| V.
Soon afterward the young son of the king took ill. Said
Nebuchadnezzar, "Heal my son. If you don't, I will kill you."
Ben Sira immediately sat down and wrote an amulet with the Holy Name, and he
inscribed on it the angels in charge of medicine by their names, forms, and
images, and by their wings, hands, and feet. Nebuchadnezzar looked at
the amulet. "Who are these?"
"The angels who are in charge of medicine:
Snvi, Snsvi, and Smnglof.35
After God created Adam, who was alone, he said, 'It is not good for man to
be alone' (Genesis 2:18). He then created a woman for Adam, from the
earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and
Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,'
and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are
fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.'
Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both
created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another.
When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into
the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the
universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the
Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels to bring her back.
:"Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she
agrees to come back, fine. If not, she must permit one hundred of her
children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith,
whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the
Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she
did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the
sea.'
" 'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created
only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have
dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty
days.'36
"When the angels heard Lilith's words,
they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the
living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in
an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to
have one hundred of her children die every day.37
Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason,
we write the angels' names on the amulets of young children. When
Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers."
35: For an analysis of these names, which make their first
recorded appearance in this work, see Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and
Supersition (1939; reprint, N.Y.: Atheneum, 1970), 101, 102. According
to him, these names were probably pronounced as Sanvi, Sansanvi, Semangelaf.
They were portrayed in amulets as birds, a sample of which is used as an
illustration on the soft-cover edition of Trachtenberg's book.
It was customary in eastern Europe to post these names on the walls of the
room in which the newborn slept to protect it from demonic harm. See
Jacob Reifman, Ha-Karmel, 2:125.
36:
It is self-evident why Lilith has no power over a male baby past the eighth
day, since on this day the child undergoes the rite of circumcision.
But it is not clear why Lilith's power ends on the twentieth day after the
birth of a female. Trachtenberg's suggestion (Jewish Magic, 37) that
this may have originated in a period when the girls had an initiatory rite
on that day lacks support in the sources. In the Oxford manuscript,
the reading is twelve days instead of twenty.
37:
According to a midrashic tradition, Lilith is so cruel as to destroy her own
offspring (Numbers Rabbah 16:25).
Taken verbatim from:
Rabbinic Fantasies. Edited by: David Stern and Mark J. Mirsky.
Jewish Publication Society. ©1990
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