The Story Of Lilith
from
Ancient Israel: Myths and Legends
by Angelo S. Rappoport
Queen
of the demons is Lilith, long-haired and
winged.1
She is supposed to have been the first wife of Adam. She
hsd been one of the wives of Sammad, but of a wild, heroic
and passionate nature she left her spouse and pined Adam.
From their union issued the demons or Shedim, who rode
about in the world as wicked spirits, persecute and plague
men, and bring upon them illness, disease, and other
sufferings.
Lilith, like Adam, had been created from the dust (Adamah)
of the earth. But as soon as she had joined Adam they began
to quarrel, each refusing to be subservient and Submissive
to the other. "I am your lord and master," spoke Adam, "and
it is your duty to obey me." But Lilith replied: "We are
both equal, for we are both issued from dust (Adamah), and
I will not be submissive to you." And thus they quarrelled
and none would give in. And when Lilith saw this she spoke
the Ineffable Name of the Creator and soared up into the
air. Thereupon Adam stood in prayer before the Creator and
thus he spake: " O Lord of the Universe, the woman Thou
hast given me has fled from me."
And the Holy One, blessed be His name, sent at once three
angels whose names were Senoi, Sansenoi, and Samman- gelof,
to fetch and bring Lilith back to Adam. He ordered them to
tell her to return, and if he refused to obey then a
hundred of her oflspring would die daily. The three afore-
mentioned angels followed Lilith, and they found her in the
midst of the sea, on the mighty waves (which were once to
drown the Egyptians).
They communicated to her the command of the Eternal, but
she refused to return. And the angels spake to this rebel,
this she-demon: "We will drown thee in the sea." But she
made answer: "Know ye not that I have been created for the
purpose of weakening and punishing little children, in-
fants and babes. I have power over them from the day they
are born until they are eight days old if they are boys,
and until the twentieth day if they are girls." And when
the three angels heard her speech they wished to drown her
by force, but she begged them to let her live, and they
gave in. She swore to them in the name of the living God
thst whenever she came and saw the names or images or faces
of these three angels, Senoi, Sansenoi, and Sammangelof,
upon an amulet or cameo in the room where there was an
infant, she would not touch it. But because she did not
return to Adam, every day a hundred of her own children or
spirits and demons die.
The legend of Lilith and the message of the three angels is
found in several sources of Rabbinical lore in some of
which it is quoted from the Alphabetum
Siracidis.2
The book known as the Sefer Rasiel describes the formula to
be written upon amulets or cameos and to be placed in the
rooms where there are new-born babes. It refers to Lilith
as the First Eve, and conjurers her in the name of the
three angels and the angel of the sea to whom she had sworn
not to harm the babes in whose rooms she found written on
paper the names of the three angels.3
Lilith is thus a female night demon, and is also known
under the name of Meyalleleth or the howling one.
The she-demon Makhlath (the dancer) and her daughter
Agrath4
are two female demons who live in strife with Lilith.
Lilith is accompanied by four hundred and eighty hosts of
evil spirits and destroying angels, and she is constantly
howling. Makhlath is accompanied by four hundred and
seventy-eight hosts of evil spirits. She and her daughter
Agrath, from the Zend word Agra = beating, are in constant
enmity with Lilith.
Constant war is waged between them, and they meet on the
day of atonement. Whilst they are thus engaged in quarrel
and strife, the prayers of Israel ascend to Heaven, whilst
the accusers are absent, being otherwise
enaged.5
Agrath commands hosts of evil spirits and demons, and rides
in a big chariot. Her power is pararnount on Wednesdays and
Saturdays, for on these days Agrath, the daughter of
Makhlath, roves about in the air accompulicd by eighteen
myriads of evil spirits.6
1. Niddah, 6b; Erubin, 100b.
2. Alphabetum Siracidis (Sepher Ben Sira), edit.
Steinschneider, 1858. See on Lilith. Gaster, in
Monatsschrift fuer Gesch. u. Wissenschaft d. Judent., Vol.
XXIX (1880), pp. 553-555.
3. Elia Levita, Tishbi s.v. Lilith.
4. Pesachim, 112b; Numbers Rabba, 12.
5. Yalkut Chadash, s.v. Keshaphim, No. 56.
6. Pesachim, 112b.