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.
References:
Cavendish, Richard. _Man, Myth & Magic_. Marshall Cavendish Corp. New York. 1972. vol 12.
p. 1631.
Figes, Eva. _Patriarchial Attitudes; the case for women in revolt_.
Kaye Marvin, ed. _Devils and Demons; A Treasury of Fiendish Tales Old and New_. Dorset
Press.
New York. 1987.
Plaskow, Judith. "The Coming of Lilith: Toward a Feminist Theology."
_Womanspirit_Rising_-_A_Feminist_Reader_in Religion_. Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow. eds.
Rosen, Michael and David Widgery, eds. _The Chatto Book of Dissent_.
Chatto & Windus Ltd. London. 1991.
Singer, Isaac Bashevis. "The Black Wedding." _Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural_.
Marvin Kaye, ed. Doubleday and Company, Inc. New York. 1985.
Source: FangLady's Castle
