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Lilith

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Sealwyf and Flame for their contributions and
assistance.

The Identity of Lilith

Early theologians had a real problem with the status of women in
regard to Genesis.  Here is this supposedly weak creature twisting
Man around her finger and bringing death on the entire race.  A
"logical" answer presented itself in splitting woman into the
Madonna/whore dichotomy.  There was even a Biblical basis for
Lilith.   Genesis 1:27 reads, "So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."
 Set opposite Genesis 2, in which Adam is created first and Eve is an
afterthought to appease his loneliness, many see this as evidence
that Adam had two wives.

Lilith is this first wife.   Since she was made of the earth, like
Adam, she became proud and refused to lie beneath him during
intercourse.  This violated the command to be fruitful and multiply,
since she was not being impregnated.  Some traditions hold that she
was impregnated and bore demons from him.  The evidence for this is
the statement in Genesis 5:3 "Adam begat a son in his image,"
implying there had been sons not in his image.  He pushed the issue
of her submission, and she uttered the Holy Name of God and flew
away.

Adam complained to God and he sent three angels to reason with her.
They found her coupling with fallen angels near the Red Sea and
bearing more demonic children.  She refused to return but promised to
spare Adam's children if the names of the angels: Sanvi, Sansanvi and
Semangelaf were written near them.  Even today, some parents will
charcoal a magic circle with the words "Adam and Eve barring Lilith"
on the wall near their baby, and write the names of the angels on the
door.

Eve was created out of Adam as her replacement.  Some say God let
Adam try making the next one, but the creation was so horrible God
destroyed it before even giving it life.  An amusing Victorian story
claims a dog ran off with Adam's rib and devoured it before God found
him, so Eve was made using one of the dog's ribs.

Lilith did not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,
and hence is immortal.  She was rewarded for service by Asmodeus, the
demon of lechery, luxuriousness and evil revenge.  She now rules one
of the levels of Hell in the company of Namah, Machlath, and
Hurmizah.  Her power is over newborn children and women in
childbirth.  She may take boys up to the eighth day and girls up to
the twentieth.  She is also the mother of the Lilim or Lilot, the
Djinn, and the succubui and incubi.

Other Biblical references: Isaiah 34:14 "night hag" (NIV translates
it as "Desert creatures" and "night creatures." and Psalm 91 "terror
by night"


Connection with vampires.

Lilith is the prototype of the succubus.   She comes to men as they
dream and drains their blood.  This aspect features as prominantly in
the legends as her taking of children.  It is her revenge on Adam
that she drains his sons as they sleep, always taking the top.

Current, nonconformist views of Lilith

From _The Chatto Book of Dissent_, edited by Michael Rosen and David Widgery.<BR>
It's published by Chatto & Windus Ltd, London, 1991.

Lilith

God formed Lilith the first woman just as He had formed Adam except
that He used filth and impure sediment instead of dust or earth.
Adam and Lilith never found peace together.  She disagreed with him
in many matters, and refused to lie beneath him in sexual
intercourse, basing her claim for equality on the fact that each had
been created from earth.  When Lilith saw that Adam would overpower
her, she uttered the ineffable name of God and flew up into the air
of the world.  Eventually she dwelt in a cave in the desert on the
shores of the Red Sea.  There she engaged in unbridled promiscuity,
consorted with lascivious demons, and gave birth to hundreds of
*Lilim* or demonic babies, daily...

It is said that soon after Lilith left Adam he stood in prayer
before his creator and said: "God of the World, the woman that you
gave me has run away from me."  Immediately God, the Holy One,
dispatched the three angels, Sanvai, Sansanvai, and Semangelof to
bring her back.  They caught up with her in the desert near the Red
Sea.  "Return to Adam without delay," the angels said, "or we will
drown you!"  Lilith asked: "How can I return to Adam and be his
woman, after my stay beside the Red Sea?"  "It would be death to
refuse!"; they answered.  "How can I die," Lilith asked again, "when
God has ordered me to take charge of all newborn children: boys up to
the eighth day of life, that of circumcision; girls up to the
twentieth day?  Nevertheless," she said, "I swear to you in the name
of God, El, who is living and exists, that if ever I see your three
names on likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I
promise to spare it."  To this day they agreed; however, God punished
Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily, and
if Lilith could not destroy a human infant, because of the angelic
amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own.

From the _Alpha Bet Sira_, ninth century

This passage is excerpted from the essay "The Coming of Lilith:
Toward a Feminist Theology" by Judith Plaskow.  I found it in
_Womanspirit_Rising_-_A_ _Feminist_Reader_in Religion_ ed. by Carol
Christ and Judith Plaskow

In the beginning, the Lord God formed Adam and Lilith from the dust
of the ground and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life.
Created from the same source, both having been formed from the
ground, they were equal in all ways.  Adam, being a man, didn't like
this situation, and he looked for ways to change it.  He said, "I'll
have my figs now, Lilith," ordering her to wait on him, and he tried
to leave to her the daily tasks of life in the garden.  But Lilith
wasn't one to take any nonsense; she picked herself up, uttered
God's holy name, and flew away.  "Well now, Lord," complained Adam,
"that uppity woman you sent me has gone and deserted me."  The Lord,
inclined to be sympathetic, sent his messengers after Lilith, telling
her to shape up and return to Adam or face dire punishment.  She,
however, preferring anything to living with Adam, decided to stay
where she was.  And so God, after more careful consideration this
time, caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and out of one of his ribs
created for him a second companion, Eve. For a time, Eve and Adam had
a good thing going.  Adam was happy now, and Eve, though she
occasionally sensed capacities within herself that remained
undeveloped, was basically satisfied with the role of Adam's wife
and helper. The only thing that really disturbed her was the
excluding closeness of the relationship between Adam and God.  Adam
and God just seemed to have more in common, both being men, and Adam
came to identify with God more and more. After a while, that made God
a bit uncomfortable too, and he started going over in his mind
whether he may not have made a mistake letting Adam talk him into
banishing Lilith and creating Eve, seeing the power that gave Adam.
Meanwhile Lilith, all alone, attempted from time to time to rejoin
the human community in the garden.  After her first fruitless attempt
to breach its walls, Adam worked hard to build them stronger, even
getting Eve to help him. He told her fearsome stories of the demon
Lilith who threatens women in childbirth and steals children from
their cradles in the middle of the night. The second time Lilith
came, she stormed the garden's main gate and a great battle ensued
between her and Adam in which she was finally defeated.  This time,
however, before Lilith got away, Eve got a glimpse of her and saw
she was a woman like herself. After this encounter, seeds of curiosity
and doubt began to grow in Eve's mind.  Was Lilith indeed just
another woman?  Adam had said she was a demon. Another woman!  The
very idea attracted Eve.  She had never seen another creature like
herself before.  And how beautiful and strong Lilith looked!  How
bravely she had fought!  Slowly, slowly, Eve began to think about
the limits of her own life within the garden. One day, after many
months of strange and disturbing thoughts, Eve, wandering around the
edge of the garden, noticed a young apple tree she and Adam had
planted, and saw that one of its branches stretched over the top of
the garden wall.  Spontaneously, she tried to climb it, and
struggling to the top, swung herself over the wall. She did not wander
long on the other side before she met the one she had come to find,
for Lilith was waiting.  At first sight of her, Eve remembered the
tales of Adam and was frightened, but Lilith understood and greeted
her kindly.  "Who are you?" they asked each other, "What is your
story?"  And they sat and spoke together, of the past and then of the
future.  They talked for many hours, not once, but many times.  They
taught each other many things, and told each other stories, and
laughed together, and cried, over and over, till the bond of
sisterhood grew between them. Meanwhile, back in the garden, Adam was
puzzled by Eve's comings and goings, and disturbed by what he sensed
to be her new attitude toward him.  He talked to God about it, and
God, having his own problems with Adam and a somewhat broader
perspective, was able to help out a little - but He was confused,
too.  Something had failed to go according to plan.  As in the days
of Abraham, He needed counsel from His children.  "I am who I am,"
thought God, "but I must become who I will become." And God and Adam
were expectant and afraid the day Eve and Lilith returned to the
garden bursting with possibilies, ready to build it together.

References:

Cavendish, Richard. _Man, Myth & Magic_. Marshall Cavendish Corp. New York. 1972. vol 12. p. 1631.
Figes, Eva. _Patriarchial Attitudes; the case for women in revolt_.

Kaye Marvin, ed. _Devils and Demons; A Treasury of Fiendish Tales Old and New_. Dorset Press.
New York. 1987.

Plaskow, Judith. "The Coming of Lilith: Toward a Feminist Theology."
_Womanspirit_Rising_-_A_Feminist_Reader_in Religion_. Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow. eds.

Rosen, Michael and David Widgery, eds. _The Chatto Book of Dissent_.
Chatto & Windus Ltd. London. 1991.

Singer, Isaac Bashevis. "The Black Wedding." _Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural_.
Marvin Kaye, ed. Doubleday and Company, Inc. New York. 1985. </PRE>