Lilith
The Identity of Lilith
Early theologians had a real problem with the status of women in regard to
Genesis. Here is this supposedly weak creature twisting Man around her finger
and bringing death on the entire race. A "logical" answer presented itself in
splitting woman into the Madonna/whore dichotomy. There was even a Biblical
basis for Lilith. Genesis 1:27 reads, "So God created man in his own image, in
the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Set opposite
Genesis 2, in which Adam is created first and Eve is an afterthought to appease
his loneliness, many see this as evidence that Adam had two wives.
Lilith is this first wife. Since she was made of the earth, like Adam, she
became proud and refused to lie beneath him during intercourse. This violated
the command to be fruitful and multiply, since she was not being impregnated.
Some traditions hold that she was impregnated and bore demons from him. The
evidence for this is the statement in Genesis 5:3 "Adam begat a son in his
image," implying there had been sons not in his image. He pushed the issue of
her submission, and she uttered the Holy Name of God and flew away.
Adam complained to God and he sent three angels to reason with her. They found
her coupling with fallen angels near the Red Sea and bearing more demonic
children. She refused to return but promised to spare Adam's children if the
names of the angels: Sanvi, Sansanvi and Semangelaf were written near them. Even
today, some parents will charcoal a magic circle with the words "Adam and Eve
barring Lilith" on the wall near their baby, and write the names of the angels
on the door.
Eve was created out of Adam as her replacement. Some say God let Adam try making
the next one, but the creation was so horrible God destroyed it before even
giving it life. An amusing Victorian story claims a dog ran off with Adam's rib
and devoured it before God found him, so Eve was made using one of the dog's
ribs.
Lilith did not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and hence is
immortal. She was rewarded for service by Asmodeus, the demon of lechery,
luxuriousness and evil revenge. She now rules one of the levels of Hell in the
company of Namah, Machlath, and Hurmizah. Her power is over newborn children and
women in childbirth. She may take boys up to the eighth day and girls up to the
twentieth. She is also the mother of the Lilim or Lilot, the Djinn, and the
succubui and incubi.
Other Biblical references: Isaiah 34:14 "night hag" (NIV translates it as
"Desert creatures" and "night creatures." and Psalm 91 "terror by night"
Connection With Vampires.
Lilith is the prototype of the succubus. She comes to men as they dream and
drains their blood. This aspect features as prominantly in the legends as her
taking of children. It is her revenge on Adam that she drains his sons as they
sleep, always taking the top.
Current Nonconformist Views of Lilith
From _The Chatto Book of Dissent_, edited by Michael Rosen and David Widgery.
It's published by Chatto & Windus Ltd, London, 1991.
Lilith
God formed Lilith the first woman just as He had formed Adam except that He used
filth and impure sediment instead of dust or earth. Adam and Lilith never found
peace together. She disagreed with him in many matters, and refused to lie
beneath him in sexual intercourse, basing her claim for equality on the fact
that each had been created from earth. When Lilith saw that Adam would overpower
her, she uttered the ineffable name of God and flew up into the air of the
world.
Eventually she dwelt in a cave in the desert on the shores of the Red
Sea. There she engaged in unbridled promiscuity, consorted with lascivious
demons, and gave birth to hundreds of *Lilim* or demonic babies, daily...
It is said that soon after Lilith left Adam he stood in prayer before his
creator and said: "God of the World, the woman that you gave me has run away
from me." Immediately God, the Holy One, dispatched the three angels, Sanvai,
Sansanvai, and Semangelof to bring her back. They caught up with her in the
desert near the Red Sea. "Return to Adam without delay," the angels said, "or we
will drown you!" Lilith asked: "How can I return to Adam and be his woman, after
my stay beside the Red Sea?" "It would be death to refuse!"; they answered. "How
can I die," Lilith asked again, "when God has ordered me to take charge of all
newborn children: boys up to the eighth day of life, that of circumcision; girls
up to the twentieth day? Nevertheless," she said, "I swear to you in the name of
God, El, who is living and exists, that if ever I see your three names on
likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I promise to spare it."
To this day they agreed; however, God punished Lilith by making one hundred of
her demon children perish daily, and if Lilith could not destroy a human infant,
because of the angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own.
From The Alpha Bet Sira, 9th Century
This passage is excerpted from the essay "The Coming of Lilith: Toward a
Feminist Theology" by Judith Plaskow. I found it in _Womanspirit_Rising_-_A_
_Feminist_Reader_in Religion_ ed. by Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow.
In the beginning, the Lord God formed Adam and Lilith from the dust of the
ground and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life. Created from the
same source, both having been formed from the ground, they were equal in all
ways.
Adam, being a man, didn't like this situation, and he looked for ways to
change it. He said, "I'll have my figs now, Lilith," ordering her to wait on
him, and he tried to leave to her the daily tasks of life in the garden. But
Lilith wasn't one to take any nonsense; she picked herself up, uttered God's
holy name, and flew away.
"Well now, Lord," complained Adam, "that uppity woman
you sent me has gone and deserted me." The Lord, inclined to be sympathetic,
sent his messengers after Lilith, telling her to shape up and return to Adam or
face dire punishment. She, however, preferring anything to living with Adam,
decided to stay where she was.
And so God, after more careful consideration this
time, caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and out of one of his ribs created for
him a second companion, Eve. For a time, Eve and Adam had a good thing going.
Adam was happy now, and Eve, though she occasionally sensed capacities within
herself that remained undeveloped, was basically satisfied with the role of
Adam's wife and helper. The only thing that really disturbed her was the
excluding closeness of the relationship between Adam and God. Adam and God just
seemed to have more in common, both being men, and Adam came to identify with
God more and more. After a while, that made God a bit uncomfortable too, and he
started going over in his mind whether he may not have made a mistake letting
Adam talk him into banishing Lilith and creating Eve, seeing the power that gave
Adam.
Meanwhile Lilith, all alone, attempted from time to time to rejoin the
human community in the garden. After her first fruitless attempt to breach its
walls, Adam worked hard to build them stronger, even getting Eve to help him. He
told her fearsome stories of the demon Lilith who threatens women in childbirth
and steals children from their cradles in the middle of the night.
The second
time Lilith came, she stormed the garden's main gate and a great battle ensued
between her and Adam in which she was finally defeated. This time, however,
before Lilith got away, Eve got a glimpse of her and saw she was a woman like
herself. After this encounter, seeds of curiosity and doubt began to grow in
Eve's mind. Was Lilith indeed just another woman? Adam had said she was a demon.
Another woman! The very idea attracted Eve. She had never seen another creature
like herself before. And how beautiful and strong Lilith looked! How bravely she
had fought!
Slowly, slowly, Eve began to think about the limits of her own life
within the garden. One day, after many months of strange and disturbing
thoughts, Eve, wandering around the edge of the garden, noticed a young apple
tree she and Adam had planted, and saw that one of its branches stretched over
the top of the garden wall. Spontaneously, she tried to climb it, and struggling
to the top, swung herself over the wall. She did not wander long on the other
side before she met the one she had come to find, for Lilith was waiting. At
first sight of her, Eve remembered the tales of Adam and was frightened, but
Lilith understood and greeted her kindly.
"Who are you?" they asked each other,
"What is your story?" And they sat and spoke together, of the past and then of
the future. They talked for many hours, not once, but many times. They taught
each other many things, and told each other stories, and laughed together, and
cried, over and over, till the bond of sisterhood grew between them. Meanwhile,
back in the garden, Adam was puzzled by Eve's comings and goings, and disturbed
by what he sensed to be her new attitude toward him. He talked to God about it,
and God, having his own problems with Adam and a somewhat broader perspective,
was able to help out a little - but He was confused, too. Something had failed
to go according to plan. As in the days of Abraham, He needed counsel from His
children. "I am who I am," thought God, "but I must become who I will become."
And God and Adam were expectant and afraid the day Eve and Lilith returned to
the garden bursting with possibilies, ready to build it together.