Who is Lilith?
Lilith’s personality has changed throughout time. She first appeared as a demon in the Old Testament, the Talmud of Babylon, and incantation basins from ancient Saudi Arabia and Iran. According to reports, she poses a danger to human sexuality and reproduction, including childbirth. In the Lexicon of Ben Sira, a medieval Jewish religious work, she is depicted as Adam’s first wife who defied him and God & declared her equality to him, providing a mythical foundation to her evil activities like Annabelle.
Did You Know?
Rebelious women are thought to be possessed by demons and the Children of Lilith.
Kabbalah refers to her and Samael as a wicked representation of God’s feminine side. Jewish feminists have resurrected Lilith as a metaphor of autonomy, independence, & sexual emancipation, seizing on her statement of equality.
It was widely believed that Lilith , the demon who had the power to entice men, kidnapped and killed infants and seduced men till the late twentieth century. In the 1960s, when the feminist movement began, she was elevated to her current prominence as a role model for self-reliant women. It was Judith Plaskow’s contemporary interpretation of Lilith’s narrative that helped convert her from a demonic figure into a role model for women.
The Lilith in Middle Eastern Literature and, mythology:
Liliths, along with male lilies, have been around for thousands of years. She, as an individual demon, was first mentioned in the Chronicle of Ben Sira, a controversial and sometimes misogynistic Hebrew text written in the 8th century CE.
Only in Isaiah 34:14 does the Bible refer to her as a wasteland inhabitant, but in ancient Babylonian mythology, the Lilith or Lili (single or plural) was depicted as a child seducer or killer. Because they were previously human, J. A. Scurlock says, “The Lilitu or Ardat Lilitu-demons were thirsty for captives because they were the souls of men & women who already had once died young. They were eager for prey as they had ever been human.”
Devils “slipped into households hunting for victims to assume the role of husbands or wives whom they had never had,” as one author put it. Lamashtu was a similar demon that harmed newborns and “had a terrible taste for mortal flesh and blood,” according to legend. There were many different demons, including Lamashtu, who combined to make one wicked figure that tempted men, women, and children alike (Hutter).
The Hebrew incantation bowls from the Sassanian & early Islamic Saudi Arabia and Iran (about 400–800 C.E.) are notable for the presence of the Liliths. This is a typical clay bowl engraved with incantations in Aramaic by ritualists or laypeople from the Judaic, Mandaean, Christian, & pagan populations who dwelt in the towns of Babylonia. At times, the bowl’s inside is decorated with an image of a shackled Lilith or another monster.
For the most part, the bowls were used to drive out evil spirits from the homes or bodies of the people named on them or to undo spells cast against them by others. “Male and Female Lilith’s” exist in listings of evil spirits, reflecting the old belief that Lilith’s may appear in both male and female forms. It is said that Lilith’s visit individuals in their nightmares at night or in their visions during the day, according to bowl texts it has been said that Lilith’s appear to humans, men in the resemblance of women, and females in the resemblance of men, & they lay with all humans at night and day (Montgomery 117).
They are known for their sexual and reproductive attacks on humans, which is one of their most notable characteristics. For those who wrote bowl-incantations, the vocabulary of divorce was an obvious choice for banishing Lilith’s. Children have also targeted them. An accusation is made by one bowl, claiming that Zarni’s daughter “Hablas of Zarni the Lilith” is responsible for “hitting males and girls” (Montgomery, 168). Lilith, according to another passage, “destroys, murders, shreds, strangles,” and “eats” children (Montgomery, 193).
Lilith in the Babylonian Talmud
The rare rabbinic mentions of Lilith allude to a female figure that resembles the incantation bowls’ female Lilith rather closely. Males are more at risk of being sexually assaulted because, according to Rabbi Hanina (Bet Shabbat 151b), “It is prohibited to sleep alone at home and anybody who does so is seized by a demon.”
In two additional places, they are described as having wings & long hair. The Liliths and demons shown on the ritual bowls are depicted in this way. Rabbi Judah stated in the name of Samuel: An abortion with the appearance of a Lilith, its mother is unclean because of the birth, because it is a child but it has wings (BT Niddah 24b).
Lilith in the Alphabet of Ben Sira:
Ben Sira’s Alphabet of Ben Sira retains Lilith’s reputation as a deadly demon, making her the first bride of Adam (Stern; Yassif 1984). According to Scholem (1974), this story aims to explain the practice of creating amulets to protect against her. Just after the creation of Adam, God produced Lilith from the soil. There was instant conflict about who would have the upper hand when having sex. They were having a relationship.
“We are equal in that we were both produced from the ground,” Lilith said. Afterward, Lilith spoke the name of God and soared away into the sky. God despatched three angels to retrieve her at Adam’s request, but she refused. She allegedly informed them she couldn’t go back to her first husband since she’d previously slept with the “Great Demon,” according to one version of the story. Sickened newborn newborns were the only function of her creation, and she was given authority over both men and females until the eighth day after birth when the baby boy is circumcised.
She was promised that if she consented to leave the kid alone after she saw a necklace engraved with the names and shapes of the angels, they would not compel her to return to Adam. Several amulets have been fashioned about this story. An amulet against her is described in detail in Sefer Raziel (Amsterdam, 1701), for example. Even now, stores in Jerusalem selling religious items still offer amulets created to this type.
Lilith in Kabbalah:
In medieval Kabbalah, she was a symbol of cosmic evil. In the “Treatise on the Left Emanation” of the thirteenth century, she became Samael’s feminine companion (Scholem, 1927; Dan). Samael was the name given to the Word of Ben Sira’s “Great Demon.” Previously, he had been regarded as the spirit guide of Rome and the angel of death, according to older Midrashim. “Treatise on the Left Emanation” explains that when Adam and Eve sinned, Samael and Lilith emerged from the depths of the throne of glory.
The Zohar elaborated on their mythical aspects (Tishby; Scholem 1974). One of the divine forces, the sefirah of Gevurah, gave birth to Lilith and Samael (Strength). “Just as on the side of holiness, so on ‘the other side,’ there are male and female, incorporated one with the other,” the Sitra Ahra (the “Other Side”) states (Tishby, II: 461).
First Lilith tried to have sex with Adam well before the creation of Eve; then she fled and has since planned to destroy newborn infants. Until the rest of time, she will live among the ruins of Rome, a city that was once a “city on the sea” (Tishby).
her demonic sexuality is particularly prominent in the Zohar. When she seduces men, she harvests their sperm to utilize in the creation of her demonic offspring. If you’re about to have sex with your spouse, the Zohar instructs that you first execute a unique ritual in which you ask God to loosen your spell: “Veiled in silk, are you here?”/”Loosed, loosened (be your spell)!” /”Go not in and go not out!”(Scholem, 1965, p. 157; cf. she is the alluring prostitute who lures men astray, but she changes into the grim reaper & murders them when they surrender to her (Tishby).
The Feminist Lilith
She has long been depicted as the antithesis of idealized human sexuality & family life, beginning in ancient Mesopotamia and continuing through medieval Kabbalah. A woman who chooses her sexual partners, who’s wild and unkempt, and who has no natural consequence of sexual activity, children, is what Lilith represents to people who are afraid of how to allure someone and can ruin their marriages or how risky it is to have children. also represents a woman who society cannot control.
The modern feminist movement was inspired by this idea of Lilith as an unruly woman and firmly shifted the picture of her as a demon to a forceful woman. For the feminist journal Ms., Lilly Rivlin wrote an essay in 1972, intending to reclaim her for today’s women.
Lilith, a Jewish feminist journal started in the autumn of 1976, was named after her battle for equity with Adam. Her attractiveness and the demonization of her were laid forth in an essay in the first issue. Since then, Jewish feminists, neo-pagans, lovers of current female music (highlighted at the Lilith Fair), poets, as well as other authors have been more interested in her. Many essays and poetry about the significance of Lilith for Jewish women may be found in the recently published Whose Lilith? (1998).
“In the late 20th century, self-sufficient females, inspired by the women’s movement, have appropriated the Lilith myth as their own,” says Lilly Rivlin in her “Afterword.” As a result, she has become a feminine icon of independence, sexual freedom, and personal responsibility.
