|
Lilith: In Jewish tradition, where she
originated, Lilith is a female demon, enemy of infants, bride of the
evil angel Sammael (Satan). She predated Eve, had marital
relations with Adam, and must thus be regarded as our first parent's
1st wife. According to Rabbi Eliezer (The Book of Adam and
Eve), Lilith bore Adam every day 100 children. The
Zohar (Leviticus 19a) describes Lilith as "a hot fiery female
who at first cohabited with man" but, when Eve was created, "flew to
the cities of the sea cost," where she is "still trying to ensnare
mankind." She has been identified (incorrectly) with the
screech owl in Isaiah 34:14. In the cabala she is the demon of
Friday and is represented as a naked woman whose body terminates in
a serpent's tail. While commonly regarded as the creation of
the rabbis of the early Middle Ages (the first traceable mention of
Lilith occurs in a 10th-century folktale called the Alphabet of
Ben Sira), Lilith is in fact drawn from the lili, female
demonic spirits in Mesopotamian demonology, and known as ardat
lili. The rabbis read Lilith into Scripture as the 1st
temptress, as Adam's demon wife, and as the mother of Cain. [Rf.
Thompson, Semitic Magic; Christian, The History and
Practice of Magic.] In Talmudic lore, as also in the
cabala (The Zohar), most demons are mortal, but Lilith and
two other notorious female spirits of evil (Naamah and Agrat bat
Mahlat) will "continue to exist and plague man until the Messianic
day, when god will finally extirpate uncleanliness and evil from the
face of the earth." In Scholem's article on one of the
medieval writers in the magazine Mada'e ha Yahadut (II,
164ff.), Lilith and Sammael are said to have "emanated from beneath
the throne of Divine Glory, the legs of which were somewhat shaken
by their [joint] activity." It is known, of course, that
Sammael (Satan) was once a familiar figure in Heaven, but not that
Lilith was up there also, assisting him. Lilith went by a
score of names, 17 of which she revealed to Elijah when she forced
to do so by the Old Testament prophet. For a list of Lilith's
names, see Appendix. - Click
Here to View the Names in the Appendix.
|