That is why it is written that a man may not sleep alone in a house, for Lilith will attempt to seduce him. She will slip in if the window is open a crack, slip beneath the door and beneath the sheets. Her long hair is jet black. Many a man has felt it hanging in his face as he lay asleep, dreaming lustful dreams. After she steals his seed, Lilith gives birth to mutant demons, half human and half demon, who are destined to be outcasts. Humans will hate them, because they are half demon, and demons will hate them because they are half human.
To lead the hearts of men astray, Lilith adorns herself with all manner of decorations, and stands at the entrance to roads and paths. She dresses for seduction, with earrings from Egypt and jewels hung around her neck. Her hair is long and red, her face white and pink, with six pendants hanging from her ears and all the ornaments of the East encircling her neck. Her mouth is like a tiny door, her lips beautiful, her words smooth as oil, and her tongue sharp as a sword.
They will encounter her in a forest or a ruin, or in the cellar where an innkeeper takes his naps. One fool after another runs after her, drinks from her cup of wine, sleeps on her bed of Egyptian flax. And when he wakes up, thinking to sport with her, she takes off her finery and turns into a fierce warrior, her garment of flaming fire, her eyes horrific, and causes his body and soul to tremble, her sword sharpened with drops of poison. Then she kills him with a sharp sword from which bitter drops fall, and casts him into the very pit of hell.
This account of Lilith from the Zohar demonstrates how she is viewed as a murderous demon, who uses her sexual powers to destroy men. In the Zohar, Lilith is viewed as the primary feminine force of evil, while Samael is the primary male force. While in the Talmud (B. Eruvin 100b) Lilith is generally described as having long, black hair, there are other sources, such as this one, where her hair is described as red. Some sources even assert that Lilith has wings (B. Nidah 24b). This links Lilith even closer to the Babylonian night demonesses Lilitu and Lamashtu.
Sources:
B. Shabbat 151b; B. Eruvin 100b; Zohar 1:148a-b; Zohar 3:19a.
Studies:
The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patal.
Lilith—The First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine by Siegmund Hurwitz.
263. A SPELL TO BANISH LILITH
OUT LILITH! I adjure you, Lilith, in the Name of God, and in the names of the three angels sent after you, Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to remember the vow you made that when you find their names you will cause no harm, neither you nor your cohorts; and in their names and in the names of the seals set down here, I adjure you, Queen of Demons, and all your multitudes, to cause no harm to a woman while she carries a child nor when she gives birth, nor to the children born to her, neither during the day nor during the night, neither through their food nor through their drink, neither in their heads nor in their hearts. By the strength of these names and seals I so adjure you, Lilith, and all your offspring, to obey this command.
This text is used to ward off the demoness Lilith in her attempts to strangle newborn babies. The text is placed inside of amulets worn by mothers during pregnancy, and hung above the beds of babies after they are born. Lilith played the role of a child-destroying witch, for it was she who was blamed for the scourge of infant mortality. This text alludes to the story of how Lilith abandoned Adam and the Garden of Eden for a cave by the Red Sea. The demons were sent to order her to return to her husband, but she refused. After bargaining with the angels, they came to an agreement whereby Lilith would not try to harm any mother or infant protected by this amulet. See “Adam and Lilith,” p. 216.
Sources:
Sefer Raziel.
264. THE WOMAN IN THE FOREST
Lilith seeks, above all, to seduce the best ones, knowing that if she can conquer them, the others will fall into her hands as well. Once she decided to try to seduce Rabbi Elimelekh of Lizhensk.
At that time Rabbi Elimelekh was still a young man. He spent all day in the house of study, and at night he walked home through the forest, always taking the same path.
One night, as he was walking through the forest, he saw a light in the distance. Curious to know what it was, he left the path and followed the light. Before long he saw that it was coming from a cottage, one that he had never before seen in the forest. As he came closer, he peered into the window, and there he saw a woman with long, dark hair, who was wearing a very thin nightgown.
As soon as he saw her, Reb Elimelekh knew he did not belong there, and he turned to leave. Just then the door to the cottage opened, and the woman called out: “Reb Melekh, wait! Please, come in.” So Reb Elimelekh went in. Then the woman closed the door and stood before him and said: “Reb Melekh, I have seen you pass through the forest many times, and I have often hoped you would visit me. You know, I bathed in the spring today and I am clean. Surely the sin would be slight, but the pleasure would be abundant.” And she dropped her gown.
Reb Elimelekh stared at her with disbelief and struggled with himself, as did Jacob with the angel. And at last he wrenched out, “No!” At that instant the woman vanished, and the cottage disappeared, and Reb Elimelekh found himself standing alone in the forest. And there were glowworms at his feet.
The woman in this tale is not identified, but everyone among the Hasidim who heard it knew exactly who she was—Lilith, or one of the daughters of Lilith. So vivid was the presence of Lilith in their lives that she became the primary projection of their sexual fantasies and fears.
Lilith, as in this tale, is usually portrayed as having black hair. In fact she is characterized this way in the Talmud (B. Eruvin 100b). She is brazen from the first, calling Reb Elimelekh not by his full name, Elimelekh, but by his familiar name, Melekh. This conveniently lets her avoid pronouncing Eli, “my God,” which, as a demoness, she is forbidden to do. The fact that her hair is long indicates that she is unmarried, while having bathed in the spring informs him that she has purified herself in a mikveh. She is appealing to his knowledge of the Law when she tells him that the sin will be slight and the pleasure abundant. According to Deuteronomy 22:22, If a man be found lying with a married woman, then they shall both die. However, the expected parallel about a married man lying with an unmarried woman is missing, and, according to rabbinic principles of interpretation, what is not stated is not a law. Therefore, the sin is slight, since the law does not identify it as adultery. It is a sin, but not a mortal one.
Thus Lilith comes equipped with many weapons. She does not only use the power of lust, her greatest power, but also appeals to his intelligence. Rabbi Elimelekh escapes, but only after a considerable struggle. The glowworms at the end indicate that Lilith has lost her power over him and Lilith has been revealed in her true form, that of a worm. Or, if this story is read as a Hasidic sexual fantasy, that the fantasy has reached its climax.
The fact that the tale is attributed to Reb Elimelekh of Lizhensk indicates that Lilith was brazen enough to approach even the holiest of men. Indeed, this was her intention. For if she could corrupt the best ones, the others would be sure to follow. Reb Elimelekh resists, but barely. The power of the Yetzer ha-Ra, the Evil Inclination, affects everyone on this earth, even rebbes. There is also a compensating force, the yetzer ha-tov, the Good Inclination. But, as might be expected, there is much more heard of the Yetzer ha-Ra in Jewish lore than there is of the yetzer ha-tov.
Sources:
Ohel Elimelekh; Sefer Or Yesharim story no. 199; Zikaron Tov; Ohalei Shem; Devet Brán.
265. THE CELLAR
Every impurity engenders demons. Whenever a man’s seed is spilled, his demon offspring are conceived. Lilith or one of the daughters of Lilith steals it. A drop is all that is needed.
These demon sons regard the man as their father. They find a place to live in his house, whether in an attic or a cellar, or even in a closet. They make their home there.
Not even married men are safe from the lure of Lilith. No sooner do their wives turn their backs, than Lilith seeks ou
t victims among them. She appears to them as dreams during the night, and as visions during the day. Sometimes Lilith so sways a man that she becomes his secret wife.
That is what happened in the city of Posen, where there once was a goldsmith who was secretly married to Lilith. The demoness lived in the cellar, where the goldsmith had his workshop. He spent time with his demon lover every day, while keeping her existence secret from his family. Little by little the goldsmith yielded everything to her, lusting after her day and night.
Once it happened that the goldsmith even got up in the middle of the Seder, when the words “And they went down into Egypt” were read, and he went down to the cellar. His real wife followed after him, afraid that he was ill. She peered through the keyhole of the cellar door, and saw that the cellar had been transformed into a palatial chamber, while her husband lay naked in the arms of a lover. Maintaining control of herself, she returned to the Seder and revealed nothing to the rest of the family. But the next day she went to the rabbi and told him everything.
The rabbi confronted the man with his sin and he confessed. Then the rabbi gave him an amulet to protect himself against Lilith, and he used it to free himself of her. But before she would release him, Lilith demanded that the cellar be bequeathed to her and their demon offspring for all time, and the man took a vow to this effect. He escaped her powers all the rest of his life, but as he lay on his deathbed, his demon children swarmed around him, invisible to his human family, crying out his name.
After his death the house became known as being haunted. Eventually it was sold, and the new owner had a workman break open the door to the cellar, which had been nailed shut. When that workman was found dead on the threshold, Rabbi Yoel Ba’al Shem was sent to investigate. He confirmed that the cellar was infested with demons, and he ordered a rabbinic court, a Beit Din, to be convened. The court ruled against the demons’ right to live in the cellar there, on the grounds that the demons transgressed the boundaries of the cellar, and they were expelled into the wilderness.
One of the most popular and pervasive beliefs in Jewish folk tradition is that the demoness Lilith or one of her daughters, the Lilin, seek to steal a man’s seed, in order to create a demon who is half-human and half-demon. These demonic sons are said to haunt their fathers all their lives. The struggle portrayed in this and other similar tales can be seen as one between humans and demons, with offspring who are half-human, half-demonic—or, as a struggle between Jews and Gentiles, where Jewish men are lured by Gentile women, and their offspring are half-Jewish, half-Gentile. In both cases the offspring are spurned by both sides.
Lilith plays a major role in Jewish lore as the incarnation of lust. She haunts men in their dreams and imaginations. Every time a man had a sexual dream or fantasy, he was believed to have had intercourse with Lilith, and the product of this intercourse were mutant demons, half human and half demon, who were spurned by humans and by demons alike. The story recounted here is a famous 17th-century folktale from the ethical text Kav ha-Yashar.
Among the oral traditions about a man’s demon sons is that that when he lies on his deathbed, his demon sons surround him, crying out his name. So too are the demon sons said to accompany a man’s human sons to the cemetery, where they mourn for him. To deceive the demons, his true sons do not take a direct path to the funeral, but set off in the opposite direction. Once they reach the cemetery, they read Psalm 91 out loud, to ward off the demons. Then they form a sacred circle and dance around the dead man seven times. This prevents the demon sons from approaching the deceased and demanding their inheritance.
Psalm 91 is the psalm used to ward off demons and is believed to invoke supernatural protective qualities. It is recited to keep away the forces of evil. Especially important is the verse, He will order his angels to guard you wherever you go (Psalms 91:11). It also includes verses such as, You need not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, the plague that stalks in the darkness, or the scourge that rages at noon (Ps. 91:5-6).
These folk traditions grow out of a belief in extreme sexual purity, where any accidental or intentional spilling of a man’s seed is regarded as a sin, the sin of Onan (Gen. 38:8-10). So too do they reflect the widespread belief—and fear—of succubi, in the form of Lilith and her daughters. For more on nocturnal emissions, see B. Berakhot 57b and B. Yevamot 76a.
Sources:
Kav ha-Yashar; Ohel Elimelekh; Sefer Or Yesharim story no. 199; Zikaron Tov; Ohalei Shem; Zohar 1:48a-b; Ma’asiyot me-Tzaddikei Yesodei Olam; Moraim Gedolim; Hemdat Yamim 2:98b; Korban Shabbat 18c; Sha’ar ha-Kavvanot 56b-c; Ta’amei ha-Minhagim 436; Oxford Hebrew ms. Oppenheim 540 (no. 1567 in Neubauer’s Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library), attributed to Judah the Pious; HaSulam on Zohar, Vayishlah 1-4; oral version collected by Howard Schwartz from his father, Nathan Schwartz.
Studies:
“Tradition and New Creation in the Ritual of the Kabbalists,” in On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism by Gershom Scholem, pp. 118-157.
“Two Magical Bowls in Teheran” by C. H. Gordon. Orientalia, vol. 20, 1951, pp. 306ff.
The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patai.
“Five Versions of the Story of the Jerusalemite” by Joseph Dan.
266. LILITH, THE QUEEN OF ZEMARGAD
Lilith, the Queen of Zemargad, has the form of a beautiful woman from the head to the navel, and from the navel down she is flaming fire. Her only intention is to arouse wars and all kinds of destruction. It was she who seized and killed the sons of Job.
Her lovers include the demons Samael and Ashmedai, the King of Demons. Indeed, great jealousy sprang up between the demons Samael and Ashmedai over Lilith.
When God brings about the destruction of Rome, and turns it into a ruin for all eternity, He will send Lilith there, and let her dwell in that ruin, for she is the ruination of the world, as it is said, And Lilith shall repose there (Isa. 34:14).
Just as the sirens in Greek mythology are destructive female creatures, half-woman and half-bird, so Lilith is described here as being half-woman, half-fire. This description serves a dual purpose. On the one hand it shows that she is not a real woman, but some kind of strange creature, and the fire that makes up her lower half symbolizes the fires of desire that she awakens and that her role is directly related to lust.
In Jewish folklore, Lilith is identified as the Queen of Demons and is said to be married to Ashmedai, the King of Demons. In this myth, where the view of Lilith is entirely negative, she is viewed as a destructive creature who provokes nothing but lust and jealousy. Even her demon lovers, Samael and Ashmedai, fight over her. But, the myth promises, the day will come when, like Rome, Lilith will receive her just punishment and be forced to live in a ruin, since she has ruined so many lives. See “The Two Liliths,” following, for a variant myth.
Sources:
Targum to Job 1:15; Kabbalot in Mada’ei ha-Yahadut 2:257; Zohar 3:19a.
267. THE TWO LILITHS
Some say there are two Liliths. One is the spouse of Samael and the other is the spouse of Ashmedai. On Yom Kippur the two Liliths go forth into the desert and screech. And when the two meet there, they quarrel in the desert, and they strive with each other until their voices rise up to heaven, and the earth shakes with their clamor. God sees that this takes place so that the two Liliths should not accuse Israel while Israel is at prayer on Yom Kippur.
Kabbalistic texts identify two Liliths, one sometimes known as Grandmother Lilith the Great and the other as Little Lilith. Mythic speculation about two Liliths grows out of two separate traditions about Lilith, one linking her to the demon Samael, and the other linking her to Ashmedai, the King of Demons. One of Lilith’s specialties is to distract men while they are at prayer with lascivious thoughts. Here God sees to it that Lilith cannot distract Israel on Yom Kippur by sending the two Liliths out into the desert, where they screech and struggle with each other.
This myth of the two Liliths being sent out into the desert on Yom
Kippur seems to be parallel to that of the scapegoat sent out into the desert to Azazel on Yom Kippur (Lev. 16:20-22). See “A Scapegoat for Azazel,” p. 295. But it replaces the male demon of the biblical myth—Azazel—with a female demon, Lilith. And instead of the scapegoat being sent to Azazel, the two Liliths are sent out to quarrel and screech at each other, distracting them and thus preventing them from accusing the people of Israel on the Day of Atonement. See “The Ba’al Shem Tov Ascends on High,” p. 209 for another example of the theme of silencing the Accuser.
A parallel mythic development is found in the myth of the two Messiahs, Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David. See “The Two Messiahs,” p. 517.
Sources:
Pardes Rimmonim 186d; Kabbalot in Mada’ei ha-Yahadut 2:257.
268. LILITH’S CHILDREN
In his travels, Rabbah bar Bar Hannah reached the city of Mehuza. There he saw Hurmin, the son of Lilith, running along the battlements of the walls of the city. A cavalryman was chasing him from below, but even though he was riding on horseback, he could not catch up with him.
Once Hurmin had two mules saddled and stood them on two bridges of the Rognag River. As Rabbah watched, Hurmin jumped back and forth from one to the other, holding two glasses of wine in his hand, pouring wine from one to the other, without spilling a drop. When the king of Mehuza heard about Hurmin’s stunts, he had him executed, for the king feared that Hurmin would try to depose him.
As for Lilith’s daughters, they are just as dangerous as she is. Their names are Na’amah, Agrat, Irit, and the Queen of Sheba.
Some say that Na’amah is Lilith’s daughter, and some say that she is her sister. In any case, they are like evil twins, for they work in exactly the same way. They lure grooms into their web, and marry them not to their intended brides, but to their demonic doubles.
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