The blueprint transgressor! The OG Femme Fatale! Brought to you by the same soil as Adam!
In the the Alphabet of Ben Sira, legend has it that Lilith spoke the unspeakable Divine name and gained wings to escape with her unimaginable power. She fled to a cave in the Red Sea to hide and Hashem sent three angels to retrieve her, who threatened to kill a hundred of her children each day- she refused. Lilith is an allegorical figure in Jewish mythology who became a symbol of uncontrollable feminine power. She has historically been villainized as a murderer and kidnapper of infants, killer of pregnant women, seducer of men, demonic disruptor of the peace; but in modern feminist Jewish interpretations of the midrash, Lilith is a figure of empowerment and freedom for those who refuse to submit to patriarchal dominance.
Lilith and Havah should kiss?!? Forget Adam and Steve – read your Judith Plaskow or you’re homophobic 😈
TaNaKh
| English | Hebrew |
| Genesis 1:27 And God created humankind in Their own image, in the image of God created them; male and female created They them. | בראשית א:כז וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃ |
| Isaiah 34:14 And the wild-cats shall meet with the jackals, And the satyr shall cry to his fellow; Yea, the night-monster shall repose there, And shall find her a place of rest. | ישעיהו לד:יד וּפָגְשׁ֤וּ צִיִּים֙ אֶת־אִיִּ֔ים וְשָׂעִ֖יר עַל־רֵעֵ֣הוּ יִקְרָ֑א אַךְ־שָׁם֙ הִרְגִּ֣יעָה לִּילִ֔ית וּמָצְאָ֥ה לָ֖הּ מָנֽוֹחַ׃ |
Talmud
| English | Hebrew |
| Shabbat 151b:10 Rabbi Ḥanina said: It is prohibited to sleep alone in a house, and anyone who sleeps alone in a house will be seized by the evil spirit Lilith. | שבת קנא ב:י אָמַר רַבִּי חֲנִינָא: אָסוּר לִישַׁן בַּבַּיִת יְחִידִי, וְכׇל הַיָּשֵׁן בַּבַּיִת יְחִידִי — אֹחַזְתּוֹ לִילִית. |
| Nidah 24b Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: In the case of a woman who discharges a fetus that has the form of a lilith, a female demon with wings and a human face, its mother is impure with the impurity of a woman after childbirth, as it isa viable offspring, only it has wings. This is also taught in a baraita: Rabbi Yosei said: An incident occurred in Simoni involving a certain woman who discharged a fetus that had the form of a lilith, and the incident was brought before the Sages; and they said that it is a viable offspring, only it has wings. | נדה כד ב אָמַר רַב יְהוּדָה אָמַר שְׁמוּאֵל: הַמַּפֶּלֶת דְּמוּת לִילִית, אִמּוֹ טְמֵאָה לֵידָה, וָלָד הוּא אֶלָּא שֶׁיֵּשׁ לוֹ כְּנָפַיִם. תַּנְיָא נָמֵי הָכִי: אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹסֵי, מַעֲשֶׂה בְּסִימוֹנְיָא בְּאַחַת שֶׁהִפִּילָה דְּמוּת לִילִית, וּבָא מַעֲשֶׂה לִפְנֵי חֲכָמִים וְאָמְרוּ: וָלָד הוּא אֶלָּא שֶׁיֵּשׁ לוֹ כְּנָפַיִם. |
Medieval Kabbalah
| English | Hebrew |
| Alphabet of Ben Sira | |
| Zohar, Mishpatim 3:42-3 And what sort of souls are these which are so violently despoiled and taken away? There is a mystery behind this. They are the souls of infants still at the breast. The Holy One, seeing that should they continue in this world they would lose their sweet savour, their aroma of purity, and, as it were, turn sour like vinegar, gathers them in their infancy while their savour is still sweet, and allows them to be wrenched away by that “maidservant”, namely Lilith, who, when they have been delivered into her power, gloatingly carries them away to other regions. | ספר הזהר משפטים ג:מב–ג מַאן אִינּוּן הָכָא. אִיהוּ רָזָא, אִלֵּין אִינּוּן נִשְׁמָתִין דִּינוֹקִין זְעִירִין, כַּד אִינּוּן יַנְקֵי מִגּוֹ תּוּקְפָּא דְּאִמְּהוֹן. וְקוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא חָמֵי, דְּאִי יִתְקַיְּימוּן בְּעָלְמָא, יְבַאֲשׁוּן רֵיחֵיהוֹן, וְיַחְמְצוּן כְּחוֹמֶץ דָּא. לָקִיט לוֹן (רמ”ח ע”ב, רמ”ט ע”ב) זְעִירִין, בְּעוֹד דְּיַהֲבֵי רֵיחָא. מַה עָבִיד. שָׁבִיק לוֹן לְאִתְעַשְּׁקָא בִּידָא דְּהַהִיא אָמָה, וְדָא אִיהִי לִילִית דְּכֵיוָן דְּאִתְיְיהִיבוּ בִּרְשׁוּתָהּ, חַדָּאת (נ”א אחדא) בְּהַהוּא יְנוֹקָא, וַעֲשִׁיקַת לֵיהּ, וְאַפִּיקַת לֵיהּ מֵעָלְמָא, כַּד אִיהוּ יָנִיק בְּתוּקְפָּא דְּאִמֵּיהּ. |
| Zohar, Mishpatim 23:222 As soon as he is there, the breath of him who is the Single one (Samael), who had to be separated from his feminine counterpart (Lilith), and who walks after the manner of a serpent, breathes on him, and straightway he leaves that mighty rock and, wandering lonely forth, begins to roam the world until he shall find a “redeemer” through whose agency he can return to this earth. | ספר הזהר משפטים כג:רכב וְנָפַק מֵהַאי עָלְמָא יְחִידָאי, בְּלָא זַרְעָא, אָזִיל כְּאַבְנָא בְּקוּסְפִיתָא, עַד הַהוּא אֲתָר דְּטִנָרָא (ק’ ע”א) תַּקִּיפָא, וְעָאל תַּמָּן וּמִיַּד נָשַׁב רוּחָא דְּהַהוּא יְחִידָאי, דְּקָא אִשְׁתְּבִיק מִנּוּקְבֵיהּ, וְאָזִיל יְחִידָאי, (צ”ה ע”א) כְּחִוְיָא דְּלָא אִתְחַבָּר בְּאַחֲרָא בְּאוֹרְחָא, וְנָשִׁיב בֵּיהּ. |
| Treatise of Left-Emanations by Rabbi Isaac Ben Jacob Ha-Kohen “A form destined for Samael stirs up enmity and jealoust between the heavenly delegation and the forces of the supernal army. This form is Lilith, and she is in the image of a feminine form. Samael takes on the form of Adam and Lilith the form of Eve. They were both born in a spiritual birth as one, as a parallel to the forms of Adam and Eve above and below: two twinlike forms.” (172) “…evil Samael and wicked Lilith are like a sexual pair who, by means of an intermediary, recieve an evil and wicked emanation from one and emanate to the other. I shall explain this relying on the esoteric meaning in the verse ‘In that day the Lord will punish with His great, cruel, mighty sword Leviathan the twisted serpent and Leviathan the tortuous serpent’ – this is Lilith – ‘and He will slay the dragon of the sea’ (Isaiag 27:1)” (180) | Treatise of Left-Emanations by Rabbi Isaac Ben Jacob Ha-Kohen Cont. “Lilith the Maiden (the young). she is int he form of tha beautiful woman from her head to her waist. Bute from the waist down she is burning fire – like mother like daughter. She is called Mehetabel daughter of Matred, and the meaning is something immersed (mabu tabal). The meaning here is that her intentions are never for the good. She seeks to incite demons of war and the war between Daughter Lilith and Matron Lilith.” (based on The Chapters of the Lesser Places) (179-180) |
Modern Commentary
Lilith wasn’t one to take any nonsense; she picked herself up, uttered God’s holy name, and flew away…. [Adam] told [Eve] feasom stories of the demon Lilith who threatens women in childbirth and steals children from their cradles in the middle of the night. … Eve got a glimpse of [Lilith] and saw she was a woman like herself. After this encounter, seeds of curiodity and doubt began to grew in Eve’s mind. Was Lilith indeed just another woman? Adam had said she was a demon. Another woman! The very idea attracted Eve. She had never seen another creature like herself before. And how beautiful and strong Lilith looked! How bravely she fought! Slowly, slowly, Eve began to think about the limits oher her own life within the garden. … [Eve jumps over the garden wall and] met the one she had come to find, for Lilith was waiting. At first sight of her, Eve remembered the tales of Adam and was frightened, but Lilith understood and greeted her kindly. ‘Who are you?’ they asked each other, ‘What is your story?’ And they sat and spoke together of the past and then of the future. They talked for many hours, not once, but many times. They taught each other many things, and told each other stories, and laughed together, and cried, over and over, till the bond of sisterhood grew between them… And God and Adam were expectant and afraid the day Eve and Lilith returned to the garden, bursting with possibilities, ready to rebuild it together.
“We Are Androgynous” by Girls in Trouble
We are androgynous double-faced beings, one looking forward and one looking back. Formed in the light of the throne in the sky, we are never alone and we never die.
Two forms of dust, of the one and the many; a vapor to moisten them both into clay. Two hands to form us, to guide us and shape us, until we are ready to walk away.
We are, we are, we are, we are, we are, we are.
We are androgynous double-faced beings, torn from each other and rendered in two. Two flaming swords guard the garden of Eden, but I won’t go back there without you.
“Chava and Lillit meet for coffee” by Toby King in Everything is Roots and Glitter
They do so once a century or so
Neither died you see
Lillit with the eternal grace of a sheyda
And the Text never bothering to count off Chava’s years
So they both never died
Not really
So they meet up
To check in
They’re not friends exactly
But they have so much in common
So much history
There’s a caution between them
Both have been used as a cudgel against the other
In a way, they’re family
In a way, they’re the only one each other has
Who can understand the weight of millennium
They find a cafe
(there’s almost always been cafes in some form or another)
And they compare their lives
Talk about the pros and cons of every era
Chava hated the 14th century –
so much death, too little sunlight
Lillit had been in Jerusalem in 1099
But she can’t ever bring herself to talk about it
They don’t talk about children
They don’t talk about men
They talk about travel, about art
They talk about the shifting of continents and borders
They speak cautiously around women, about gender, about expectations
They both know the weight of all of that, feel it heavy on their shoulders
The burden of example
They order the sweetest thing available:
Recently; a chocolate caramel swirl brownie
In Paris, in the past; some macarons
Tea, loaded with sugar cane
Baklava, sweet with rose water
And often enough
They share a juicy,
ripe
fruit
Unverifiable Interpretation
Attributed to: Bacharach, ‘Emeq haMelekh (23c-d )
And the Serpent, the Woman of Harlotry, incited and seduced Eve through the husks of Light which in itself is holiness. And the Serpent seduced Holy Eve, and enough said for him who understands. And all this ruination came about because Adam the first man coupled with Eve while she was in her menstrual impurity – this is the filth and the impure seed of the Serpent who mounted Eve before Adam mounted her. Behold, here it is before you: because of the sins of Adam the first man all the things mentioned came into being. For Evil Lilith, when she saw the greatness of his corruption, became strong in her husks, and came to Adam against his will, and became hot from him and bore him many demons and spirits and Lilin.
