BOOK FOUR
MYTHS OF HELL

As soon as one of the wicked dies, his soul is joined with the river of fire, and goes down to Gehenna with it.

Sha’ar ha-Gemul 79a
Moses ben Nachma n

256. THE UNFINISHED CORNER OF CREATION

All of Creation had been completed except for the north corner of the world. God began to create it, but left it unfinished, saying, “Whoever declares himself to be God, let him come and finish this corner, and then all shall know he is a god.” There, in that unfinished corner, demons, winds, earthquakes, and evil spirits dwell, and from there they come forth to the world, as it is said, From the north shall disaster break loose (Jer. 1:14). When the Sabbath departs, great bands of evil spirits set out from there and roam the world.

Because of the cold north wind, the north was identified as the abode of evil spirits. This myth explains why—because that part of creation is unfinished. Here God makes a challenge to those who assert that they are divinities. The true test for a divinity is the ability to create a world. So God left one corner of the world unfinished, with the challenge that anyone who could finish it would indeed be a true god. Of course, the clear implication is that such a creation would be impossible.

Rabbi Moshe Hayim Luzzatto offers a different perspective about unfinished creation: “God began Creation but left it unfinished so that man could eventually bring it to completion” (Adir ba-Marom ).

The Kotzker Rebbe said of this unfinished corner of creation: “One little corner—God left one little corner in darkness so that we may hide in it!”

Sources:

Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 3; Midrash Konen in Beit ha-Midrash 2:30;Sefer ha- Zikhronot 1:7; The Book of Jubilees 2:2; Zohar 1:14b; Siah Sarfei Kodesh; Or ha-Ganuz .

257. THE DARKNESS THAT EXISTED BEFORE CREATION

What happened to the darkness that existed before the creation of the world? Some say it is hidden in the seventh compartment of Gehenna. That compartment contains six nations of the world, but they cannot see each other on account of the darkness. The heretic Elisha ben Abuyah is said to reside there.

The description of darkness found in Genesis, the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep (Gen. 1:2), is quite ambiguous. Instead of stating that God created the darkness, the text seems to be saying that the darkness already existed—it was already upon the face of the deep . What is unclear is the meaning of darkness: whether it is to be understood as an absence of light, in the way that “unformed and void” suggests an absence. Or is darkness to be understood as a physical element, such as light? One possible answer to this question is given by Isaiah, who quotes God as saying, “I form light and create darkness” (Isa. 45:7). Here the difference depends on the word yotzer , “forming,” and borei , “creating.” The key here is that what God only forms, not creates, must have pre-existed. That, ultimately, may be the meaning of darkness was upon the face of the deep —the darkness was already there, a pre-existing element. This suggests a Gnostic view of the Creation, in which the Creator is something less than a supreme divinity. For another text with such Gnostic undertones, see “Light from the Temple,” p. 411.

Sources:

Sefer ha-Zikhronot 11:11 .

258. THE BANISHMENT OF DUMAH

The angel Dumah was the celestial Prince of Egypt. When Moses said that God would exercise judgment against the gods of Egypt, Dumah ran away four hundred parasangs. Then God said to him: “It is My decree!” And at that moment Dumah’s power and dominion were taken away from him, and he was banished to the lower regions and appointed over the realms of Gehenna and the angels of destruction. Thus he serves as judge of all the souls of the wicked.

Dumah sees to it that the wicked are punished every day of the week, except for the Sabbath, when they are released. But at the close of the Sabbath Dumah casts their souls back into Gehenna, and their punishments begin anew.

This myth is clearly intended to parallel that of the fall of Lucifer. Just as Lucifer was an angel who rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven, so here the angel Dumah rebels upon learning that God planned to defeat Egypt, since Dumah is the celestial prince of Egypt. And just as Lucifer is identified with the Devil and said to rule in hell, so too is Dumah assigned to rule over Gehenna, Jewish hell. Other sources identify the prince of Gehenna as Arsiel. Midrash ha-Ne’elam in Zohar Hadash 25a-b describes Arsiel as standing before the souls of the righteous to prevent them from praying for the wicked before God. He demands that they also be placed under his dominion so that he can take them down to the netherworld, as it is said, Let me have the souls (Gen. 14:21).

Although Lucifer’s fall is rooted in Jewish sources, the myth was primarily taken up in Christian lore, and the myths of Lucifer and the Devil became merged into one. See “The Fall of Lucifer,” p. 108.

Concerning the release of wicked souls on the Sabbath, see “Sabbath in Gehenna,” p. 238. For more on the angel Dumah, see “The Punishments of Gehenna,” p. 236. Because of his role as the angel in charge of Gehenna, Dumah is sometimes misidentified as the Angel of Death.

Sources:

Zohar, Exodus 2:8a; Pesikta Rabbati 23:8.

259. GOD’S PRISON

There is a dreadful abyss at the end of heaven and earth where there is no firmament of the heavens above, and no earth beneath it. Columns of heavenly fire fill the abyss, the smell of sulphur is everywhere, and around it there is a wasteland without water; with no birds to be seen.

This place is God’s prison for rebellious stars and fallen angels. In it are seven stars burning like great mountains as they roll over the fire of the abyss. Because they did not come forth at their appointed times, God has bound them in that place for ten thousand years.

There, too, are imprisoned the fallen angels who deceived mankind into making sacrifices to demons as if they were gods, and those who went astray with the daughters of men and defiled them.

This bleak abyss, a kind of protohell, holds seven stars that transgressed God’s command to come forth, as well as fallen angels who have been imprisoned. This is one of the places shown to Enoch in 1 Enoch . For more on the mythic account of the fallen angels see “The Watchers,” p. 457.

Sources:
1 Enoch 17:9-16, 67:4-7 .

260. ADAM AND THE DEMONS

After the expulsion from Eden, Adam was so filled with grief that he separated from his wife, Eve, for one hundred and thirty years. What did Adam do for so long? Some say that he repented for a hundred and thirty years by standing in the River Gihon until the waters reached up to his neck, and he fasted until his body became as wrinkled as seaweed.

Others say that female demons swarmed around Adam and inflamed him, until they succeeded in seducing him. In this way Adam begot mutant demons, both male and female, who were half human and half-demonic. At the same time, male demons were inflamed by Eve and seduced by her, and she too gave birth to a great many demons.

Some say it was Lilith, Adam’s first wife, who found him alone and lay down by his side, and thus were begotten myriads of demons, spirits, and imps. Others say it was not Lilith, but her sister, Na’amah, who found Adam there.

When God saw how Adam had turned away from Eve, He put desire for her back into Adam’s heart. And when, at last, Adam and Eve were reunited, she bore Seth, who, unlike Cain, was the very image of Adam, as it is said, When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he begot a son in his likeness after his image, and he named him Seth (Gen. 5:3).

This strange legend about Adam being seduced by female demons, and Eve seducing male ones grows out of the biblical verse When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he begot a son in his likeness after his image, and he named him Seth (Gen. 5:3). Since the statement of the birth of Seth follows the mention of 130 years, the rabbis assumed that Adam must have withdrawn from Eve for that long.

Various explanations are given for Adam’s separation from Eve. Some attribute it to their expulsion from Eden and Adam’s realization that death had been decreed against the world on his account, while other sources link it to Adam’s grief over the death of Abel.

There are also contradictory myths explaining what happened to Adam during the 130 years. One tells us that Adam repented by standing in the River Gihon, and the other assumes that his sexual desire was as great as ever, making him vulnerable to female demons, while male demons impregnated Eve. The demons that Adam and Eve give birth to are called mazikim . These mazikim and their demonic consorts account for the proliferation of demons. The Zohar (3:76b) attributes heavenly beauty to the daughters of Adam who were conceived in this way. The reference to Seth being in the image of Adam, and some texts say, the seed of Adam, while Cain was not, refers to the midrash that attributes Cain’s conception to intercourse between Eve and the serpent, making Cain the son of the serpent. See “The Seed of Cain,” p. 448.

This myth about Adam echoes the Greek myth of Tantalus, who was punished for his crimes by having to stand in a river up to his neck. There he is consumed by hunger and thirst. There is a nearby tree, with a branch he could reach, that bears every kind of fruit. But if he reaches for it, it pulls away. Likewise, he tries to drink from the river, but as soon as he reaches for it, the water subsides. From this punishment comes the term “tantalize.” Note that the Greek myth focuses the torment on food and water, while the Jewish myth focuses on sexual issues. See Greek Myths by Robert Graves, 108d.

Sources:

B. Eruvin 18b; Genesis Rabbah 20:11, 22:11, 24:6; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 20; Midrash Tanhuma, Bereshit 26; Sefer ha-Zikhronot 13:1; Zohar 1:19b, 1:55a, 3:76b; Ein Gor Sheyne Tkhine .

Studies:

The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patai.

Jewish Magic and Superstition by Joshua Tractenberg .

261. ADAM AND LILITH

When God created Adam and saw that he was alone, He created a woman from dust, like him, and named her Lilith. But when God brought her to Adam, they immediately began to fight. Adam wanted her to lie beneath him, but Lilith insisted that he lie below her. When Lilith saw that they would never agree, she uttered God’s Name and flew into the air and fled from Adam. Then Adam prayed to his Creator, saying, “Master of the Universe, the woman you gave me has already left me.” So God called upon three angels, Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to bring her back. God said, “Go and fetch Lilith. If she agrees to go back, fine. If not, bring her back by force.”

The angels left at once and caught up with Lilith, who was living in a cave by the Red Sea, in the place where Pharaoh’s army would drown. They seized her and said, “Your maker has commanded you to return to your husband at once. If you agree to come with us, fine; if not, we’ll drown one hundred of your demonic offspring every day.”

Lilith said, “Go ahead. But don’t you know that I was created to strangle newborn infants, boys before the eighth day and girls before the twentieth? Let’s make a deal. Whenever I see your names on an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.” When the angels saw that was the best they would get from her, they agreed, so long as one hundred of her demon children perished every day.

That is why one hundred of Lilith’s demon offspring perish daily, and that is why the names of the three angels are written on the amulets hung above the beds of newborn children. And when Lilith sees the names of the angels, she remembers her oath, and she leaves those children alone.

The haunting legend of Lilith finds its source in the rabbinic commentary on the biblical passage Male and female He created them (Gen. 1:27). It appeared to the rabbis that this passage contradicted the sequential creation of Adam and Eve (Gen. 2:21-22). Therefore they attempted to resolve this contradiction by saying that Male and female He created them referred to Adam’s first wife, whom they named Lilith, while Eve, who was created later, was Adam’s second wife. They chose the name Lilith from Isaiah 34:14, where Lilith is mentioned (Yea, Lilith shall repose there ), in what is believed to be a reference to a Babylonian night demoness.

Even though Lilith seems to leap fully formed out of a line in the Bible, it is likely that the legend was already told among the Jewish people, and that the rabbis sought out a text to attach it to. In any case, the mythological figure of Lilith almost certainly finds its origin in other cultures of the Ancient Near East. Lilith’s role as a seducer of men is likely to have been based on the Babylonian night demon Lilitu, a succubus who seduces men in their sleep, while Lilith’s role as a child slayer may well derive from the Babylonian demon Lamashtu. It is interesting to note that the roles of Lilitu and Lamashtu became blurred together, and Lilith took on the roles of both seducer and child slayer.

Having brought a powerful figure such as Lilith into being, the rabbis felt compelled to recount her entire history. In this case, the legend began to grow quite extensive. The first complete version of it is found in Alpha Beta de-Ben Sira , dating from the ninth century in North Africa, the primary source of the myth.

Here Adam and Lilith are described as having been created at the same time, and having fought over everything from the first. They had a final confrontation over the question of the missionary position. Adam insisted on it; Lilith refused, preferring the opposite, with the female dominant. When they couldn’t agree, Lilith pronounced the secret Name of God, the Tetragrammaton, YHVH, which has remarkable supernatural powers, and flew out of the Garden of Eden and landed on the shore of the Red Sea. There Lilith took up residence in a nearby cave and took for lovers all the demons who lived there, while Adam, left alone, complained to God that his woman had left him. God sent the three angels to command Lilith to return. She refused, and they threatened to kill 100 of her demon offspring daily. Lilith still refused to return; she was never very maternal .

When Lilith offers a compromise, the myth takes a strange turn. She tells the angels that she was created to strangle children, boys before the eighth day and girls before the twentieth. But if a woman carried an amulet with the words “Out Lilith!” on it, along with the names of the angels, she would leave that woman and her children alone. What is really occurring is that another myth is being fused to the first, while the issue of Lilith’s return to Adam is simply dropped. This second myth concerns Lilith’s role as a child-destroying witch. Indeed, it is possible that a myth concerning another demoness has been incorporated into that of Lilith. In all likelihood, we can identify this demoness as Obyzouth, who is invoked by King Solomon in the first century text The Testament of Solomon . The king commands her to describe herself, and Obyzouth tells how she seeks to strangle children. Furthermore, she reveals that she can be thwarted by the angel Raphael and by women who write her name on an amulet, for then she will flee from them to the other world. What appears to be taking place is that the demoness Lilith, who up to this point had been concerned with issues of independence and sexuality, here takes on a new aspect from Obyzouth, that of the child-destroying witch, by a process of mythic absorption. Why did this happen? Probably because Lilith became such a dominant mythic figure that she absorbed the roles of the lesser known demoness. This likely occurred very early, between the first and third centuries, and Lilith has played a powerful dual role ever since in Jewish folklore and superstition. See “The Night Demoness,” p. 223.

So it is that Lilith is regarded both as a witch determined to strangle children and as the incarnation of lust. In her role as a witch, Lilith’s actions provided an explanation for the terrible plague of infant mortality. Use of amulets against Lilith was widespread and is still considered necessary in some ultra-Orthodox Jewish circles. Only a generation ago grandmothers often tied red ribbons on a child’s bed. These ribbons symbolically represented the amulet against Lilith and served the same purpose.

The text of this amulet against Lilith is taken from Sefer Raziel . The amulet against Lilith has been found in archeological digs dating back 1,500 years. The traditional use of such amulets against Lilith was widespread, and visitors to the ultra-Orthodox Mea She’arim section of Jerusalem will even today find protective amulets against Lilith available for purchase. Both the text and even the primitive drawings on the ancient amulet are still in use. See “A Spell to Banish Lilith,” p. 218, for the text.

Sources:

Alpha Beta de-Ben Sira 5.

Studies:

Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literature , edited by David Stern and Mark Mirsky.

The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patai, pp. 221-254.

“Notes on the Testament of Solomon” by H. M. Jackson.

262. LILITH RISES FROM THE DEEP

From the crevice of the deep there came a certain evil female spirit whose name was Lilith. She had been condemned to imprisonment deep beneath the waves. But God’s anger at the time of the Fall was so great that God decided to let Lilith go. So the dark Lilith, also known as the First Eve, was set free. She hides during the day in caves and other dark places. But at night she is free to roam the world.

That is why it is written that a man may not sleep alone in a house, for Lilith will attempt to seduce him. She will slip in if the window is open a crack, slip beneath the door and beneath the sheets. Her long hair is jet black. Many a man has felt it hanging in his face as he lay asleep, dreaming lustful dreams. After she steals his seed, Lilith gives birth to mutant demons, half human and half demon, who are destined to be outcasts. Humans will hate them, because they are half demon, and demons will hate them because they are half human .

To lead the hearts of men astray, Lilith adorns herself with all manner of decorations, and stands at the entrance to roads and paths. She dresses for seduction, with earrings from Egypt and jewels hung around her neck. Her hair is long and red, her face white and pink, with six pendants hanging from her ears and all the ornaments of the East encircling her neck. Her mouth is like a tiny door, her lips beautiful, her words smooth as oil, and her tongue sharp as a sword.

They will encounter her in a forest or a ruin, or in the cellar where an innkeeper takes his naps. One fool after another runs after her, drinks from her cup of wine, sleeps on her bed of Egyptian flax. And when he wakes up, thinking to sport with her, she takes off her finery and turns into a fierce warrior, her garment of flaming fire, her eyes horrific, and causes his body and soul to tremble, her sword sharpened with drops of poison. Then she kills him with a sharp sword from which bitter drops fall, and casts him into the very pit of hell.

This account of Lilith from the Zohar demonstrates how she is viewed as a murderous demon, who uses her sexual powers to destroy men. In the Zohar , Lilith is viewed as the primary feminine force of evil, while Samael is the primary male force. While in the Talmud (B. Eruvin 100b) Lilith is generally described as having long, black hair, there are other sources, such as this one, where her hair is described as red. Some sources even assert that Lilith has wings (B. Nidah 24b). This links Lilith even closer to the Babylonian night demonesses Lilitu and Lamashtu.

Sources :

B. Shabbat 151b; B. Eruvin 100b; Zohar 1:148a-b; Zohar 3:19a.

Studies:

The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patal.

Lilith—The First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine by Siegmund Hurwitz.

263. A SPELL TO BANISH LILITH

OUT LILITH! I adjure you, Lilith, in the Name of God, and in the names of the three angels sent after you, Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to remember the vow you made that when you find their names you will cause no harm, neither you nor your cohorts; and in their names and in the names of the seals set down here, I adjure you, Queen of Demons, and all your multitudes, to cause no harm to a woman while she carries a child nor when she gives birth, nor to the children born to her, neither during the day nor during the night, neither through their food nor through their drink, neither in their heads nor in their hearts. By the strength of these names and seals I so adjure you, Lilith, and all your offspring, to obey this command.

This text is used to ward off the demoness Lilith in her attempts to strangle newborn babies. The text is placed inside of amulets worn by mothers during pregnancy, and hung above the beds of babies after they are born. Lilith played the role of a child-destroying witch, for it was she who was blamed for the scourge of infant mortality. This text alludes to the story of how Lilith abandoned Adam and the Garden of Eden for a cave by the Red Sea. The demons were sent to order her to return to her husband, but she refused. After bargaining with the angels, they came to an agreement whereby Lilith would not try to harm any mother or infant protected by this amulet. See “Adam and Lilith,” p. 216.

Sources:

Sefer Raziel .

264. THE WOMAN IN THE FOREST

Lilith seeks, above all, to seduce the best ones, knowing that if she can conquer them, the others will fall into her hands as well. Once she decided to try to seduce Rabbi Elimelekh of Lizhensk.

At that time Rabbi Elimelekh was still a young man. He spent all day in the house of study, and at night he walked home through the forest, always taking the same path.

One night, as he was walking through the forest, he saw a light in the distance. Curious to know what it was, he left the path and followed the light. Before long he saw that it was coming from a cottage, one that he had never before seen in the forest. As he came closer, he peered into the window, and there he saw a woman with long, dark hair, who was wearing a very thin nightgown.

As soon as he saw her, Reb Elimelekh knew he did not belong there, and he turned to leave. Just then the door to the cottage opened, and the woman called out: “Reb Melekh, wait! Please, come in.” So Reb Elimelekh went in. Then the woman closed the door and stood before him and said: “Reb Melekh, I have seen you pass through the forest many times, and I have often hoped you would visit me. You know, I bathed in the spring today and I am clean. Surely the sin would be slight, but the pleasure would be abundant.” And she dropped her gown.

Reb Elimelekh stared at her with disbelief and struggled with himself, as did Jacob with the angel. And at last he wrenched out, “No!” At that instant the woman vanished, and the cottage disappeared, and Reb Elimelekh found himself standing alone in the forest. And there were glowworms at his feet.

The woman in this tale is not identified, but everyone among the Hasidim who heard it knew exactly who she was—Lilith, or one of the daughters of Lilith. So vivid was the presence of Lilith in their lives that she became the primary projection of their sexual fantasies and fears.

Lilith, as in this tale, is usually portrayed as having black hair. In fact she is characterized this way in the Talmud (B. Eruvin 100b). She is brazen from the first, calling Reb Elimelekh not by his full name, Elimelekh, but by his familiar name, Melekh. This conveniently lets her avoid pronouncing Eli, “my God,” which, as a demoness, she is forbidden to do. The fact that her hair is long indicates that she is unmarried, while having bathed in the spring informs him that she has purified herself in a mikveh . She is appealing to his knowledge of the Law when she tells him that the sin will be slight and the pleasure abundant. According to Deuteronomy 22:22, If a man be found lying with a married woman, then they shall both die . However, the expected parallel about a married man lying with an unmarried woman is missing, and, according to rabbinic principles of interpretation, what is not stated is not a law. Therefore, the sin is slight, since the law does not identify it as adultery. It is a sin, but not a mortal one.

Thus Lilith comes equipped with many weapons. She does not only use the power of lust, her greatest power, but also appeals to his intelligence. Rabbi Elimelekh escapes, but only after a considerable struggle. The glowworms at the end indicate that Lilith has lost her power over him and Lilith has been revealed in her true form, that of a worm. Or, if this story is read as a Hasidic sexual fantasy, that the fantasy has reached its climax.

The fact that the tale is attributed to Reb Elimelekh of Lizhensk indicates that Lilith was brazen enough to approach even the holiest of men. Indeed, this was her intention. For if she could corrupt the best ones, the others would be sure to follow. Reb Elimelekh resists, but barely. The power of the Yetzer ha-Ra , the Evil Inclination, affects everyone on this earth, even rebbes. There is also a compensating force, the yetzer ha-tov , the Good Inclination. But, as might be expected, there is much more heard of the Yetzer ha-Ra in Jewish lore than there is of the yetzer ha-tov .

Sources:

Ohel Elimelekh; Sefer Or Yesharim story no. 199; Zikaron Tov; Ohalei Shem; Devet Brán .

265. THE CELLAR

Every impurity engenders demons. Whenever a man’s seed is spilled, his demon offspring are conceived. Lilith or one of the daughters of Lilith steals it. A drop is all that is needed.

These demon sons regard the man as their father. They find a place to live in his house, whether in an attic or a cellar, or even in a closet. They make their home there.

Not even married men are safe from the lure of Lilith. No sooner do their wives turn their backs, than Lilith seeks out victims among them. She appears to them as dreams during the night, and as visions during the day. Sometimes Lilith so sways a man that she becomes his secret wife.

That is what happened in the city of Posen, where there once was a goldsmith who was secretly married to Lilith. The demoness lived in the cellar, where the goldsmith had his workshop. He spent time with his demon lover every day, while keeping her existence secret from his family. Little by little the goldsmith yielded everything to her, lusting after her day and night.

Once it happened that the goldsmith even got up in the middle of the Seder, when the words “And they went down into Egypt” were read, and he went down to the cellar. His real wife followed after him, afraid that he was ill. She peered through the keyhole of the cellar door, and saw that the cellar had been transformed into a palatial chamber, while her husband lay naked in the arms of a lover. Maintaining control of herself, she returned to the Seder and revealed nothing to the rest of the family. But the next day she went to the rabbi and told him everything.

The rabbi confronted the man with his sin and he confessed. Then the rabbi gave him an amulet to protect himself against Lilith, and he used it to free himself of her. But before she would release him, Lilith demanded that the cellar be bequeathed to her and their demon offspring for all time, and the man took a vow to this effect. He escaped her powers all the rest of his life, but as he lay on his deathbed, his demon children swarmed around him, invisible to his human family, crying out his name.

After his death the house became known as being haunted. Eventually it was sold, and the new owner had a workman break open the door to the cellar, which had been nailed shut. When that workman was found dead on the threshold, Rabbi Yoel Ba’al Shem was sent to investigate. He confirmed that the cellar was infested with demons, and he ordered a rabbinic court, a Beit Din , to be convened. The court ruled against the demons’ right to live in the cellar there, on the grounds that the demons transgressed the boundaries of the cellar, and they were expelled into the wilderness.

One of the most popular and pervasive beliefs in Jewish folk tradition is that the demoness Lilith or one of her daughters, the Lilin , seek to steal a man’s seed, in order to create a demon who is half-human and half-demon. These demonic sons are said to haunt their fathers all their lives. The struggle portrayed in this and other similar tales can be seen as one between humans and demons, with offspring who are half-human, half-demonic—or, as a struggle between Jews and Gentiles, where Jewish men are lured by Gentile women, and their offspring are half-Jewish, half-Gentile. In both cases the offspring are spurned by both sides.

Lilith plays a major role in Jewish lore as the incarnation of lust. She haunts men in their dreams and imaginations. Every time a man had a sexual dream or fantasy, he was believed to have had intercourse with Lilith, and the product of this intercourse were mutant demons, half human and half demon, who were spurned by humans and by demons alike. The story recounted here is a famous 17th-century folktale from the ethical text Kav ha-Yashar .

Among the oral traditions about a man’s demon sons is that that when he lies on his deathbed, his demon sons surround him, crying out his name. So too are the demon sons said to accompany a man’s human sons to the cemetery, where they mourn for him. To deceive the demons, his true sons do not take a direct path to the funeral, but set off in the opposite direction. Once they reach the cemetery, they read Psalm 91 out loud, to ward off the demons. Then they form a sacred circle and dance around the dead man seven times. This prevents the demon sons from approaching the deceased and demanding their inheritance.

Psalm 91 is the psalm used to ward off demons and is believed to invoke supernatural protective qualities. It is recited to keep away the forces of evil. Especially important is the verse, He will order his angels to guard you wherever you go (Psalms 91:11). It also includes verses such as, You need not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, the plague that stalks in the darkness, or the scourge that rages at noon (Ps. 91:5-6).

These folk traditions grow out of a belief in extreme sexual purity, where any accidental or intentional spilling of a man’s seed is regarded as a sin, the sin of Onan (Gen. 38:8-10). So too do they reflect the widespread belief—and fear—of succubi, in the form of Lilith and her daughters. For more on nocturnal emissions, see B. Berakhot 57b and B. Yevamot 76a.

Sources:

Kav ha-Yashar; Ohel Elimelekh; Sefer Or Yesharim story no. 199; Zikaron Tov; Ohalei Shem; Zohar 1:48a-b; Ma’asiyot me-Tzaddikei Yesodei Olam; Moraim Gedolim; Hemdat Yamim 2:98b; Korban Shabbat 18c; Sha’ar ha-Kavvanot 56b-c; Ta’amei ha-Minhagim 436; Oxford Hebrew ms. Oppenheim 540 (no. 1567 in Neubauer’s Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library) , attributed to Judah the Pious; HaSulam on Zohar, Vayishlah 1-4; oral version collected by Howard Schwartz from his father, Nathan Schwartz.

Studies:

“Tradition and New Creation in the Ritual of the Kabbalists,” in On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism by Gershom Scholem, pp. 118-157.

“Two Magical Bowls in Teheran” by C. H. Gordon. Orientalia, vol. 20, 1951, pp. 306ff.

The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patai.

“Five Versions of the Story of the Jerusalemite” by Joseph Dan.

266. LILITH, THE QUEEN OF ZEMARGAD

Lilith, the Queen of Zemargad, has the form of a beautiful woman from the head to the navel, and from the navel down she is flaming fire. Her only intention is to arouse wars and all kinds of destruction. It was she who seized and killed the sons of Job.

Her lovers include the demons Samael and Ashmedai, the King of Demons. Indeed, great jealousy sprang up between the demons Samael and Ashmedai over Lilith.

When God brings about the destruction of Rome, and turns it into a ruin for all eternity, He will send Lilith there, and let her dwell in that ruin, for she is the ruination of the world, as it is said, And Lilith shall repose there (Isa. 34:14).

Just as the sirens in Greek mythology are destructive female creatures, half-woman and half-bird, so Lilith is described here as being half-woman, half-fire. This description serves a dual purpose. On the one hand it shows that she is not a real woman, but some kind of strange creature, and the fire that makes up her lower half symbolizes the fires of desire that she awakens and that her role is directly related to lust.

In Jewish folklore, Lilith is identified as the Queen of Demons and is said to be married to Ashmedai, the King of Demons. In this myth, where the view of Lilith is entirely negative, she is viewed as a destructive creature who provokes nothing but lust and jealousy. Even her demon lovers, Samael and Ashmedai, fight over her. But, the myth promises, the day will come when, like Rome, Lilith will receive her just punishment and be forced to live in a ruin, since she has ruined so many lives. See “The Two Liliths,” following, for a variant myth.

Sources:

Targum to Job 1:15; Kabbalot in Mada’ei ha-Yahadut 2:257; Zohar 3:19a.

267. THE TWO LILITHS

Some say there are two Liliths. One is the spouse of Samael and the other is the spouse of Ashmedai. On Yom Kippur the two Liliths go forth into the desert and screech. And when the two meet there, they quarrel in the desert, and they strive with each other until their voices rise up to heaven, and the earth shakes with their clamor. God sees that this takes place so that the two Liliths should not accuse Israel while Israel is at prayer on Yom Kippur.

Kabbalistic texts identify two Liliths, one sometimes known as Grandmother Lilith the Great and the other as Little Lilith. Mythic speculation about two Liliths grows out of two separate traditions about Lilith, one linking her to the demon Samael, and the other linking her to Ashmedai, the King of Demons. One of Lilith’s specialties is to distract men while they are at prayer with lascivious thoughts. Here God sees to it that Lilith cannot distract Israel on Yom Kippur by sending the two Liliths out into the desert, where they screech and struggle with each other.

This myth of the two Liliths being sent out into the desert on Yom Kippur seems to be parallel to that of the scapegoat sent out into the desert to Azazel on Yom Kippur (Lev. 16:20-22). See “A Scapegoat for Azazel,” p. 295. But it replaces the male demon of the biblical myth—Azazel—with a female demon, Lilith. And instead of the scapegoat being sent to Azazel, the two Liliths are sent out to quarrel and screech at each other, distracting them and thus preventing them from accusing the people of Israel on the Day of Atonement. See “The Ba’al Shem Tov Ascends on High,” p. 209 for another example of the theme of silencing the Accuser.

A parallel mythic development is found in the myth of the two Messiahs, Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David. See “The Two Messiahs,” p. 517.

Sources:

Pardes Rimmonim 186d; Kabbalot in Mada’ei ha-Yahadut 2:257.

268. LILITH’S CHILDREN

In his travels, Rabbah bar Bar Hannah reached the city of Mehuza. There he saw Hurmin, the son of Lilith, running along the battlements of the walls of the city. A cavalryman was chasing him from below, but even though he was riding on horseback, he could not catch up with him.

Once Hurmin had two mules saddled and stood them on two bridges of the Rognag River. As Rabbah watched, Hurmin jumped back and forth from one to the other, holding two glasses of wine in his hand, pouring wine from one to the other, without spilling a drop. When the king of Mehuza heard about Hurmin’s stunts, he had him executed, for the king feared that Hurmin would try to depose him.

As for Lilith’s daughters, they are just as dangerous as she is. Their names are Na’amah, Agrat, Irit, and the Queen of Sheba .

Some say that Na’amah is Lilith’s daughter, and some say that she is her sister. In any case, they are like evil twins, for they work in exactly the same way. They lure grooms into their web, and marry them not to their intended brides, but to their demonic doubles.

Watch out for Agrat. She roams about in the company of eighteen myriads of angels of death, all of whom kill by strangulation. It is dangerous to go out on Wednesday night or the eve of the Sabbath because of them.

As for the Queen of Sheba, she seeks out men to seduce, just like her mother. She comes to them whether awake or asleep and steals their seed and bears them demonic offspring.

The accounts of Rabbah bar Bar Hannah take the form of tall tales, on land and sea. This one recounts how he reached the city of Mehuza and saw Hurmin, Lilith’s son, performing stunts. Rabbah’s tales are generally interpreted as allegories. Here Rabbi Samuel ben Meir (1083-1174), known as Rashbam, sees Hurmin as representing the Yetzer ha-Ra , the Evil Inclination. The cavalryman is the Tzaddik who makes a great effort to perform the mitzvot , the commandments. The juggling of the cups indicates that every misdeed against Israel will be duly punished.

While Lilith is undoubtedly the primary Jewish demoness, there are several other demonesses who make their mark in Jewish lore, especially Na’amah, Agrat, and the Queen of Sheba. So it is not surprising that they are sometimes identified as the daughters of Lilith. Their functions are virtually identical to those of Lilith: seducing men and leading them astray, and giving birth to demons, including mutant demons fathered by human men. See “Demonic Doubles,” p. 230.

Sources:

B. Bava Batra 73a; Numbers Rabbah 12:1; Tzefunot ve-Aggadot .

269. THE NIGHT DEMONESS

Using the power of God’s Name, King Solomon compelled the demon Ornasis to reveal the names of all the other demons. One of those he named was Obyzouth. No sooner did the demon pronounce her name than Solomon saw what seemed to be a woman, whose body and limbs were veiled by her long hair.

Solomon said to her, “Who are you?” She replied, “Who are you, and why do you want to know who I am? But if you wish to know this, then go into the royal chambers, wash your hands, seat yourself on your throne again, and ask me. Then you will learn who I am.”

And after King Solomon had done these things, he asked her again who she was, and she replied: “Men call me Obyzouth. At night I go around the whole world and visit women about to give birth. As soon as the child is born, I do my best to strangle it. If I fail, I leave at once and go somewhere else, because I cannot let a single night pass without success. I have nothing else to do but kill children.”

When King Solomon heard this, he said. “Tell me, evil spirit, how can women protect themselves from you? By the name of what angel are you rendered harmless?” Obyzouth said, “By the angel Apharoph. And when women give birth, they should write my name on a piece of paper and hang it up, and I will flee from that place.”

This description of the demoness Obyzouth from The Testament of Solomon (first through third centuries CE) contains the key elements of the Lilith myth. Both are nocturnal demons who attempt to strangle newborn babies. Even their appearance is similar, for they both have long, black hair. But the demoness Obyzouth disappears after The Testament of Solomon , and Lilith takes over her role, in an example of mythic absorption. Now Lilith has two roles, as the incarnation of lust and as a child-destroying witch. As evidence of the link between the two demonesses in later kabbalistic literature, Obyzouth was said to be one of the secret names of Lilith.

Sources:

The Testament of Solomon 13.

270. LILITH THE WITCH

At night Lilith flies over homes until she smells the odor of mothers’ milk. She finds a way to enter the house—any kind of crack in the door or window will do. She can take any form she desires, a black cat, a broom, even a hair in the milk. Some say she comes there to strangle the infant, others that she wants to steal the afterbirth, to feed it to her children. Only if the child is guarded by an amulet against Lilith will the child be safe.

But Lilith’s greatest enemy was the old midwife who was familiar with all her tricks. It is told that Lilith, flying over the house of a woman who had recently given birth, smelled the mother’s milk and transformed herself into a long, black hair that fell into a glass of milk. When the mother was about to drink the milk, she noticed the black hair and fainted. The midwife recognized the presence of Lilith at once and poured the glass of milk, hair and all, into a jug, and closed it tightly. Shaking the jug, the midwife heard the pleas of Lilith from within and extracted a vow from her not only to spare the woman and her child, but also to serve them for three years and protect them from other evil forces. This Lilith did, for once she takes an oath, she is compelled to carry it out.

Note that the portrait of Lilith in the story of the midwife is quite different from that found in the male myths. The male attitude toward Lilith mixes fear with sexual fantasy. From a woman’s perspective, however, Lilith is bad news in every way, as Lilith threatens to steal both her husband’s affection and seed and the very life of her children. (It is important to contrast this traditional view of Lilith as an evil demoness with the contemporary view, espoused by Jewish feminists, that Lilith be viewed as a role model for sexual and personal independence. See footnote 172 in the Introduction.) Thus Lilith holds far more power over men than she does over women. Perhaps this is because men are ambivalent toward Lilith, seeing her as something forbidden and tempting, while fearing her destructive abilities. For women, Lilith is a husband-stealing, child-destroying witch they fear and loathe more than anything else. And unlike the men, they are willing to struggle against her, here defeating her. The story of the midwife who captures Lilith is Kurdish. Professor Dov Noy suggests that this is a prime example of a woman’s tale, containing secrets of how to defeat the enemy, Lilith. See “The Hair in the Milk” in Lilith’s Cave , pp. 110-112.

Sources:

Shishim Sippurei Am ; IFA 4563.

Studies:

Lilith—the First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine by Siegmund Hurwitz.

“Some Early Amulets from Palestine” by J. A. Montgomery.

271. LILITH AND ELIJAH

Elijah was walking one day when he met Lilith. He said, “Unclean one, where are you going?” Lilith knew that she could not lie to Elijah, so she said, “I am going to the house of a woman who is about to give birth. I will give her a sleeping potion and kill her and take her child and eat it. ”

Elijah said, “I curse you in the Name of the Lord. Be silent as a stone!”

Lilith said, “O lord, release me from your curse and I swear by God’s Name to forsake my evil ways. As long as I hear or see my own names I will retreat and not come near that person. I shall have no power to injure him or do evil. I swear to disclose my true names to you.”

Elijah said, “Tell me what your names are.”

Lilith said, “These are my names: Lilith, Abiti, Abizu, Amrusu, Hakash, Ode, Ayil, Matruta, Avgu, Katah, Kali, Batub, and Paritasha.” Let them be written and hung about the house of women who are bearing a child, or around the child after it has been born. And when I see those names, I shall run away at once. Neither the child nor the mother will ever be injured by me.”

And Elijah said, “So be it. Amen.”

Here Lilith is portrayed not only as a witch intent on killing children, but as a cannibal as well, who seeks to kill the mother and devour the child. This is the vilest description of Lilith to be found anywhere. At the same time, Lilith is subject to the power of Elijah, who curses her in God’s Name to be silent as stone. This would be a terrible punishment for Lilith, who uses her verbal wiles to bargain her way out of every difficult situation. Lilith then agrees to stay away from every pregnant woman or newborn child where Lilith’s own names are posted in the house. This creates the kind of amulet against Lilith found in “A Spell to Banish Lilith,” p. 218. Here, however, is a different story of the origin of the amulet. The more famous account found in The Alpha Beta de-Ben Sira tells how God sent three angels to force Lilith to return to Adam, but when she refused, they agreed on the creation of an amulet that would ward off Lilith. See “Adam and Lilith,” p. 216.

Thus there are two important elements that differ from the usual folk traditions about Lilith: one is that she devoured her infant victims, and the other is about her encounter with Elijah having resulted in the creation of an amulet to ward her off.

An unknown Gnostic tale is referred to by Epiphanius in Panarion , in which Elijah was said to have been cast back into the world after his ascent on high. A female demon took hold of him and said, “Where are you going? I have children from you, and you can’t go to heaven and leave your children here.” Elijah said, “How can you have children from me? I was always chaste.” The demon said, “But I do! While you were dreaming, you often had an emission, and I took the seeds from you and begot you children.” The existence of this story indicates that Elijah and Lilith, or a Lilith-like figure, were regarded as traditional adversaries, one deeply pious, the other, the embodiment of evil.

Sources:

Yosef ba-Seder 6.

272. LILITH FLEES FROM THE APPARITION OF EVE

When God created Adam, he attached Eve to Adam’s back. Her beauty was like that of the realms above. Some say she was only an apparition, for she had not been brought into being, while others say that she was Adam’s other half, until God separated them, creating two beings where there had been one.

Once Lilith approached Adam, seeking to seduce him, for she thought that he was all alone. But when she saw Eve’s perfect image attached to Adam’s back, Lilith flew from there to the cherubim who guard the gates of the Garden of Eden. But the cherubim turned her away, and God dispatched her to the depths of Cities of the sea .

There Lilith dwelt until Adam and Eve sinned. Then God freed her from the watery depths and let her roam to and fro in the world. She returned to the cherubim and dwelt there by the fiery ever-turning sword that guards the way to the Tree of Life (Gen. 3:24).

Some say that she still bides her time there until the moon is on the wane and the light diminishes. Then she comes forth from the gates of the Garden and flies through the world seeking revenge against the children of Eve.

But others say that God has exiled her once again to the Cities of the Sea, and that she will remain there until Rome is destroyed. Then God will bring Lilith from the depths and settle her in Rome’s desolate ruins.

This myth is a good example of how the Zohar takes an existing midrash and transforms it into a kabbalistic one. The midrash on which this myth is based (B. Eruv . 14a) describes Adam and Eve as having been created back to back. That image recurs here (Zohar 1:19b), but it seems to suggest that rather than being a flesh and blood creature, Eve is more of an apparition, a perfect image. This interpretation grows out of the verse In the image of God He created him, male and female He created them (Gen. 1:27). Tzelem , the word for “image,” has many mystical meanings. Here it seems to suggest that Eve is more of an archetype than a person. Lilith is intimidated by this vision, either because she realizes that Adam is already with another woman, or because Eve’s supernal beauty (which is, after all, that of the image of God) so greatly transcends her own. Gershom Scholem suggests that tzelem is a kind of astral body (On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead , pp. 251-273).

Then the myth recounts that Lilith flees to the cherubim, who guard the gates of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:24). Her reasons for seeking out the cherubim are not clear, but it is possible that she, too, wanted a human body. In any case, the cherubim guarding the gates of Eden turn her away and God imprisons her in the depths of the sea. But Adam’s sin causes God to set her free, and she comes as close as she can to the Garden of Eden—still, it seems, desiring entry there—while using the night to seek harm against human infants, which, it is implied, is her revenge against Eve.

Zohar 3:19a describes Eve as being fastened to Adam’s side, rather than his back, at the time that God breathes the breath of life into him, and this living soul pervades his body. In both of these sources from the Zohar it seems that the female plays a role similar to that defined by Carl Jung as the anima, the feminine side of a man, whose presence must be discovered and integrated in order for a man to achieve wholeness. Eventually, however, God splits Adam and prepares Eve as an independent person (Zohar 3:19a). Here “prepares” can be understood as transforming Eve from her image into a living person, or, more closely following the midrashim about the wedding of Adam and Eve, preparing her as a bride for Adam. Or both, for this same passage from the Zohar also states that the reason Lilith fled was that she saw God bringing Eve to Adam, dressed as a bride (Gen. 2:22).

Kabbalistic cosmology offers an entirely different way of viewing this myth of Lilith and Eve. Here Lilith represents not a demoness, but the whole side of evil in the Sitra Ahra , “the Other Side,” the domain of dark emanations and demonic power. Eve, likewise represents the world of holiness. See “Adam the Hermaphrodite,” p. 138, and “The First Wedding,” p. 143.

Sources:

Zohar 1:19b, 3:19a.

Studies :

“Tselem: The Concept of the Astral Body” in On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead by Gershom Scholem, pp. 251-271.

Lilith—The First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine by Siegmund Hurwitz.

“Mermaid and Siren: The Polar Roles of Lilith and Eve” by Howard Schwartz .

273. THE SPIRITS OF THE SIXTH DAY

God created all day long during the first six days of Creation and did not rest until the sun set on the sixth day. But when the Sabbath day was ready to be sanctified, there were still spirits that had been created who were left without a body. Thus their creation was incomplete, and they are blemished. The holy name does not dwell in them. That is why demons have no bodies, but are composed entirely of spirit.

Some of these evil spirits tried to enter the body of Adam after God shaped him into the form of a human being, but before God breathed the breath of life into him.

These spirits continue to exist in the realm of spirits, whirlwinds, and demons known as the Sitre Ahra , the Other Side. They are made corporeal in that realm, the realm of Cain.

It is said that these spirits have three things in common with the angels, and three things in common with men. Like angels, they have wings, they fly from one end of the world to the other, and they know the future, for they hear it spoken from behind the heavenly curtain (Pargod ). Like humans, they eat and drink, they propagate, and they die.

Likewise, in three ways demons are like human beings, and in three ways they are like the angels. Like humans they eat and drink, reproduce and multiply, and die. In addition, they are said to have the feet of cocks, they can change their appearance any time they please, and they see, but they cannot be seen.

If you want to discover demons, take sifted ashes and sprinkle them around your bed, and in the morning you will see something like the footprints of a cock. If you want to see them, take the afterbirth of a black she-cat, the firstborn of a firstborn, roast it in fire and grind it to powder, and then put some in your eye and you will see them.

This is a myth about the origin of evil spirits, which are said to have been created during the six days of creation with the intention of pairing them with bodies, but when the sun set on the sixth day of creation, there were many spirits left without bodies. These spirits are linked with the Sitra Ahra , the Other Side. They are regarded as unclean, and dwell in the realm of evil, or wander restlessly around the world. See “Adam and the Spirits,” p. 140.

Sources:

B. Hagigah 16a; Zohar 1:47b-48a, 1:178a-178b, 3:19a.

274. THE VAMPIRE DEMON

The demons did not want to see the Temple built. They could not harm King Solomon, or the chief builder, so Ornasis, a vampire demon, approached the chief builder’s son and sucked blood from his thumb. He did this many times, until the boy was very weak. King Solomon noticed his condition, and asked him what was wrong. When the boy told the king, Solomon gave the boy his royal ring, with the letters of God’s Name, YHVH, engraved on it, and told the boy to throw the ring at the demon the next time he approached. That would make him the boy’s prisoner. When that happened, the boy was to bring him to King Solomon.

That is exactly how things came to pass, and before long King Solomon besieged Ornasis with many questions about the other demons, what their names were, and how they could be stopped. In this way, King Solomon extracted the names of all the demons. And with the knowledge he gained, Solomon saw the building of the Temple completed, and held off the demons throughout the years he ruled, for they had no power over him.

This is the earliest Jewish vampire tale, as well as one of the few such tales to be found in Jewish lore. This tale of the demon Ornasis serves as the frame tale to The Testament of Solomon , a pseudepigraphal text believed to date from before the writing down of the Talmud. The conventional vampire/host relationship is presented quite clearly in the role of the demon and the boy who is his victim. King Solomon’s plan to capture the vampire demon is similar to that used to capture Ashmedai king of demons, in B. Gittin 68.

Sefer Hasidim (twelfth century) includes a tale about Astryiah the vampire, who sucks the blood from her victims while they are asleep.

Sources:

The Testament of Solomon 1.

275. AN EVIL DEMONESS

One after the other, King Solomon invoked a host of demons and evil spirits, in order to find out their names and how they might be thwarted. Among them was a demoness whose name was Onoskelis. Her torso was that of a beautiful woman, but her legs were those of a mule.

Solomon said, “Tell me who you are.” She replied, “I am Onoskelis, a spirit that has been made into a body. I was created by the echo of a voice from a black heaven. I make my home in caves in the sides of cliffs and ravines. I travel by the moon. Sometimes I strangle men, sometimes I pervert them from their true nature, for men think of me as a woman, which I am not. Men worship me secretly and openly and this incites me to be an evildoer all the more.”

Then King Solomon uttered God’s name and commanded her to spin hemp for the ropes used to build the Temple in Jerusalem. He had her bound in a such a way that she was powerless, so that she had to stand day and night to spin the hemp.

The Testament of Solomon serves as a comprehensive listing of demons and spirits. King Solomon invokes and then interrogates them. Here he invokes the spirit of an evil demoness, Onoskelis, who seduces and strangles men. She is a Lilith-like figure, but there are some distinct differences. While Lilith demonstrates seductive beauty entirely, Onoskelis has a beautiful torso but the legs of a mule. Like Lilith, she deceives men into believing she is a woman, when she is actually a demoness set on their destruction. Solomon’s punishment for her is like that of a fairy tale—she must endlessly spin hemp. This, of course, keeps her occupied, and forces her to contribute to the building of the Temple.

Sources:

The Testament of Solomon 4.

276. THE WIDOW OF SAFED

A widow living in Safed, whom everyone considered pious, suddenly began to speak with the voice of a man, until it became apparent that a wandering spirit, a dybbuk , had taken possession of her body. The woman was greatly tormented by this spirit, and she sought help among the disciples of Rabbi Isaac Luria, known as the Ari. Rabbi Joseph Arsin was the first to visit her, and when the voice addressed him by name, he was amazed. Then the dybbuk revealed that he had once been a pupil of Rabbi Arsin’s when they had both lived in Egypt, and he gave his name. Rabbi Arsin recalled that he had once had such a pupil and realized that the former pupil’s soul was now addressing him.

Rabbi Arsin demanded to know why the soul of this man had taken possession of the pious widow. The dybbuk readily confessed that he had committed a grievous sin. He had caused a woman to break her marriage vow and had fathered a child with her. And because of this sin, he had been enslaved after his death by three angels, who had dragged him by a heavy chain and had punished him endlessly. He had taken possession of the widow’s body in order to escape this terrible punishment.

Then Rabbi Arsin asked the dybbuk to describe the circumstances of his death, and the spirit said: “I lost my life when the ship on which I was sailing sank. Nor was I able to confess my sins before dying, because it happened so quickly. When the news of the wreck reached the closest town, my body was recovered along with the others who had drowned, and I was buried in a Jewish cemetery. But as soon as the mourners left, an evil angel opened the grave with a fiery rod and led me to the gates of Gehenna. But the angel guarding Gehenna refused to allow me to enter, so great was my sin, and instead I was condemned to wander, pursued by three avenging angels.

“Twice before I tried to escape from this endless punishment. Once I took possession of a rabbi, but he invoked a flock of impure spirits, and in order to escape them I had to abandon his body. Later I became so desperate that I took possession of the body of a dog, which became so crazed that it ran until it dropped dead. Then I fled to Safed and entered the body of this woman.”

Rabbi Arsin then commanded the dybbuk to depart from the widow’s body but the dybbuk refused. So Rabbi Arsin went to the Ari and asked him to perform the exorcism. The Ari called upon his disciple, Rabbi Hayim Vital, to do this in his name and gave him a formula, consisting of holy names, that would force the dybbuk to depart.

Now when Rabbi Hayim Vital entered the house of the poor widow, the dybbuk forced her to turn her back to him. And when Hayim Vital asked the dybbuk to explain this, the spirit said that he could not bear the holy countenance of his face. Then Hayim Vital asked the dybbuk to tell him how long it had been cursed to wander. The spirit replied that its wandering would last until the child he had fathered had died. Finally, Hayim Vital asked to know how the dybbuk was able to enter the body of the widow. The dybbuk explained that the woman had made it possible because she had little faith, since she did not believe that the waters of the Red Sea had truly parted.

Hayim Vital asked the woman if this was true, and she insisted that she did believe in the miracle. He made her repeat her belief three times, and on the third time Hayim Vital uttered the formula that the Ari had taught him. After that he commanded the dybbuk to depart from the woman by the little toe of her left foot. At that moment the dybbuk did depart with a terrible cry, and the woman was freed from the agony of that possession. The next day, when the Ari ordered that the mezuzzah on her door be checked, it was found to be empty, and that is why it did not protect against that evil spirit.

The legends concerning Dybbuks , spirits of the dead who take possession of the living, multiply in the later medieval and Hasidic literature. There are scores of such accounts of possession in Jewish lore. “The Widow of Safed” records the history of one such case, revealing, in the process, the basic pattern to which all possessions are subjected. The dybbuk has been able to enter the house because the mezuzzah is defective and has been able to take possession of the woman because of her lack of faith in the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea. The latter was the standard test of true faith among Jews. Note that the Ari sends Hayim Vital to perform the exorcism in this tale, imputing to him powers similar to those of his master. Another early account of possession by a dybbuk is found in Ma’aseh Buch 152, also dating from the sixteenth century, suggesting that the superstitious conditions both in Eastern Europe and the Middle East were right for this belief. Earlier cases of possession did not involve spirits of the dead, but rather demonic possession, as recorded in Josephus (Antiquities , 8:2.5) and the Talmud (B. Me’ilah 17b). It is interesting to note that the majority of these accounts of possession include details of name and place that far exceed the usual anonymity of folklore. Gedalyiah Nigal has compiled a Hebrew anthology of dybbuk tales, Sippurei ha-Dybbuk (Jerusalem: 1983), and virtually every account includes the place and year where the possession and exorcism occurred and the names of the witnesses. The tales almost always follow the same pattern: (1) Someone becomes possessed by a dybbuk . (2) A rabbi confronts the spirit and demands that it reveal its name and history. (3) The dybbuk tells its tale. (4) The dybbuk is then exorcised, and the one who was possessed recovers. This suggests that the pattern established in the earliest of these tales, such as this one, was repeated in succeeding generations and became, in effect, a socially recognized form of madness. More recently, such possession has been identified primarily as a psychological aberration. In Legends of the Hasidim , the editor, Jerome Mintz, reports a case of such possession in which the Satmar Rebbe supposedly advised someone said to be possessed by a dybbuk to see a good psychiatrist (pp. 411-412).

Sources:

Ele Toledot Yitzhak in Sefer Toledot ha-Ari , pp. 253–256.

Studies:

Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism by J. H. Chajes.

Magic, Mysticism and Hasidism: The Supernatural in Jewish Thought by Gedalyah Nigal.

Dybbuk by Gershon Winkler.

“Dybbuk and Maggid: Two Cultural Patterns of Altered Consciousness in Judaism” by Yoram Bilu.

277. DEMONIC DOUBLES

The kingdom of Satan is measure for measure like the kingdom of man. Every male child, when born, already has a double in the kingdom of demons. So too does every female, when she is born, have her shadow born there as well, in her precise shape and image, not unlike that seen in a mirror. And at the hour that a heavenly voice goes forth to announce that this one will be married to that one, a partner is also prepared at the same time in the spirit world. She sits and waits for him there from that time forward. And the man who is fortunate marries his partner from the family of man, but less fortunate is he who is found alone on the fourth night of the week or on the night of the Sabbath. For then he is in danger of being kidnapped by the sons of Satan, and led to a place that no man’s feet should ever enter, there to marry, not his intended, but his intended’s demonic double.

The Talmud explains that “Forty days before a person is born, a heavenly voice goes forth to say that this one will be married to that one” (B. Sota 2a). This knowledge is available to the angels, but not only to the angels—the demons, too, overhear this voice and make evil use of the knowledge they obtain. Thus, in effect, the bashert tradition, where a person seeks out and marries his or her “destined one,” has been corrupted and effectively reversed by demons.

In The Testament of Solomon King Solomon forces the demon Ornasis to explain how demons are familiar with future events. Ornasis tells him that “We demons go up to the firmament of heaven, fly around among the stars, and hear the decisions that issue from God concerning the lives of men.” This explains how the demons, as well as the angels, hear the heavenly voice that announces future events. Using future knowledge, demons create the demonic double of a person’s bashert —destined one—and trick people into marrying the demonic doubles. This serves to explain the many strange marriages that are found in the world.

Sources:

The Testament of Solomon 20; Tzefunot ve-Aggadot .

278. THE UNDERWORLD

There is a great and high mountain where the spirits of the dead assemble, in the place known as Sheol. There the spirits of the righteous are separated from the those of the sinners, where they will remain until the day of judgment.

Meanwhile, the voices of the spirits of those who have died go forth from there to heaven, pleading for mercy. One of those spirits belongs to Abel, slain by his brother Cain, and he still makes his case against the seed of Cain, till they are annihilated from the face of the earth.

This myth from 1 Enoch , dating from around the second century BCE to the first century CE, identifies the place of the dead as Sheol, as does the Bible. Later Sheol is replaced by Gehenna, Jewish hell, where the souls of the dead are punished and purified. This myth demonstrates that even after death the spirits of those who have been murdered continue to plead their case against their murderers. This belief can be traced to the verse Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground (Gen. 4:10), confirming the belief that such terrible deeds can never go unpunished. Also standing behind this myth is the concept of the seed of Abel and the seed of Cain. These are the descendants of Cain and Abel (or, in Abel’s case, the descendants of Seth since Abel had no descendents that we know of), in whose blood the conflict is carried on. And the spirit of Abel will not be satisfied until all of the spiritual descendants of Cain—traditionally identified as the enemies of the Jews—will be annihilated.

Sources:

1 Enoch 22:1-14.

279. WHEN A MAN DIES

Two angels watch over a man at the moment of his death, and they know whether he has ever been a thief, for even the stones and beams of his house witness against him, as it is said, For a stone shall cry out from the wall, and a rafter shall answer it from the woodwork (Hab. 2:11).

Then the soul of the man who has died is brought before the patriarchs and they say to him, “My son, what have you done in the world from which you have come?”

If he answers, “I have bought fields and vineyards, and I have tilled them all my life,” they say, “Fool that you have been! Have you not learned that The earth is the Lord’s and all that it holds ” (Ps. 24:1). Angels then take him away and hand him over to the avenging angels, who thrust him into Gehenna.

Then angels bring another before the patriarchs. They ask the same question, and if he answers, “I gathered gold and silver,” they reply, “Fool, have you not read in the books of the prophets, Silver is Mine and gold is Mine—says the Lord of Hosts (Hag. 2:8). Likewise, he is turned over to the avenging angels.

But when a scholar is brought before them, they ask the same question, and if he answers, “I have devoted my life to the study of the Law,” the patriarchs say, “Let him enter into peace” (Isa. 57:2), and God receives him with grace.

This account of what happens to those who die emphasizes the importance of the study of Torah in the eyes of the patriarchs, who are said to serve as judges, and in the eyes of God. The two angels who watch over a man at the time of his death are identified as the Angel of Death and the Angel who counts a man’s days and years.

Sources:

Gan Eden ve-Gehinnom in Beit ha-Midrash 5:48-49; Orhot Hayim .

280. THE CREATION OF GEHENNA

Gehenna, the place of punishment, was one of the seven things created before the Creation, but for a long time it was nothing more than a great void. Then, at the time that God separated Himself from Adam and ascended on high, God lit the fires of Gehenna, and made them alternate with periods where everything is covered by ice.

This myth links the lighting of the fires of Gehenna to the exile of Adam from Eden. This implies that Adam’s sin created the need for the fires to be lit. Thus, while Gehenna may have been created before the creation, it was only initiated as a place of punishment after the Fall.

Not all myths about the nature of Gehenna are consistent. Some describe it solely as a place of terrible fires, but other versions have it alternate periods of great heat with periods of the deepest cold.

Sources: .

B. Pesahim 54a; B. Nedarim 39b;Eliyahu Rabbah 1:3.

281. THE PRINCE OF GEHENNA

Before the souls of the wicked are taken to the netherworld, Arsiel, the Prince of Gehenna, waits for God’s order to take them there. Meanwhile, the Prince of Gehenna stands before the righteous, saying, “Give me the souls” (Gen. 14:21). In this way he does his best to distract the righteous, so that they will not pray for the wicked. For the Prince of Gehenna knows only too well the power of their prayers.

Several figures are identified as the Prince of Gehenna—the angel in charge of the souls of the wicked, who are being punished in Gehenna. Among them, Satan is the best known angel, along with Samael. The demon Ashmedai is said to rule the Kingdom of Demons. The Prince of Darkness is another name that is used. Here the Prince of Gehenna is identified as the angel Arsiel, who plays the satanic role of confronting the souls of the righteous to distract them from praying for the souls of the wicked. Then, when God gives the order, he takes them down to Gehenna. Note that God is at the head of the chain of the orders that send the wicked to the netherworld. All that remains to save the wicked from their fate are the prayers of the righteous. But they are a potent force. For more on the efficacy of the prayers of the righteous, see “The Ashes of Sinners,” p. 242.

Sources:

Midrash ha-Ne’elam, Zohar Hadash 25a-b.

282. THE HISTORY OF GEHENNA

Where is Gehenna? Some say it is above the firmament, others that it lies below the earth. Still others say that it lies behind the Mountains of Darkness. How big is it? As big as the Garden of Eden, and that is said to be boundless.

Some say that Gehenna predates the creation of the universe. Others say that the space for Gehenna was created first, but its fires did not begin to burn until the eve of the first Sabbath. Still others say that the fires of Gehenna were created on the second day, while ordinary fire was not created until after the end of the Sabbath. So powerful are the fires of Gehenna that they make the sun red in the evening, as it passes over them. It is said that those fires will never be extinguished.

But the fires of Gehenna are not the only punishment, for Gehenna is half fire and half hail. The fires of Gehenna are bad enough, but the hail is much worse .

Gehenna is the place of punishment in Jewish lore, the Jewish equivalent of hell. It has much in common with the Christian concept of hell, except that in the Jewish view punishment in Gehenna never lasts more than a year, while in the Christian view it is eternal. It is usually described as being under the earth—when the earth opened and swallowed Korah, he and his followers fell into the fires of Gehenna.

But there is also a tradition that heaven and Gehenna exist side by side, and that the wall separating them is no more than a hand’s breadth.

The concept of Gehenna grew out of the Valley of Gehinnom in Jerusalem, which was regarded as a place of evil, as children were once sacrificed in pagan ceremonies there.

Sources:

B. Pesahim 54a; B. Tamid 32b; B. Bava Batra 84a; Tosefta Bereshit 6:7; Ecclesiastes Rabbah on Ecclesiastes 3:21; Midrash Tehillim 11:7, 51a; Exodus Rabbah 51:7; Zohar 2: 150b; Zohar Hadash 57b; Tanna de-vei Eliyahu; Yalkut Shim’oni, Kohelet 57b.

Studies:

Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature by Martha Himmelfarb.

Hell in Jewish Literature by Samuel Fox.

“Early Jewish Visions of Hell” by Richard Bauckham.

Jewish Views of the Afterlife by Simcha Paull Raphael.

283. THE OPENINGS OF GEHENNA

Some say that there are three entrances to Gehenna, one in the wilderness, one in the sea, and a third in Jerusalem. Others say that there are two date trees in the valley of Gehinnom where smoke ascends, and that is the entrance to Gehenna. Others say that there are four openings to Gehenna on each side of the universe, sixteen in all. Whatever direction the wicked may take in trying to escape Gehenna, they only run into another of its openings. Still others say there are fifty gates to Gehenna, each of which has holes in which the feet of the wicked are locked.

Then there are those who say that the mouth of Gehenna can be found anywhere in the world, and should it be needed, the mouth opens and swallows whatever is standing there.

Various sources describe different entrances to Gehenna, and this myth attempts to resolve the contradictions by stating that Gehenna has three entrances. An alternate explanation suggests that the entrance to Gehenna can be found anywhere, and that the ground can open up and swallow a sinner, just as it did for Korah and his followers when they challenged Moses in Numbers 16:32. See “The Punishment of Korah,” p. 235. See too “The Door to Gehenna,” p. 240.

Sources:

Midrash Konen in Beit ha-Midrash 2:24-39; Midrash Aggadat Bereshit 18a.

284. THE LANDSCAPE OF GEHENNA

Some say that there are coals in Gehenna as big as mountains and as huge as the Dead Sea. So too are there rivers of pitch and sulphur flowing and fuming and seething throughout Gehenna.

Others say that Gehenna is half fire and half ice, and when the sinners escape from the fire, they are tortured by the ice, and when they escape from the ice, the fire burns them .

In many ways Gehenna is a distorted mirror image of Paradise. Just as there are rivers of balsam flowing through heaven, there are rivers of pitch and sulphur flowing in Gehenna. The rivers of balsam are part of the rewards of paradise, while the rivers of pitch and sulphur are part of the punishments of Gehenna.

So too is Gehenna sometimes described as half fire, half ice. Those being punished by the fire try to escape to the ice, but it is so terrible that they run back to the fire, for there is no escape from the punishments of Gehenna.

Sources:

Orhot Hayim; Baraita de-Masekhet Gehinnom in Hesed le-Avraham; Midrash Konen in Beit ha-Midrash 2:24-39.

285. THE SCORPIONS OF GEHENNA

There are seven thousand scorpions in every crevice of Gehenna. Every scorpion has seventy thousand pouches of venom, and from these flow six rivers of deadly poison. When a man comes in contact with that poison, he immediately bursts, and his body is cleft asunder, and he falls dead on his face. Then the avenging angels collect his limbs and revive him and place him on his feet and take their revenge on him all over again.

These deadly scorpions, far more lethal than any found on earth, are one more example of the kinds of punishments of Gehenna, where a sinner can be killed and revived over and over again, so that his suffering continues until his time in Gehenna comes to an end.

Sources:

Baraita de-Masekhet Gehinnom in Hesed le-Avraham .

286. THE BRIDGE OVER GEHENNA

There is a bridge that spans Gehenna. The spirits of the dead have to struggle to cross that bridge. When they are directly over Gehenna, the bridge appears to be no wider than a thread, and some of them lose their balance and tumble into Gehenna, their diminishing screams following them into the abyss.

The tortures of Gehenna are myriad, and nothing is as it seems. Here the spirits of the dead are forced to cross a bridge that seems to be as narrow as a thread and, losing their balance, they fall into the Abyss. The point is that those who receive punishments in Gehenna have nothing they can depend on, and live in constant danger. In a metaphorical sense, the bridge across Gehenna symbolizes the immense difficulty of sinners finding their way out of the punishments of Gehenna.

Sources:

Seder Eliyahu Zuta 21, 76b; B. Eruvin 19a; B. Sukkah 32b; Ms. Oxford Bodleian OR 135, published in “Un Recueil de Contes Juifs Inedits,” edited by Israel Levi, Revue des Etudes Juives , vol. 35 (Paris: 1897).

287. THE DARKNESS OF GEHENNA

The darkness of Gehenna is thick as the wall of a city. Nothing is more terrible than this darkness, as it is said, A land whose light is darkness, all gloom and disarray, whose light is like darkness (Job 10:22). This is the darkness of the plague of darkness, when Moses held out his arm toward the sky and thick darkness descended (Exod. 10:22). Where did that darkness come from? From the darkness of Gehenna.

One of the punishments of Gehenna is a terrible darkness as thick as a wall. Indeed, it was this impenetrable darkness that God drew upon when he brought the plague of darkness to Egypt. Once again, the punishment is intended to fit the crime. Just as the sinners were blind to their sins, so they are punished in Gehenna by a darkness so thick it leaves them lost in blindness.

Sources:

Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu, Noah 1; Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu, Bo 2; Baraita de-Masekhet Gehinnom in Hesed le-Avraham .

288. THE LIGHT OF GEHENNA

Sometimes a light issues forth from Gehenna into the Garden of Eden. This is a sign that God has accepted the grief of one of the souls that is being punished. The soul’s contrition warrants its entry into the Garden of Eden, where its suffering is transformed into delight.

This myth is in direct contrast to “The Darkness of Gehenna.” It shows that God continues to monitor the grief of the sinners in Gehenna, and that He is prepared at a moment’s notice to accept deeply felt repentance to free those sinners from the punishments of Gehenna. In contrasting Gehenna with the Christian concept of hell, it is important to note that the punishments of hell are supposed to last forever, while the time the soul of a sinner spends being punished in Gehenna is limited to a maximum of twelve months. And ultimately, when the Messiah comes, Gehenna will cease to exist.

Sources:

Zohar 2:211b; Tzidkat ha-Tzaddik 153; Toldot Ya’akov Yosef; Sifram Shel Tzaddikim .

289. THE PUNISHMENT OF KORAH

Once a Bedouin came to Rabbah bar Bar Hannah and offered to show him where Korah and his followers had been swallowed up by the earth. They went there and they saw two cracks in the ground, with smoke coming out of them. Rabbah took a bundle of wool and soaked it in water and put it on the tip of a spear. He then stuck the spear into one of the cracks in the earth. When he took it out, they saw that the wool was scorched by fire. The Bedouin told Rabbah to put his ear to the ground, to hear what Korah and his followers were saying. When Rabbah did, he heard them crying out, “Moses and the Torah are true, and we were liars!” The Bedouin told Rabbah that every thirty days the angel appointed over the sinners of hell brings them to this place, where they are roasted by the fire. And all the while they cry out in regret over what they have done.

This is one of the tall tales attributed to Rabbah bar Bar Hannah found in the Talmud. Here a Bedouin takes him to the place where Korah and his followers were swallowed up by the earth after they rebelled against Moses in Numbers 16:32. The place they fall into is Gehenna, where evil souls are punished. Once a month Gehenna returns to that place. This regularity echoes Rabbah’s tale about the same Bedouin leading him to the Wheel of Heaven, which returns to the same place every 24 hours.

The moral of this myth is quite apparent: Korah and his followers are still crying out in regret for their rebellion against Moses, which will haunt them forever. See “Where Heaven and Earth Meet,” p. 121 and “The Dead of the Desert,” p. 471.

Sources:

B. Bava Batra 74a .

290. THE INHABITANTS OF GEHENNA

The souls of the wicked descend below to Gehenna, as it is said, The spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth (Eccles. 3:21). This includes the utterly wicked in Israel and the wicked among the nations of the earth. Both will go down to Gehenna, as it is said, The wind shall carry them off, and the whirlwind shall scatter them (Isa. 41:16).

This myth answers the question of whether the punishments of Gehenna are limited to Jews, or whether they apply to the wicked of other nations. Here both are described as being punished in Gehenna.

Sources:

Ecclesiastes Rabbah on Ecclesiastes 3:21; Eliyahu Rabbah 18:108-109; Eliyahu Zuta 11:192.

291. THE FATE OF THE SOUL

The souls of the righteous are stored beneath the Throne of Glory, while the souls of the wicked are made to wander, and one angel stands at one end of the world and another at the other end, and they throw the wicked souls to one another, as it is said, He shall sling away the lives of your enemies as from the hollow of a sling (1 Sam. 25:29).

This brief myth presents a stark contrast between the fates of the souls of the righteous and those of the wicked. While those of the righteous are kept close by, beneath God’s throne, those of the wicked experience the punishment of wandering and exile, traditionally the worst possible punishment. This is the same punishment Cain receives when God makes him a ceaseless wanderer on earth (Gen. 4:11). But most startling is the image of the angels standing at each end of the world, throwing the souls of the wicked back and forth. This emphasizes how relentless is the wandering they are condemned to, which takes on characteristics of one of the punishments of Gehenna, Jewish hell. See “The Punishments of Gehenna,” following.

Sources:

B. Shabbat 152b.

292. THE PUNISHMENTS OF GEHENNA

Gehenna, where the souls of the wicked are punished, is ruled by the angel Dumah. Dumah was appointed to rule over the netherworld. Three angels of destruction are at his command. Their names are Mashit, Af, and Hema, and they command many legions of avenging angels. All of Gehenna is filled with their din, and their shouts reach into heaven. That is why the voices of the wicked can barely be heard as they shriek out, and why no one has mercy upon them.

Every night, except the Sabbath, the angels of destruction punish those whose evil deeds were hatched in the dark. There the wicked learn firsthand why the dread of Gehenna is so great.

But when the Sabbath begins, judgment vanishes from the world and the wicked in Gehenna rest. The angels of destruction cease ruling over them from the moment the Sabbath arrives, until the Sabbath comes to an end. Then the wicked are dragged back to the dungeons of Gehenna, where their punishment resumes.

It is said that in the future all the people of Israel will enter Gehenna together with the nations of the world, and the latter will all perish, while Israel will depart from its midst unharmed, as it is said, When you walk through fire, you shall not be scorched; through flame, it shall not burn you (Isa. 43:2) .

This myth explains how Gehenna is ruled by the angel Dumah. (Dumah is the Hebrew word for silence and land of death.). Dumah, in turn, commands three forces of angels of destruction, led by three angels, Mashit, Af, and Hema. The myth is offered by way of explanation as to why the phrase “He, in His compassion” is not said on the Sabbath, lest the angels of destruction be stirred up. Nor is it necessary to conclude the Hashkivenu with the blessing “He who protects his people Israel,” because there is no need for protection—the Sabbath itself protects. Instead the blessing used is “He who spreads over us a Tabernacle of Peace,” which is clearly understood to be a reference to the Sabbath.

The myth also emphasizes that even the wicked in Gehenna are freed from their punishments on the Sabbath, which is thus celebrated not only on earth, but also in heaven by God and the angels (see “God Keeps the Sabbath,” p. 314) and even by the wicked being punished in hell.

A few key prooftexts are brought in to substantiate this myth. Concerning those who plot evil in the dark, it is said, Who do their work in dark places (Isa. 29:15). The dread of Gehenna is said to be referred to in the verse Because of terror by night (S. of S. 3:8). The names of the three commanding angels under Dumah are taken from this verse. Rabbi Alexander explained, “The dread of Gehenna is similar to the dread of night” (B. Sanh . 7b).

Sefer Hasidim reports a man riding through the desert who saw by the light of the moon a line of wagons pulled by human beings. He recognized them as people who had died. He asked what they were doing, and they told him that it was the punishment for their sins. For if a person behaved like an animal during his lifetime, he was put to work like an animal in the afterlife.

Sources:

Midrash on Ruth 79b; B. Sanhedrin 94a; Sod ha-Shabbat 9; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 11:5; Sefer Hasidim 169.

Studies:

Hell in Jewish Literature by Samuel J. Fox.

293. THE FATE OF SLANDERERS

What is the fate of slanderers? When slander, spread about the earth, mounts even to the throne of glory, destroying angels descend at God’s command and seize the slanderers and throw them into the furnace of Gehenna.

But Gehenna objects, saying, “The tongue of a slanderer reaches from earth up to the heavens. The entire world cannot stand him. First send your arrows at him, and then I will receive him, as it is said, A warrior’s sharp arrows, with hot coals of broom-wood (Ps. 120:4).” Then those who slander are hung by their tongues and subject to all the tortures that Gehenna has to offer.

The most despicable figures in Gehenna are the slanderers. Not even Gehenna, personified here, can bear their presence. So Gehenna insists that God punish them first, and then Gehenna will receive them, according to the verse A warrior’s sharp arrows, with hot coals of broom-wood (Ps. 120:4). Here the “coals of broom-wood” refers to the punishments of Gehenna. For another example of the personification of Gehenna, see “Gehenna Seething,” p. 238.

Note that the sinners are cast into the furnace of Gehenna, where the hottest flames of Gehenna are burning. This is to demonstrate the seriousness of their sins.

Sources:

Eliyahu Rabbah 18:10 8

294. SABBATH IN GEHENNA

Even the wicked in Gehenna enjoy a respite on the Sabbath. Every Sabbath eve, when the day becomes sanctified, the angel in charge of souls announces, “Let the punishment of the sinners cease, for the Holy King approaches and the Day is about to be sanctified. He protects all!” Instantly all punishment ceases, and the guilty have a respite. The sinners who observed the Sabbath are led to two mountains of snow, where they remain until the end of the Sabbath, when the angel in charge of the spirits shouts, “All evildoers, back to Gehenna—the Sabbath is over!” and they are thrust back to their former place in hell. Some of them, however, take snow with them to cool them during the six days of the week, but God says to them: “Woe to you who steal even in hell!”

But the fires of Gehenna do not come to a halt for those who never observed the Sabbath. Since they did not observe the Sabbath before, they have no respite. An angel whose name is Santriel, which means “God is my Guardsman,” goes and fetches the body of the sinner from the grave. He brings it to Gehenna before the eyes of the guilty, and they see how it has bred worms. They know the soul of such a sinner has no respite from the fire of Gehenna. And all those guilty who are there surround that body and proclaim over it: “This person is guilty, for he would not regard the honor of his Master, he denied the Holy One, blessed be He, and denied the Torah. Woe to him! It had been better for him never to be created and not to be subjected to this punishment and this disgrace!”

Rabbi Yehudah said: “After the Sabbath goes out the angel comes and takes that body back to its grave, and both the body and the soul are punished, each in its own way.”

And all this takes place while the body is still well preserved. But once the body is decayed, it no longer suffers all these punishments. The guilty ones are punished in their bodies and their souls, each with a suitable punishment, so long as the body in the grave is intact. But when the body breaks down the punishment of the soul ceases. He who must leave Gehenna leaves, and he who must find rest has rest—to each is done what is suitable for him.

So great is the redeeming power of the Sabbath, that even the souls being punished in Gehenna are allowed to rest on the Sabbath, until the close of the Sabbath. As Tola’at Ya’akov puts it, “Din —harsh justice—is banished on the eve of the Sabbath, even from the sinners in Gehenna. For the Sabbath protects the cosmos. But on Saturday night Din is restored to its station. A herald cries out: ‘Let the wicked be in Sheol ’” (Ps. 9:18). In addition to a reprieve on the Sabbath, Zohar 2:150b lists further reprieves on new moons and festivals.

For a folktale about Sabbath in Gehenna, see “Three Stars” in Gabriel’s Palace , pp. 227-228. See also “Sabbath in Gehenna” by Isaac Bashevis Singer’s in The Death of Methuselah and Other Stories , pp. 212-219.

Sources:

Pesikta Rabbati 23:8; Orhot Hayim; Zohar 2:151a; Tola’at Ya’akov 58b; Sha’ar ha-Gemul; Nishmat Hayim 1:12, 1:14; Sefer ha-Zikhronot 15:7.

295. GEHENNA SEETHING

Gehenna is seething all the time. God asked, “Why are you seething?”

Gehenna replied, “I am seething, quivering with anger, shaking because of the vile things the wicked say about Israel.”

God asked, “What will it take to calm you?”

Gehenna answered, “Cram me full of those who transgress against Israel. ”

God said, “I have already filled you with the nations of the earth, and there is no more room in you.”

Gehenna replied, “Master of the Universe, did You not promise that Gehenna would be increased in height by so many parasangs in order to accommodate all transgressors?”

At that instant Gehenna was expanded, and God still flings Israel’s transgressors into it.

This myth continues the personification of Gehenna seen in “The Fate of Slanderers,” p. 237, both from Eliyahu Rabbah . Thus Gehenna is not only portrayed here as a place of punishment, but also as a being gripped by the most intense anger, like a seething pot. God recognizes that Gehenna is seething, and inquires if there is a way to calm it. Gehenna demands to be crammed full of those who transgress against Israel. God raises the question of whether Gehenna has enough room to hold them. This question of room in Gehenna grows out of Isaiah 5:14: Assuredly, Sheol has opened wide its gullet and parted its jaws in a measureless gape . God then expands Gehenna in order to accommodate all the new sinners.

In another version of this myth, instead of asking to be expanded, Gehenna asks for an additional category of sinners, those who know the Torah yet transgress it.

Sources:

Eliyahu Rabbah 18:108; Eliyahu Zuta 20:32.

296. THE SIZE OF GEHENNA

The wicked wonder, “How many myriads can Gehenna hold? Two hundred, three hundred myriads? How can it ever hold all the wicked who appear in every generation?”

God replies, “As you increase, Gehenna, too, increases, growing wider and broader and deeper every day,” as it is said, His firepit has been made both wide and deep (Isa. 30:33). For even though God finished creating the world and rested from His work on the seventh day, yet He continues to ordain punishment for the wicked, and to bestow rewards upon the righteous.

The point of this myth about Gehenna is that there will always be room for more sinners—God will see to that. The question of finding sufficient space for all the sinners of Gehenna is also addressed in “Gehenna Seething,” p. 238.

Sources:

Pesikta Rabbati 41:3.

297. THE GATES OF GEHENNA

Gehenna is located at the north of the world, in the unfinished corner of creation. There are three princes of Gehenna, who have been appointed over its three gates. One gate is in the desert, where Korah and his followers fell to the underworld of Sheol. The second gate is in the Sea of Tarshish, and the third gate is in the valley of Gehinnom in Jerusalem. The three ministers of Gehenna, Kipod, Nagdasniel, and Samael, are in charge of these three gates.

Gehenna itself is filled with the dwellings of demons. Among the inhabitants are harmful demons and destructive spirits, as well as many hosts of avenging angels. There the wicked are punished in the seven circles of Gehenna.

Avenging angels lead wraithlike beings to the gates, whipping them onward. When they reach one of the gates of Gehenna, an angel strikes the gate with his fiery whip so that it swings open. Then the angels force them all inside, even though they try to resist. But they are no match for his whip.

This myth fills in details about the entrances to Gehenna and who rules them, as well as which avenging angels and demons serve there. See “The Unfinished Corner of Creation,” p. 213 and “The Openings of Gehenna,” p. 233.

Sources:

Midrash Konen in Beit ha-Midrash 2:30;Orhot Hayim .

298. THE DOOR TO GEHENNA

There is a door that leads to Gehenna. It is a danger to anyone standing nearby. Without warning, the door will swing open and a hand reach out and grab whoever is standing there and pull them into Gehenna, never to be seen again. Then the door will slam shut.

This motif of the forbidden door is well known in world folklore. Perhaps the best-known version is that found in the fairy tale “Bluebeard.” Such a door becomes an emblem for all taboos, reminding us of Eve’s plucking of the forbidden fruit or of the Greek myth of Pandora. In the Talmud, Paradise and Gehenna are said to be as close as three fingerbreadths, implying that it is very easy to sin, and that the door to Gehenna confronts us at every turn. For a Jewish folktale based on this motif, see “The Door to Gehenna” in Lilith’s Cave , pp. 64-70. For more on the punishments of Gehenna see Hell in Jewish Literature by Samuel J. Fox, which collects these sources.

Sources:

Ms. Oxford Bodleian OR 135, published in “Un Recueil de Contes Juifs Inedits,” edited by Israel Levi, Revue des Etudes Juives , vol. 35 (Paris: 1897).

299. THE GATEKEEPER OF GEHENNA

The angel appointed over the gates of hell is Samriel. He sees that no one is admitted to Gehenna unless his name is listed in the giant Book of Gehenna that Samriel consults. Avenging angels drag the souls of sinners to Gehenna, and the gatekeeper makes sure that they deserve to be punished there.

Samriel is appointed over the three gates of Gehenna that are found on the side of the wilderness. He has the keys for these three gates, and when he opens them, the light of the world seeps in. Samriel has three angels under him, with three shovels, who clear a path out of Gehenna so that the light of the world can enter and be seen by the inmates of Gehenna.

Once in a while a sage or rabbi descends to Gehenna in order to obtain a bill of divorce from one of the souls being punished there. But the gatekeeper turns them all away, all except for Rabbi Naftali Katz. When Rabbi Naftali came there on a mission, the angel guarding the gate of Gehenna looked for his name in the Book of Gehenna, and refused to admit him when it wasn’t there. Rabbi Naftali threatened to take a vow to remain there for eternity and to pester the angel until he let him in. So the angel let him in.

The only ones permitted into Gehenna are the sinners who are brought there for punishment. However, there are a number of stories about sympathetic rabbis who attempted to enter Gehenna to ease the suffering of the sinners there. This myth explains that there is an angel, Samriel, who guards the entrance of Gehenna in order to keep out anyone who does not belong. In the story “Rabbi Naftali’s Trance,” Rabbi Naftali descends to Gehenna to search for a man who abandoned his wife without giving her a bill of divorce. Unlike many others who had sought entrance there, Rabbi Naftali intimidates the powerful angel who guards Gehenna and succeeds in going in. See “Rabbi Naftali’s Trance” in Gabriel’s Palace , pp. 152-154. See also the following tale, “The Messiah in Hell,” p. 241.

Sources:

Zohar 1:62b;Sippurei Ya’akov 7, edited by Ya’akov Sofer; Sippurim Mi-she-kevar , no. 27.

300. THE MESSIAH IN HELL

When Rabbi Joshua ben Levi found himself in the Garden of Eden, he decided to explore it as completely as he could. One by one he explored the nine palaces of the Garden of Eden, until he came to the palace of the Messiah. He recognized the Messiah by the splendor of his aura. There he saw how the patriarchs and kings came to the Messiah every Sabbath and holy day and wept, because it was not yet time for him to go forth into the world.

When Rabbi Joshua came before the Messiah, the Messiah said, “How are my children faring?” And Rabbi Joshua said: “Every day they await you.” Then the Messiah gave a great sigh and wept.

After that the Messiah showed Rabbi Joshua all of the earthly garden and the heavenly one as well, and revealed the greatest mysteries to him. But when Rabbi Joshua asked to be shown hell, at first the Messiah refused, for the righteous are not permitted to behold hell. But when Rabbi Joshua told him that it was his intention to measure hell from beginning to end, the Messiah agreed to take him there.

So it was that Rabbi Joshua followed the Messiah until they reached the fiery gates of hell. When the angels guarding the gate saw that the Messiah was with him, they admitted him at once. Everywhere they went, Rabbi Joshua saw the punishments of hell, where avenging angels smite the wicked with flaming rods, and throw them into fiery pits, and after that hang them by their tongues, or by the organs with which they committed adultery. And although Rabbi Joshua tried to measure the compartments of hell, he found that they were boundless, as was the suffering of the wicked. But whenever the wicked in hell saw the light of the Messiah, they rejoiced and cried out, “There is the one who will bring us out of here.”

This myth about the descent of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi and the Messiah into hell builds on the talmudic account of Rabbi Joshua’s highly irregular entrance into the Garden of Eden. See “Rabbi Joshua ben Levi and the Angel of Death,” p. 206. There Rabbi Joshua is portrayed as fearless, and here he asks the Messiah, whom he meets in heaven, to show him hell. The Messiah finally agrees and they descend to Gehenna together. Rabbi Joshua tries to measure the compartments of Gehenna, but discovers that they are boundless, i.e., that they can contain any number of sinners. However, this visit serves to give hope to the sinners of Gehenna, who acclaim the Messiah as the one who will free them from there, since one of the traditions about the coming of the Messiah is that all those being punished in Gehenna will be raised from there to Paradise. The Messiah described here is Messiah ben David, the celestial Messiah, who lives in a heavenly palace and will only descend to earth when the time is right for the footsteps of the Messiah to be heard.

Sources:

Sefer ha-Zikhronot 21:1-11; Orhot Hayim; Aggadat Bereshit 51a-b .

301. THE SABBATH RESURRECTION

On the eve of every Sabbath, between the afternoon and evening prayers, the spirits of the dead are led to a field in front of a river that comes out of the Garden of Eden. There they drink from this river, and when the congregation says, “Blessed is the Lord who is blessed,” they are returned to their graves and God resurrects them and they stand up alive from their graves. In this way all the dead of Israel rest on the Sabbath, and come in crowds and sing in the presence of the Lord. And they come and prostrate themselves in the synagogues, and come to behold the Divine Presence and bow before it.

This myth is a variant of that about Sabbath in Gehenna. However, this one seems to assume that all of the spirits of the dead are in a Hades-like place where they are kept during the week, not necessarily Gehenna, but more like Sheol. Although it is vague on this point, the central focus of the myth, on the resurrection of all of the dead of Israel every Sabbath, is memorable and unique. It tells us that the Sabbath is not only celebrated by the living, but also by the dead.

Sources:

Seder Gan Eden in Beit ha-Midrash 5:43.

302. THE ASHES OF SINNERS

Every twelve months the sinners of Gehenna are burned to ashes, and the wind disperses them and carries those ashes under the feet of the just, as it is said, And you shall trample the wicked to a pulp, for they shall be dust beneath your feet (Mal. 3:21).

Then the righteous take pity on the fate of the sinners and they pray for mercy upon them, and say, “Master of the Universe, these are the men who rose early to go to synagogue. They read the Shema, prayed, and performed other commandments.”

Hearing this, God revives them out of the ashes and stands them upon their feet and brings them to life in the World to Come.

For most sinners the punishments of Gehenna are only supposed to last for up to 12 months. After that, their souls have been purified, and they are able to slowly ascend on high, through the seven heavens. What is amazing about this myth of sinners being burned to ashes is that their revival comes about because the righteous intercede for them.

Of course, the notion of the sinners in Gehenna being burned to ashes is highly punitive. But the myth also includes an example of righteousness and generosity on the part of the just, whose prayers make it possible for those burned to ashes to be restored for life in the world to come.

See “The Prince of Gehenna,” p. 232, for more about the power of the prayers of the righteous.

Sources:

Orhot Hayim; Seder Eliyahu Rabbah 3; Yalkut Shim’oni , Malachi 593.

303. PURIFIED SOULS

When the process of purification has been completed, the chief angels take a soul out of Gehenna and lead it to the Gate of Paradise. There they say to the angels standing guard: “This soul was broken after its ordeal in the infernal fire, and now it has come to you pure and white.”

Then God causes the sun to penetrate the firmament and shed its rays on that soul and heal it .

The purpose of Gehenna is to purify the souls of sinners so that they can be permitted to enter paradise. This myth demonstrates how a soul is taken out of Gehenna. Note that this purification process is clearly described as a painful one, where the soul is purified in the fires of Gehenna.

Sources:

Zohar 2:211a.

304. HOW THE DEAD SEE THE DEAD

The day a person dies is the day of his judgment, when the soul parts from the body. A person does not leave this world until he sees the Shekhinah , accompanied by three ministering angels, who receive the soul of a righteous person. These angels examine a person’s deeds, and insist that a person confess to all that the body has done with the soul in this world. After this confession, the soul of a righteous person rejoices in its parting from this world and looks forward with delight to the world to come. For when God takes the souls of the righteous, He takes it with gentleness. But when He takes the souls of the wicked, He does so through cruel angels, as it is said, Therefore a cruel angel shall be sent against him (Prov. 17:11).

After a man dies he can be seen by all the others who are dead. To each of them he appears as they last saw him alive: some see him as a youth, others as an old man. For the angel who guards the dead makes his soul assume these various forms so that all should recognize him by seeing him just as they saw him in life.

However, if a man is condemned to punishment in Gehenna, he is enveloped in smoke and brimstone, so that none of those being punished can see the punishment of any other. Thus none are put to shame, except for those who have put others to shame.

This description of a man seeing the Shekhinah as he dies is based on Exodus 33:20: No man shall see Me and live . The three angels who accompany the Shekhinah are identified as the three angels who visited Abraham in Genesis 18:2.

It is characteristic of Jewish myth to describe in great detail unknown realms, such as heaven, hell, or what comes to pass when a person leaves this life. Here the dead are said to see each other exactly as they appeared when they last saw each other alive. This explanation of how the dead see and recognize each other solves the problem of a person’s changing appearance by aging.

Sources:

Sifre on Deuteronomy 357; Midrash ha-Ne’elam in Zohar 1:98a; Sefer ha-Zikhronot 11:6 .