Is it true that in today’s times demons no longer exist?

There is a very well-known saying that the Baal Shem Tov eradicated the demons from the world and therefore there are no longer any demons today. Is this true and is there a source for this statement?

Answer:

What is documented is that the Besht eradicated the demons from being found in settled developed areas, however not that he banished them from planet Earth, and on the contrary the Halachic dangers of demons applies even today as recorded in the Poskim.

Explanation: I am not aware of any source for this statement, and on the contrary, the concept of demons are recorded in Toras of Talmidei Habesht, including in the Shulchan Aruch of the Alter Rebbe in which there are a number of restrictions and laws recorded due to danger of demons. Would all these laws now be obsolete, and if so then why were they recorded? Did the Alter Rebbe not get the memo that the Baal Shem Tov got rid of them? Likewise, the Machaneh Chaim in a responsa written in the mid-1800s discusses an entire Halachic question relating to an actual case that occurred in his days involving demons and in no area does he dismiss their existence and rather takes the story very seriously and addresses the Halachas relating to it. In truth however there is no smoke without fire, and hence seemingly the above unsubstantiated rumor in the name of the Besht is based on the following documented statement regarding the Besht: In Shivchei Habesht it is recorded that the Besht would use demons for various purposes including to help save the Jewish people from various threats and calamities. In his Sefer Dvar Torah, the Munkatcher writes that the Besht later regretted this because of the damage that these demons can cause and the fact that they were not to be trusted in their missions and he therefore distanced them settled communities, i.e. Yishuv. Seemingly, this simply means that he banished them from being around communities of people which in any event they don’t really have permission to be in, as they are only commonly found in deserted areas. To take this statement and expand it to mean that he banished the demons from the entire planet Earth, I would say is an overstatement with no substantiation.

Sources: See Admur Shemiras Guf Halacha 6 and Kunrtus Achron 1; Machaneh Chaim E.H. 3:55; Shivcheiy Habesht p. 55 [p. 26 in Kapust 1815 print]; Devar Torah Mahadura Teshiah 89 p. 300