Occult.. ResearchThe Zohar (circa 1200 CE) Lilith Garbage
We come now to the Zohar, which is perhaps the most important of the "founding" texts, for it contains references to Lilith in all of her various guises, including the three which have been illustrated in some of the earlier works of reference. The mentions of Lilith in the Zohar are even more important because, for the first time, Lilith is not simply mentioned incidentally, but, rather, she becomes a character in her own right, whose story is often told in elaborate detail. Some history of the Zohar is necessary before considering Lilith's appearances herein. The Zohar translates as "[The Book of] Splendor" or "Brightness," and is itself a collection of several books or sections. Its contents span everything from short midrashic statements to mystical teachings, references to religious terminology, assessment of the problems of the infinite, the divine emanations, and others. The main part of the Zohar is "a kabbalistic Midrash on the Torah, mixed with short statements, long expositions, and narratives concerning Simeon b. Yohai and his companions. Some of it consists also of common legends" (Encylopaedia Judaica 1194). Jewish tradition taught that the Zohar was written in Israel by the Tanna Rabbi Simon Bar Yohai in the second century. "Thirteen years in a cave . . . a father and a son alone . . . and the Zohar took form," goes the traditional tale (Luzzatto xxix). It was believed that Yohai was hiding from the Roman armies in a cave in the mountains, alone with his son, for thirteen years. The lore associated with the Zohar stated that the book remained hidden for a thousand years when, at the end of the 13th century, Rabbi Moses Ben Shem Tov de Leon (of Spain) discovered the manuscript and made it known (Gutwirth 22). It has since become accepted knowledge that this legend was merely legend. Says Encyclopaedia Judaica: "The Zohar with its various strata was without doubt composed in the years that immediately preceded its publication, since it is impossible to uncover any section that was written before 1270" (1209). The actual author of this work was the Spanish kabbalist Moses b. Shem Tov de Leon, and it is believed that Simon Bar Yohai was simply a pen name taken by Leon in order to make a pretention of antiquity. Regardless of its antiquity -- or lack thereof -- the Zohar became the central work in the literature of the Kabbalah and is considered the holiest book of this body of texts. The term "Kabbalah" is used to designate Jewish mystical teachings and derives from a three- letter Hebrew root -- kbl -- meaning "to receive" (Gutwirth 17). This refers to the fact that Cabalistic teachings were considered secret and were communicated only by word of mouth, a practice initiated to ensure that each generation of the chosen would receive the teachings from the foregoing generation. Because the Kabbalah -- and, thus, the Zohar also -- is rooted in oral tradition, it is extremely difficult to determine when this mystical Jewish doctrine originated. Although the Zohar was not made public until l290 and, as previously stated, not written until shortly before that time, the stories and teachings contained within had indeed been gestating through oral tradition for centuries. The Zohar itself draws on a number of literary sources as well as oral ones, including the Babylonian Talmud, the complete Midrash Rabbah, and a number of smaller Midrashim, including the Alphabet of Ben Sira. While the Zohar attempts to conceal its referral to such real literary sources, it contains a vast fictitious library of pseudo-sources which it emphasizes as the source of its information, likely in order to help establish a false antiquity. Lilith appears in the Zohar a number of times incidentally, but there are four passages in which an aspect of Lilith is extensively drawn upon. Her first Zoharic appearance describes her in the guise for which she first became known, that of a strangler and murderer of children, and also ties together her other facets as well. This is recorded at Zohar I, 19b and reads: "And God said, Let there be lights . . . " (Genesis 1:14). "Lights" is written defectively, meaning that croup was created for babies. After the illumination of the first light was concealed, a shell was created for the kernal, and this shell spread and produced another shell. When she emerged and ascended and descended, and came to "the tiny countenances," and wished to join herself to them, to take shape within them, and never to leave them. But the Holy One, blessed by He, took her away from there, and brought her down below when He created Adam, in order to regulate this world. When she saw Eve, who was attached to Adam's back, and whose beauty was like that of the realms above, and when she saw her perfect image, she flew from there and wished, as at first, to join herself to "the tiny countenances." The keepers of the celestial gates did not allow her to approach. The Holy One, blessed be He, upbraided her and dispatched her to the depths of the sea, and she dwelt there until Adam and his wife sinned. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, brought her out of the depths of the sea, and she rules over all infants -- "the tiny countenances" of mankind -- who deserve to be punished because of the sins of their fathers. She goes to and fro in the world, and comes to the terrestrial Garden of Eden, and sees the Cherubim guarding the gates of the Garden of Eden, and she dwells there by the flaming sword, because she originated from the side of that flame. When the flame turns she flees and goes through the world, finding infants who ought to be punished, and she smiles at them and kills them. This happens when the moon is on the wane, and the light diminishes. And this is the meaning of me'orot (lights). (The Wisdom of the Zohar 540-541) Like much of the Zohar, this passage is rather difficult to follow for one who is not familiar with Cabalistic works. A discussion of some footnotes to the passage may prove helpful. First, the seemingly odd idea that "lights" was written "defectively" in the place of "croup," stems from the fact that "me'orot," or lights, was written in such a way that it could be read as "me'erat," or curse (540, footnote 49). The identification of the "she" with Lilith is inferred because it is she who is said to asphyxiate babies with the croup (540, footnotes 50, 53). These "tiny countenances" are identified as Cherubim, and Lilith's desire to "join herself to them" is related to the idea that "the powers of 'the other side' constantly desire to assume human form" (540, footnote 54). The passage "When she saw Eve . . . she flew from there," is elaborated on in commentary as follows: "It was Lilith's intention to associate with Adam, and have intercourse with him, but the sight of Eve's beauty caused her to flee from Adam, and so she tried once more to associated with the Cherubim" (540, footnote 56). In this passage alone, therefore, Lilith is portrayed in all her guises at once: she is a child-slaying demoness, associated with Adam, who wants to seduce him into copulation in order to create demon offspring. This represents the first unification of all the facets of the Lilith legend into one tale. Lilith's second appearance in the Zohar is at Zohar I 148a-148b, Sitrei Torah. Here she is the "female of Samael," King of the Demons. She is seductive and beautiful and, after seducing men, she kills them. The passage reads: The secret of secrets: From the strength of the noon-flame of Isaac, from the wine lees, a naked shoot came forth, comprising together male and female, red like a lily, and they spread out on several sides, down several paths. The male is called "Samael," and his female is always included with him. Just as on the side of holiness there are male and female, so on 'the other side' there are male and female, included one with the other. The female of Samael is called 'snake,' 'a wife of harlotry,' 'the end of all flesh,' 'the end of days.' Two evil spirits are attached to one another. the male spirit is fine, the female spirit spreads out down several ways and paths, and is attached to the male spirit. She dresses herself in finery like an abominable harlot and stands at the corners of streets and highways in order to attract men. When a fool approaches her, she embraces him and kisses him, and mixes her wine lees with snake poison for him. Once he has drunk, he turns aside after her. When she sees that he has turned aside after he from the way of truth, she takes off all the finery that she had put on for the sake of this fool. This is the finery that she uses to seduce mankind: her hair is long, red like a lily; her face is white and pink; six pendants hang at her ears; her bed is made of Egyptian flax; all the ornaments of the East encircle her neck; her mouth is shaped like a tiny door, beautified with cosmetic; her tongue is sharp like a sword; her words smooth as oil; her lips beautiful, red as a lily, sweetened with all the sweetnesses in the world; she is dressed in purple, and attired in thirty-nine items of finery. This fool turns aside after her, and drinks from the cup of wine, and commits harlotry with her, completely enamored of her. What does she do? She leaves him asleep on the bed and ascends to the realms above, accuses him, obtains authority, and descends. The fool wakes up, thinking to sport with her as before, but she takes off her finery, and turns into a fierce warrior, facing him in a garment of flaming fire, a vision of dread, terrifying both body and soul, full of horrific eyes, a sharpened sword in his hand with drops of poison suspended and dripping from it. He kills the fool, and throws him into Gehinnom. (The Wisdom of the Zohar 538-539) While Lilith is not explicitly named in this passage and a modern reader unfamiliar with the Zohar may need to rely on the footnote (35) for this mystery woman's identity, the description makes it clear that Lilith is the obvious reference, and anyone familiar with Cabalistic teachings -- and, therefore, with the Zohar -- would have been able to identify this "female" of Samael (the Devil) as such. This passage is particularly important because of its association of Lilith with the snake. The footnote explains: "Samael is like the soul and Lilith like the body. Deeds are wrought by Lilith with the power of Samael" (538, footnote 36). The idea that Lilith and Samael, her "husband," are linked in such a way is a concept familiar to Cabalistic teachings. As a footnote to a different passage, it is explained that "the soul was the product of intercourse between male and female in the sefirot, so that it comprised both male and female, for Adam and Eve were originally created joined together" (539, footnote 43). This joining together of Adam and Eve was not seen as some sort of spiritual link, as may be inferred today, but, rather, it was believed that they were actually one androgynous being. This idea, which seems to be in conflict with other facets of the creation story, is explained as follows: "The female was attached to the side of the male until after Adam named all the animals. Then God cast Adam into a deep slumber, and severed the female from Adam's side. God adorned her like a bride, and then brought the woman to Adam" (Koltuv 8). It is touched on further in the Zohar at Zohar I 34b, which states, "I have found it stated in an old book that this female was none other than the original Lilith who was with him and conceived from him" (from Koltuv 8). While this reference at Zohar I 34b definitely introduces a contradiction between whether the androgynous Adam consisted of Adam and Lilith or Adam and Eve, a reconciliation of these passages is not necessary to this study. What is necessary is to notice the idea of the male and female being one. This is important in that since "the female of Samael is called 'snake'," and since Samael himself represents the Devil -- Satan -- it makes sense that the snake and Lilith would become combined in both literature and art. This can be seen in a number of artifacts, dating from 1400 onward, where the snake that seduces Eve into eating the forbidden fruit has the face (and hair) of Lilith (see illustrations 4-12). It is highly likely, therefore, that this passage represents the origin of such a unification. Lilith's next appearance in the Zohar recounts the story of creation with Lilith arising as the first wife of Adam. Told in Zohar III, 19a, the passage reads: Come and see. From the crevice of the great deep, above, there came a certain female, the spirit of all spirits, and we have already explained that her name was Lilith. And at the very beginning she existed with man. When Adam was created, and his body had been completed, a thousand spirits from the left side gathered together around the body, each one wanted to gain entry to it, but they were unable to, and in the end the Holy One, blessed be He, rebuked them. Adam therefore was lying down, a body without a spirit, and he had a green pallor, and all these spirits were hovering round him. At that moment a cloud descended and drove away all these spirits. Concerning this moment it is written 'And God said, Let the earth bring forth a living soul' (Genesis 1:24). We have already explained that the female became pregnant by the male in the soul of Adam and produced the spirit that was comprised of two sides, as was proper, so that it could be breathed into Adam. This is the meaning of 'and He breathed into his nostrils the breath [or soul] of life, and Adam became a living soul' (Genesis 2:7) - a really living soul. Whoever has doubts about this because he does not know whether it refers to the life below or the life called 'Israel,' or whether it is male or female, should notice that it does not say 'the living soul,' but 'a living soul,' without qualification, which signifies everything. When Adam arose his wife was fastened to his side, and the holy soul that was in him spread to this side and to that, and nourished both sides, because it was comprised of both. Subsequently, the Holy One, blessed be He, split Adam, and prepared his female. This is the meaning of 'And the Lord God constructed the side . . . ' (Gen. 2:20 - 'the side' we have explained before, as it is written 'the side of the tabernacle' (Exodus 26:20). 'And He brought her to Adam' (Gen. 2:22) - attired as a bride for the wedding canopy. When Lilith saw this she fled, and she is now in the cities of the sea, and she is still intent on injuring mankind. When the Holy One, blessed be He, destroys wicked Rome, and it becomes an eternal desolation, He will bring up Lilith and settle her in the ruins, because it will be desolate forever. This is the meaning of 'Lilith shall repose there, and find her place of rest' (Isaiah 34:14). (The Wisdom of the Zohar 539-540) The idea of Adam and Eve being joined is further explained, through footnote, in this section. Footnote 48 reads: "'Side in both quotations is Hebrew zela. In Genesis 2:22 it is usually translated 'rib,' but the point to be made here is that Eve was created by splitting Adam and shearing off a whole side which then became Eve" (540). This helps to substantiate the idea that the female half of Adam was indeed Eve, rather than Lilith. A final reference to Lilith is taken from Zohar III, 76b-77a. While the portion from 76b has little, if nothing, to do with Lilith, it is worth quoting if only for its reference to the sexual relationship between Eve and the snake. It reads: After the snake had lain with Eve and cast filth upon her, she bore Cain. From here all the generations, the wicked of the world, draw their origin, and to the generation of the demons and the spirits they owe their being with all their characteristics. Therefore the spirits and the demons are half like human beings below and half like angels above. Similarly, when the other spirits were procreated by Adam, they too were of this nature, half from below and half from above. After they had been procreated by Adam, he produced from these spirits daughters who resembled in beauty both the upper and the lower worlds. Therefore it is written, "the sons of God saw the daughters of man that they were fair . . ." (Genesis 6:2), and they all went astray after them. There was a certain male, who came into the world from the spirit on the side of Cain, and they called him Tuba-cain. And a certain female emerged with him, and human beings go astray after her, and her name is Naamah. From her other spirits and demons came forth, and they are suspended in the air, giving information to others who are below them. This Tubal-cain brought weapons of war into the world. And Naamah makes a roaring noise and cleaves to her forces, and she still survives. And her dwelling is among the breakers of the great sea, and she goes out to mock at human kind, warming herself on them in dreams with human desire, and cleaving to them. She receives this desire but no more, and she becomes pregnant through this desire and brings other kinds of demons into the world. The sons that she bears to mortal men present themselves to the females among mankind and they become pregnant by them and bear spirits. They all go to Lilith first and she rears them. She goes out into the world in search of babies, and when she sees human babies she attaches herself to them, seeking to kill them, and to absorb the spirits of these human babies. She goes off with this spirit, but there are three holy spirits who are gathered there. They fly in front of her and take the spirit from her and present it to the Holy One, blessed be He. And there they teach the babies in His presence. It is for this reason that the Torah warns people: "Sanctify yourselves and be holy" (Leviticus 20:7). And it is true that if a man is holy during intercourse he need not be afraid of her, for then the Holy One, blessed be He, will summon the three holy angels that we have mentioned, and they will protect the child and she cannot harm him. This is the meaning of "No evil shall befall you, and no plague shall come near your tent" (Psalm 91:10). Why? Because "He will give His angels charge over you" (Psalm 91:11). And it is written "Because he has loved me, I will deliver him" (Psalm 91:14). But if man is not holy and draws out a spirit from the side of uncleanness, she will come and mock at the child. And if she kills him she will absorb the spirit and will never be separated from it. You might object and say that the others whom she kills, but whose spirits are taken by the three holy angels who are assembled before her, cannot have been formed from the side of uncleanness. And, if that is so, by what right did she kill them? In these cases, man has not sanctified himself, but neither did he have the intention of defiling or of becoming defiled. Therefore she has the power to control the body but not the spirit. (The Wisdom of the Zohar 542-543) The seemingly insignificant beginning of this passage brings to light a rather odd notion: the idea that "the snake had lain with Eve" and was the father of Cain. While this would make sense in explaining Cain's wicked actions, it raises an important question: is this snake Samael, is it Lilith, or is it an androgynous assimilation of both Samael and Lilith? The footnote answers this question by explaining that "the snake that lay with Eve was Samael, and he was an angel that had fallen from the upper realms [the Devil]" (542, footnote 67). The fact that Lilith as snake is always oriented toward Eve in the art that postdates the Zohar seems to suggest, however, that -- regardless of the intention of this passage -- some believed that it was Lilith as snake who had a relationship with Eve (note especially illustration #12) The section of this passage where Lilith is mentioned, however, does not even mention the idea that Lilith was associated with Adam. Instead, it focuses on her malevolence toward infants and her succubae traits, for it explains that if the man is not holy during intercourse, then his child will indeed be taken by Lilith when it is born. In conclusion, Lilith appears in the work of the Zohar in all of her guises, sometimes individually, but usually all at once. More importantly, all of the passages which make reference to Lilith allow for the possibility that she is indeed all three of the myths rolled into one. It is this idea which took the firmest hold, perhaps because it offered a way to clear up the discrepancies from having various myths or perhaps because the Zohar itself became more popular than any of the preceding works which dared to mention her at length. We come now to the Zohar, which is perhaps the most important of the "founding" texts, for it contains references to Lilith in all of her various guises, including the three which have been illustrated in some of the earlier works of reference. The mentions of Lilith in the Zohar are even more important because, for the first time, Lilith is not simply mentioned incidentally, but, rather, she becomes a character in her own right, whose story is often told in elaborate detail. Some history of the Zohar is necessary before considering Lilith's appearances herein. The Zohar translates as "[The Book of] Splendor" or "Brightness," and is itself a collection of several books or sections. Its contents span everything from short midrashic statements to mystical teachings, references to religious terminology, assessment of the problems of the infinite, the divine emanations, and others. The main part of the Zohar is "a kabbalistic Midrash on the Torah, mixed with short statements, long expositions, and narratives concerning Simeon b. Yohai and his companions. Some of it consists also of common legends" (Encylopaedia Judaica 1194). Jewish tradition taught that the Zohar was written in Israel by the Tanna Rabbi Simon Bar Yohai in the second century. "Thirteen years in a cave . . . a father and a son alone . . . and the Zohar took form," goes the traditional tale (Luzzatto xxix). It was believed that Yohai was hiding from the Roman armies in a cave in the mountains, alone with his son, for thirteen years. The lore associated with the Zohar stated that the book remained hidden for a thousand years when, at the end of the 13th century, Rabbi Moses Ben Shem Tov de Leon (of Spain) discovered the manuscript and made it known (Gutwirth 22). It has since become accepted knowledge that this legend was merely legend. Says Encyclopaedia Judaica: "The Zohar with its various strata was without doubt composed in the years that immediately preceded its publication, since it is impossible to uncover any section that was written before 1270" (1209). The actual author of this work was the Spanish kabbalist Moses b. Shem Tov de Leon, and it is believed that Simon Bar Yohai was simply a pen name taken by Leon in order to make a pretention of antiquity. Regardless of its antiquity -- or lack thereof -- the Zohar became the central work in the literature of the Kabbalah and is considered the holiest book of this body of texts. The term "Kabbalah" is used to designate Jewish mystical teachings and derives from a three- letter Hebrew root -- kbl -- meaning "to receive" (Gutwirth 17). This refers to the fact that Cabalistic teachings were considered secret and were communicated only by word of mouth, a practice initiated to ensure that each generation of the chosen would receive the teachings from the foregoing generation. Because the Kabbalah -- and, thus, the Zohar also -- is rooted in oral tradition, it is extremely difficult to determine when this mystical Jewish doctrine originated. Although the Zohar was not made public until l290 and, as previously stated, not written until shortly before that time, the stories and teachings contained within had indeed been gestating through oral tradition for centuries. The Zohar itself draws on a number of literary sources as well as oral ones, including the Babylonian Talmud, the complete Midrash Rabbah, and a number of smaller Midrashim, including the Alphabet of Ben Sira. While the Zohar attempts to conceal its referral to such real literary sources, it contains a vast fictitious library of pseudo-sources which it emphasizes as the source of its information, likely in order to help establish a false antiquity. Lilith appears in the Zohar a number of times incidentally, but there are four passages in which an aspect of Lilith is extensively drawn upon. Her first Zoharic appearance describes her in the guise for which she first became known, that of a strangler and murderer of children, and also ties together her other facets as well. This is recorded at Zohar I, 19b and reads: "And God said, Let there be lights . . . " (Genesis 1:14). "Lights" is written defectively, meaning that croup was created for babies. After the illumination of the first light was concealed, a shell was created for the kernal, and this shell spread and produced another shell. When she emerged and ascended and descended, and came to "the tiny countenances," and wished to join herself to them, to take shape within them, and never to leave them. But the Holy One, blessed by He, took her away from there, and brought her down below when He created Adam, in order to regulate this world. When she saw Eve, who was attached to Adam's back, and whose beauty was like that of the realms above, and when she saw her perfect image, she flew from there and wished, as at first, to join herself to "the tiny countenances." The keepers of the celestial gates did not allow her to approach. The Holy One, blessed be He, upbraided her and dispatched her to the depths of the sea, and she dwelt there until Adam and his wife sinned. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, brought her out of the depths of the sea, and she rules over all infants -- "the tiny countenances" of mankind -- who deserve to be punished because of the sins of their fathers. She goes to and fro in the world, and comes to the terrestrial Garden of Eden, and sees the Cherubim guarding the gates of the Garden of Eden, and she dwells there by the flaming sword, because she originated from the side of that flame. When the flame turns she flees and goes through the world, finding infants who ought to be punished, and she smiles at them and kills them. This happens when the moon is on the wane, and the light diminishes. And this is the meaning of me'orot (lights). (The Wisdom of the Zohar 540-541) Like much of the Zohar, this passage is rather difficult to follow for one who is not familiar with Cabalistic works. A discussion of some footnotes to the passage may prove helpful. First, the seemingly odd idea that "lights" was written "defectively" in the place of "croup," stems from the fact that "me'orot," or lights, was written in such a way that it could be read as "me'erat," or curse (540, footnote 49). The identification of the "she" with Lilith is inferred because it is she who is said to asphyxiate babies with the croup (540, footnotes 50, 53). These "tiny countenances" are identified as Cherubim, and Lilith's desire to "join herself to them" is related to the idea that "the powers of 'the other side' constantly desire to assume human form" (540, footnote 54). The passage "When she saw Eve . . . she flew from there," is elaborated on in commentary as follows: "It was Lilith's intention to associate with Adam, and have intercourse with him, but the sight of Eve's beauty caused her to flee from Adam, and so she tried once more to associated with the Cherubim" (540, footnote 56). In this passage alone, therefore, Lilith is portrayed in all her guises at once: she is a child-slaying demoness, associated with Adam, who wants to seduce him into copulation in order to create demon offspring. This represents the first unification of all the facets of the Lilith legend into one tale. Lilith's second appearance in the Zohar is at Zohar I 148a-148b, Sitrei Torah. Here she is the "female of Samael," King of the Demons. She is seductive and beautiful and, after seducing men, she kills them. The passage reads: The secret of secrets: From the strength of the noon-flame of Isaac, from the wine lees, a naked shoot came forth, comprising together male and female, red like a lily, and they spread out on several sides, down several paths. The male is called "Samael," and his female is always included with him. Just as on the side of holiness there are male and female, so on 'the other side' there are male and female, included one with the other. The female of Samael is called 'snake,' 'a wife of harlotry,' 'the end of all flesh,' 'the end of days.' Two evil spirits are attached to one another. the male spirit is fine, the female spirit spreads out down several ways and paths, and is attached to the male spirit. She dresses herself in finery like an abominable harlot and stands at the corners of streets and highways in order to attract men. When a fool approaches her, she embraces him and kisses him, and mixes her wine lees with snake poison for him. Once he has drunk, he turns aside after her. When she sees that he has turned aside after he from the way of truth, she takes off all the finery that she had put on for the sake of this fool. This is the finery that she uses to seduce mankind: her hair is long, red like a lily; her face is white and pink; six pendants hang at her ears; her bed is made of Egyptian flax; all the ornaments of the East encircle her neck; her mouth is shaped like a tiny door, beautified with cosmetic; her tongue is sharp like a sword; her words smooth as oil; her lips beautiful, red as a lily, sweetened with all the sweetnesses in the world; she is dressed in purple, and attired in thirty-nine items of finery. This fool turns aside after her, and drinks from the cup of wine, and commits harlotry with her, completely enamored of her. What does she do? She leaves him asleep on the bed and ascends to the realms above, accuses him, obtains authority, and descends. The fool wakes up, thinking to sport with her as before, but she takes off her finery, and turns into a fierce warrior, facing him in a garment of flaming fire, a vision of dread, terrifying both body and soul, full of horrific eyes, a sharpened sword in his hand with drops of poison suspended and dripping from it. He kills the fool, and throws him into Gehinnom. (The Wisdom of the Zohar 538-539) While Lilith is not explicitly named in this passage and a modern reader unfamiliar with the Zohar may need to rely on the footnote (35) for this mystery woman's identity, the description makes it clear that Lilith is the obvious reference, and anyone familiar with Cabalistic teachings -- and, therefore, with the Zohar -- would have been able to identify this "female" of Samael (the Devil) as such. This passage is particularly important because of its association of Lilith with the snake. The footnote explains: "Samael is like the soul and Lilith like the body. Deeds are wrought by Lilith with the power of Samael" (538, footnote 36). The idea that Lilith and Samael, her "husband," are linked in such a way is a concept familiar to Cabalistic teachings. As a footnote to a different passage, it is explained that "the soul was the product of intercourse between male and female in the sefirot, so that it comprised both male and female, for Adam and Eve were originally created joined together" (539, footnote 43). This joining together of Adam and Eve was not seen as some sort of spiritual link, as may be inferred today, but, rather, it was believed that they were actually one androgynous being. This idea, which seems to be in conflict with other facets of the creation story, is explained as follows: "The female was attached to the side of the male until after Adam named all the animals. Then God cast Adam into a deep slumber, and severed the female from Adam's side. God adorned her like a bride, and then brought the woman to Adam" (Koltuv 8). It is touched on further in the Zohar at Zohar I 34b, which states, "I have found it stated in an old book that this female was none other than the original Lilith who was with him and conceived from him" (from Koltuv 8). While this reference at Zohar I 34b definitely introduces a contradiction between whether the androgynous Adam consisted of Adam and Lilith or Adam and Eve, a reconciliation of these passages is not necessary to this study. What is necessary is to notice the idea of the male and female being one. This is important in that since "the female of Samael is called 'snake'," and since Samael himself represents the Devil -- Satan -- it makes sense that the snake and Lilith would become combined in both literature and art. This can be seen in a number of artifacts, dating from 1400 onward, where the snake that seduces Eve into eating the forbidden fruit has the face (and hair) of Lilith (see illustrations 4-12). It is highly likely, therefore, that this passage represents the origin of such a unification. Lilith's next appearance in the Zohar recounts the story of creation with Lilith arising as the first wife of Adam. Told in Zohar III, 19a, the passage reads: Come and see. From the crevice of the great deep, above, there came a certain female, the spirit of all spirits, and we have already explained that her name was Lilith. And at the very beginning she existed with man. When Adam was created, and his body had been completed, a thousand spirits from the left side gathered together around the body, each one wanted to gain entry to it, but they were unable to, and in the end the Holy One, blessed be He, rebuked them. Adam therefore was lying down, a body without a spirit, and he had a green pallor, and all these spirits were hovering round him. At that moment a cloud descended and drove away all these spirits. Concerning this moment it is written 'And God said, Let the earth bring forth a living soul' (Genesis 1:24). We have already explained that the female became pregnant by the male in the soul of Adam and produced the spirit that was comprised of two sides, as was proper, so that it could be breathed into Adam. This is the meaning of 'and He breathed into his nostrils the breath [or soul] of life, and Adam became a living soul' (Genesis 2:7) - a really living soul. Whoever has doubts about this because he does not know whether it refers to the life below or the life called 'Israel,' or whether it is male or female, should notice that it does not say 'the living soul,' but 'a living soul,' without qualification, which signifies everything. When Adam arose his wife was fastened to his side, and the holy soul that was in him spread to this side and to that, and nourished both sides, because it was comprised of both. Subsequently, the Holy One, blessed be He, split Adam, and prepared his female. This is the meaning of 'And the Lord God constructed the side . . . ' (Gen. 2:20 - 'the side' we have explained before, as it is written 'the side of the tabernacle' (Exodus 26:20). 'And He brought her to Adam' (Gen. 2:22) - attired as a bride for the wedding canopy. When Lilith saw this she fled, and she is now in the cities of the sea, and she is still intent on injuring mankind. When the Holy One, blessed be He, destroys wicked Rome, and it becomes an eternal desolation, He will bring up Lilith and settle her in the ruins, because it will be desolate forever. This is the meaning of 'Lilith shall repose there, and find her place of rest' (Isaiah 34:14). (The Wisdom of the Zohar 539-540) The idea of Adam and Eve being joined is further explained, through footnote, in this section. Footnote 48 reads: "'Side in both quotations is Hebrew zela. In Genesis 2:22 it is usually translated 'rib,' but the point to be made here is that Eve was created by splitting Adam and shearing off a whole side which then became Eve" (540). This helps to substantiate the idea that the female half of Adam was indeed Eve, rather than Lilith. A final reference to Lilith is taken from Zohar III, 76b-77a. While the portion from 76b has little, if nothing, to do with Lilith, it is worth quoting if only for its reference to the sexual relationship between Eve and the snake. It reads: After the snake had lain with Eve and cast filth upon her, she bore Cain. From here all the generations, the wicked of the world, draw their origin, and to the generation of the demons and the spirits they owe their being with all their characteristics. Therefore the spirits and the demons are half like human beings below and half like angels above. Similarly, when the other spirits were procreated by Adam, they too were of this nature, half from below and half from above. After they had been procreated by Adam, he produced from these spirits daughters who resembled in beauty both the upper and the lower worlds. Therefore it is written, "the sons of God saw the daughters of man that they were fair . . ." (Genesis 6:2), and they all went astray after them. There was a certain male, who came into the world from the spirit on the side of Cain, and they called him Tuba-cain. And a certain female emerged with him, and human beings go astray after her, and her name is Naamah. From her other spirits and demons came forth, and they are suspended in the air, giving information to others who are below them. This Tubal-cain brought weapons of war into the world. And Naamah makes a roaring noise and cleaves to her forces, and she still survives. And her dwelling is among the breakers of the great sea, and she goes out to mock at human kind, warming herself on them in dreams with human desire, and cleaving to them. She receives this desire but no more, and she becomes pregnant through this desire and brings other kinds of demons into the world. The sons that she bears to mortal men present themselves to the females among mankind and they become pregnant by them and bear spirits. They all go to Lilith first and she rears them. She goes out into the world in search of babies, and when she sees human babies she attaches herself to them, seeking to kill them, and to absorb the spirits of these human babies. She goes off with this spirit, but there are three holy spirits who are gathered there. They fly in front of her and take the spirit from her and present it to the Holy One, blessed be He. And there they teach the babies in His presence. It is for this reason that the Torah warns people: "Sanctify yourselves and be holy" (Leviticus 20:7). And it is true that if a man is holy during intercourse he need not be afraid of her, for then the Holy One, blessed be He, will summon the three holy angels that we have mentioned, and they will protect the child and she cannot harm him. This is the meaning of "No evil shall befall you, and no plague shall come near your tent" (Psalm 91:10). Why? Because "He will give His angels charge over you" (Psalm 91:11). And it is written "Because he has loved me, I will deliver him" (Psalm 91:14). But if man is not holy and draws out a spirit from the side of uncleanness, she will come and mock at the child. And if she kills him she will absorb the spirit and will never be separated from it. You might object and say that the others whom she kills, but whose spirits are taken by the three holy angels who are assembled before her, cannot have been formed from the side of uncleanness. And, if that is so, by what right did she kill them? In these cases, man has not sanctified himself, but neither did he have the intention of defiling or of becoming defiled. Therefore she has the power to control the body but not the spirit. (The Wisdom of the Zohar 542-543) The seemingly insignificant beginning of this passage brings to light a rather odd notion: the idea that "the snake had lain with Eve" and was the father of Cain. While this would make sense in explaining Cain's wicked actions, it raises an important question: is this snake Samael, is it Lilith, or is it an androgynous assimilation of both Samael and Lilith? The footnote answers this question by explaining that "the snake that lay with Eve was Samael, and he was an angel that had fallen from the upper realms [the Devil]" (542, footnote 67). The fact that Lilith as snake is always oriented toward Eve in the art that postdates the Zohar seems to suggest, however, that -- regardless of the intention of this passage -- some believed that it was Lilith as snake who had a relationship with Eve (note especially illustration #12) The section of this passage where Lilith is mentioned, however, does not even mention the idea that Lilith was associated with Adam. Instead, it focuses on her malevolence toward infants and her succubae traits, for it explains that if the man is not holy during intercourse, then his child will indeed be taken by Lilith when it is born. In conclusion, Lilith appears in the work of the Zohar in all of her guises, sometimes individually, but usually all at once. More importantly, all of the passages which make reference to Lilith allow for the possibility that she is indeed all three of the myths rolled into one. It is this idea which took the firmest hold, perhaps because it offered a way to clear up the discrepancies from having various myths or perhaps because the Zohar itself became more popular than any of the preceding works which dared to mention her at length. http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/Gard ... zohar.html |
🌈Pride🌈 goeth before Destruction
When 🌈Pride🌈 cometh, then cometh Shame