The next appearance that Lilith makes in literature is in the Talmud, an appellation which means "the Study" and refers to both the Mishna (text) and Gemara (commentaries on the text). Like her other appearances, Lilith is only mentioned here briefly, indicating that there was already a firmly established cultural notion of Lilith that made explicit details and explanation unnecessary. The Talmud is best defined as the "authoritative exposition and implementation [of the Bible]" for it is in this work that one can find elaboration on and explication of virtually all the passages of the Jewish Bible (exegetical explanations), ethical maxims, legends, parables, and discussions of the laws and codes of Jewish life (Bokser ix). It contains twelve folio volumes and encompasses the works of almost eight hundred years of Jewish teachers, beginning around 300 BCE and ending around 500 CE (Mielziner 1).
There are four references to Lilith in the Talmud, all of which are seemingly incidental. They identify Lilith in a way that, up to this point, at least in literary records, has not been explicitly defined: she is both a demon of the night and a succubus. The references, taken from The Babylonian Talmud are as follows (both the traditional Talmudic reference and the page reference appear in the citations):
1) "One may not sleep in a house alone, and whoever sleeps in a house alone is seized by Lilith." (Shab. 773: v1. pt1, 151b --- footnote "The night demon.")2) "She grows long hair like Lilith . . ." ('Er. 698: v1, pt2, 100b --- footnote "A notorious female night demon."]
3) "I saw how Hormin the son of Lilith was running on the parapet of the wall of Mahuza. . . ." (BB. 290: v3, pt2 -- footnote to Hormin "a demon;" to Lilith "a female night demon")
4) "If an abortion had the likeness of Lilith its mother is unclean by reason of the birth, for it is a child, but it has wings. So it was also taught: R. Jose stated, It once happened at Simoni that a woman aborted the likeness of Lilith, and when the case came up for a decision before the Sages they ruled that it was a child but that it also had wings. . . ." (Nid. 166: v6, 24b -- footnote to Lilith "A female demon of the night, reputed to have wings and a human face.")
Note that in these references Lilith's name is all that is apparently needed to conjure up an image in the mind of the reader. One need only be told that "whoever sleeps in a house alone is seized by Lilith," and the rest of that story follows by assumption, not by words. Even the fact that she is a night demon and not an actual person is only brought out by the footnotes, not by the body of the text itself. The story of Lilith as surmised from these passages is one that paints her as a succubus who is winged, evil, nocturnal, and, at least partially, human in appearance.
Schwartz asserts that this portrait of Lilith "is a projection of the negative fears and desires of the rabbis who created her" (1988, 8). This seems especially likely given the Jewish customs associated with defilement. It was said, for instance, that a Jewish woman could become defiled simply by having an immoral thought, for virginity was more a mental state than a physical condition. For men, however, there was the possibility of nocturnal emissions, an occurrence which no rabbi wanted to attribute to his own impure thoughts (Elliott). For this reason, Lilith -- the human-esque, winged, succubus of the night -- was created to be the cause of these "defilements," thereby excusing the rabbis in the light of religious custom.
Finally, while birth is an aspect of the fourth mention of Lilith, her image is not conjured here as one who harms the child. This is important in that it shows that Lilith's evolution is still compartmentalized. She has still not appeared in any one literary source as an embodiment of all three of her characteristics: wife of Adam, succubus, and child-slaying witch. This point will become vital in consideration of the final literary text of this chapter, The Zohar.
"Gilgamesh and the Huluppu-Tree"
The Lilith Relief
Isaiah 34:14
Testament of Solomon
The Talmud
The Nippur Bowls
The Alphabet of Ben Sira
Book of Raziel
The Zohar
Hebrew Amuletic Tradition
Return to Outline of Chapter One
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