Lilith

Biblical Figures

Lilith is a figure in Midrashic stories. She usually appears as a demon that preys on women in childbirth and young children. In Medieval Midrash, she was popularized as Adam's first companion who refused to submit to him and so was replaced by Eve.

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lilith The name of a female demon.

Rashi on Isaiah 34:14:4

ה He said to him, "The angels appointed for healing: Sanoy, Sansanoy, Semangalof. When the Holy Blessed One created the first Adam alone, They said, (Genesis 2:18) 'It is not good for this Adam to be alone.' They created for him a wife out of the Earth like he had been, and called her Lilith. Immediately they began to challenge each other. 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…

Otzar Midrashim, The Aleph Bet of ben Sira, The Alphabet of ben Sira, (alternative version) 34

Rav Pappa said: We hold that a lion does not pounce upon two people. The Gemara challenges this: But how can that be? We see that it does pounce upon two people. The Gemara answers: That statement of Rav Pappa must be in accordance with that which Rami bar Abba said: An animal does not overpower a person until he appears to it as an animal, as it is stated: “But man does not abide in honor, he is like the beasts that perish” (Psalms 49:13). However, animals do not attack people who are human in their spiritual character…

Shabbat 151b:10

Bereishit, there is two [trei] there [included in its letters]; there is fire [esh] there. And it is stated about them, And God said, "Let there be luminaries [meorot] in the firmament of the heavens" (Genesis 1:14). It is written, meort, lacking [the letter] vav — that is the written Torah. And what are luminaries? That is the oral Torah. And even though it has been explained that meort that is lacking is Lilith, there are seventy faces [understandings] to the Torah…

Tikkunei Zohar 82b:3

To rectify all the disqualified prayers that are imprisoned in the hands of the angels designated over this, and those are the prayers that have external thoughts mixed with them. For the disqualified prayers are given over to the hands of the appointed ones the whole year until a person prays a proper prayer. Then the disqualified prayers arise from the appointed one called Sahadiel to the angel that is called Sandalfon, and he brings it up above. But if one does not pray a proper prayer, then the appointed one waits until [Rosh Hashanah] and Yom Kippur…

Ba'al Shem Tov, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur 40:1

Correspondingly, the Holy One Blessed is He has commanded us regarding the mitzvah of sukkah, as it is stated, “On the fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Yom Tov of Sukkos for seven days to Hashem” (Vayikra 23:34). The word “Sukkos,” which is written without a letter vav, [סכת] has a value of 480 to indicate that whoever fulfills this mitzvah fully, nullifies the power and dominion of the wicked Lilis. Therefore it seems to me that on Yom Kippur neither Satan nor Lilis has any power over Israel…

Kav HaYashar 95:3

§ Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: In the case of a woman who discharges a fetus that has the form of a lilith, a female demon with wings and a human face, its mother is impure with the impurity of a woman after childbirth, as it is a viable offspring, only it has wings. This is also taught in a baraita: Rabbi Yosei said: An incident occurred in Simoni involving a certain woman who discharged a fetus that had the form of a lilith, and the incident was brought before the Sages…

Niddah 24b:10

AND GOD CREATED THE GREAT SEA MONSTERS. These are the Leviathan and its female. AND EVERY LIVING CREATURE THAT CREEPETH. This is the soul of the creature which creeps to the four quarters of the globe, to wit, Lilith.

Zohar, Bereshit 41:408

Now in the depth of the great abyss there is a certain hot fiery female spirit named Lilith, who at first cohabited with man. For when man was created and his body completed, a thousand spirits from the left side assembled round that body, each endeavouring to enter, until at last

Zohar, Vayikra 45:316

Prayer too may become a life-saver, i.e. may help a person to prevail in many crucial encounters with the קליפות and all the little demons in the air all around us. Prayer is unable to rise to Heaven until one has first successfully battled with these negative forces abounding in this world. Our standard weapon against such forces are the hymns of praise, פסוקי דזמרה, which we recite daily in advance of those prayers in which we beseech G–d to help us. This is all explained in detail at the beginning of a book called שערי אורה…

Shenei Luchot HaBerit, Torah Shebikhtav, Ki Teitzei, Torah Ohr 71-72

But the union of Yod with the upper He is not caused by Hesed but by mazzal (lit. Iuck). In this way Yod is linked with He, He with Van, Vau with He, and He, with all, and all forms one entity, of which the elements are never to be separated. He who causes separation between them, as it were, lays waste the world and is called “the nakedness of all”.

Zohar, Achrei Mot 62:372

Said R. Simeon: ‘Alas for the blindness of the sons of men, all unaware as they are how full the earth is of strange and invisible beings and hidden dangers, which could they but see, they would marvel how they themselves can exist on the earth.

Zohar, Bereshit 94:356

It was taught in a baraita that the three additional curses are: She grows her hair long like Lilit, a demon; she sits and urinates, like an animal; and serves as a pillow for her husband during relations.

Eruvin 100b:26

“The man said: This time, it is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, because this one was taken from Man” (Genesis 2:23).
“The man said: This time [hapaam]” – Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi said: At first He created her for him, but he saw her full of viscera and blood, so He distanced her from him, and then fashioned her for him a second time. That is what is written: “This time” – this is the [same] one from that time.
[Another interpretation:] This is the one who is destined to bang on me as [an anvil on] a bell…

Bereshit Rabbah 18:4

Thus they guard that child and she cannot hurt him.

Zohar, Achrei Mot 60:363

and that they may offer their sacrifices no more to the goat-demons after whom they stray. This shall be to them a law for all time, throughout the ages.

Leviticus 17:7

The Divine resolution to bestow a companion on Adam met the wishes of man, who had been overcome by a feeling of isolation when the animals came to him in pairs to be named. To banish his loneliness, Lilith was first given to Adam as wife. Like him she had been created out of the dust of the ground. But she remained with him only a short time, because she insisted upon enjoying full equality with her husband. She derived her rights from their identical origin. With the help of the Ineffable Name, which she pronounced, Lilith flew away from Adam, and vanished in the air…

Legends of the Jews 1:2:43

Wildcats shall meet hyenas,
Goat-demons shall greet each other;
There too the lilith shall repose
And find herself a resting place.

Isaiah 34:14

לילית The screech owl. A bird that flies abroad by night.

Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 34:14:5

Amulet with Hebrew inscription writen: Almighty, Sanvai, Sansanvai, Semanglof, Adam and Eve. Sanvai, Sansanvai, and Semanglof are angels believed to neutralize the power of Lilith. Ottoman Empire, mid-19th century, Gift of Dr. Harry G. Friedman, The Jewish Museum, New York.

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