA
Between the years 5441 and 5442 (1680-1681) there was a stone house that stood on the main road of the city of Pozna, whose basement was closed and locked and no one was able to enter.
One day a boy somehow breached the door and entered. The members of the household found him lying dead at the doorway to the cellar, the reason for his death was unknown and remained a mystery.
Two years later the external forces of darkness entered the chimney of the kitchen where the family was cooking and preparing food over the stove and they found all the pots filled with dust and ashes until all the food was ruined and inedible.
Afterwards the powers of the forces of evil grew stronger until they entered the living quarters where the family was living as well, they began to throw objects such as the chandeliers and various ornamental objects that were hanging, the evil forces seized them and cast them down until they fell on the ground. At this point however, the forces of evil did not actually harm anyone or disturb the inhabitants. Eventually they began enter the rooms of the home until their fear and dread spread over all the individuals and inhabitants and they had no choice but to leave and move out of there. A great outcry went out in Pozna and the entire congregation began to discuss what could be done and to seek advice as to what solution could be agreed on to this problem.
At first they tried to use the services of excorcists and other various priests but nothing they did was successful at getting rid of or chase out the forces of evil.
Afterwards they sent a messenger to the renowned Rav Yoel Baal Shem of Zamotsh and as soon as Rav Yoel arrived he began to adjure and use oaths to bind them with Divine Names to force them to explain the reason behind why these forces of evil came to this home that is inhabited by people and that normally the forces of evil have no permission to live or dwell in places that are inhabited or civilized, instead they live and dwell in filth, squalor and desolate places that are deserted. They replied that this home belongs to them and it is completely theirs according to the letter of the law of the Torah and they even agreed to appear before a tribunal such as a Bais Din and to try their case at the Rabbincal Court of Badatz Pozna.
The dayanim assembled together with Rav Yoel and they held a trial at the Bais Din. One of the demons spoke, all the dayanim heard his disembodied voice but they could see no form or visage from where it came from. The demon began his opening arguments as follows:
In earlier times in days past there was an owner whose name was such and such. That man was a smith, and he lived with a demoness, and together they had a family. She gave birth to his children, destructive forces of evil, demons besides the true human children he had from his human wife. The man was deeply in love with the demoness and his soul was bound up to hers and sometimes he would leave shul in the middle of services and do her bidding. Once in the middle of the Pesach Seder that he was conducting like all the Jews among the Jewish people, in the middle of the meal the smith got up from his seat and went to the lavatory. His wife suspected something and followed him to the out house and through the keyhole she saw inside the outhouse a beautiful room filled with a lavish table decorated with gold and silver tableware and a lavish bed where a beautiful demoness waited for her husband's licentiouss illicit attention.
She went back home in a terrible mood, frightened and despondant. A quarter of an hour later the smith returned and his wife did not mention what she had witnessed.
The next day the wife went to Rav Sheftil (the son of the Shelah haKadosh author of Vavei HaAmudim) and told him all she had seen and all that transpired.
The Rav sent for the smith and he admitted that he had a demoness for a wife. The Rav wrote for him a Kameo amulet with Divine Names and forced the smith to abandon his demoness wife.
Before the smith's death the demoness came and cried and wailed how could he leave her and her children? Afterwards she put on a smile and began to entice him with hugs and kisses until he relented and he promised her on his deathbed that she and her children would inherit him and have a portion of his inheritance for their own. He gave her the basement cellar. After many years and wars in Poland between the years 5400 and 5418 the smith died in battle along with his descendants and inheritors and we the demons are the only descendants and we have a right to our inheritance. This was the argument and the case as presented by the demon from the external forces of evil.
The inhabitants and dwellers of the home argued that they had purchased this home for a full price and paid up their share, therefore they had purchased the property rightfully and legally from the smith and his descendants and it was rightfully theirs. Besides, argued the human inhabitants, we are human beings whereas you are demons, whose demoness mother forced and seduced the smith to her wishes against him true will.
The Bais Din heard the case and handed down their ruling as a psak din that the external forces of darkness had no rights whatsoever to own a portion of that home since their primary place of residence is not in civilization at all, but in desolate barren wastes and deserted places. Then Rav Yoel Baal Shem adjured and bound the demons with an oath forcing them to leave the home and the basement cellar and to leave and go to the forests and dessert wastelands.
(Source Kav HaYashar Chapter 69)
