Interest in the paranormal has exploded in the last few years thanks to reality TV shows such as Paranormal States and Ghost Hunters. While it’s great that the layer of “mystery” is being removed from paranormal investigation, and investigators are being portrayed as more than just a bunch of strange people running around cemeteries chasing cold spots. I’ve noticed that in the last few weeks TV ghost hunters have encountered what they have claimed to be non-human entities (Demons). If an investigator remains in the field long enough, they will at some point encounter something that many be considered demonic. While there is no way for an individual to attend college to become a demonologist, it is important to understand the nature of demons and non-human entities, in other words the darker side of life.
The following list focuses on Jewish Mysticism, a similar list will be posted shortly that focuses on Christian Demonology. This list is not meant to be all inclusive, just a starting point for those interested.
Nature of Evil
· Evil (Ra) - The most persistent conundrum for monotheism is the question, “why is there evil?” If there is only one supreme power in the universe God and God is beneficent, how is it possible for evil to exist? There are really only three solutions to this mystery, and arguably they can be collapsed into just two. Answer number one is that God’s power s not supreme, whether by God’s own will or some outside necessity so evil is the manifestation of something outside God. This answer has the problem of walking a slippery slope toward dualism, and many monotheists have fallen hard down that slope. Thus some Christian sects explain evil through the existence of the Devil, whom they regard to be effectively a kind of “anti-god” operating independently of God’s will. Most Christian theologians are aware of this trap and avoid taking the logic of the devil quite so far, but many rank and file Christians have difficulty with the notion that God actually controls the devils on some level.
· Most Jews have remained firmly monotheistic and almost universally rejected this argument. Judaism does not conceded that any independent force can exist outside of God’s power leaving the problem of evil intact.
· A second solution is to regard evil as a byproduct of human free will. Some will argue that this is really just a more elegant version of the “God is not the only power” argument. This argument posits that God has conceded some power to humanity by granting us free will. As such, we can choose to behave evilly if we wish. God’s power is constrained for our sake, but the reason for God doing this is a great mystery. Variations of this argument are found in Jewish circles, particularly among rationalist thinkers.
· The third (or second) position argues that the appearance that evil has an independent existence is illusionary and all that appears evil from human perspective is in fact truly subordinate to God, serving God’s purpose in some inscrutable way. Thus in most forms of Jewish mysticism evil are a part of creation a byproduct from the other side or Sitra Achra of the divine emanation. Evil is the chair for the good as Baal Shem Tov put it and suffering, misfortune and sin are necessary outcomes of existence. Even evil entities such as demons are really subject to and agents of God’s purpose. Thus Chasidic teaching emphasizes that there is no absolute evil. It is common for mystics to call demons destructive angles to emphasize that they remain obedient to God in some sense. For this reason, one can read in Jewish literature of demons studying Torah, adhering to Jewish law, and even helping pious sages. It is based on this also that a few Kabalistic authorities say it is permitted to summon demons in order to have them perform beneficent services for humanity. At the same time, humans are not permitted to willfully participate in evil or bring evil into being.
· In concert with such notions of demons, Judaism teaches that humanity’s own evil impulse the yetzer hara serves a critical function in god’s universe and for his reason the Sages teach that humans should not try to destroy or negate our selfish destructive desires like ambition, lust or revenge,. Rather we should sublimate them and harmonize them with god’s intention(Daat v’Emunah 10) thus ambition becomes creativity, lust becomes a desire for marriage and children and revenge is redirected toward the goal of ensuring justice is done. In interpreting it is not good that man should be alone I will make a helpmate for him (Gen. 2:18) the Kortez Rebbe offered this “there can be no goodness in man while he is alone without a yetzer ha-ra within him: I will endow him with the ability to do evil and it will be as helpmate to him to enable him to do good if he masters the evil nature within him. (84-85)
· Exorcism (Genush, Cherem, Reigash Sheidim). A ritual of power preformed in order to drive an evil spirit, whether demonic or ghostly from a possessed person, location or object. The Christian scholar Origen credits Jews with a special talent for exorcising demons (Against Celsus book 4)
· The first allusion to exorcism appears in the bible in the youth narratives of David (I Same 16). But while the biblical David seemed to be able to affect a temporary expulsion of Saul’s evil spirit using music, the book of Tobit contains the first explicit description of an (informal) exorcism. Josephus recounts incidents of possession and exorcism in his antiquities of the Jews (2, 5, 8, 45-48). In his description, exorcism involved burning herbs and immersing the possessed person in water. The New Testament also reports Jesus to have performed numerous exorcisms of demonic spirits in 1st century Palestine (Matt. 12; Mark 5, 6, 13; Luke 8)
· The Dead Sea Scrolls include several exorcisms incantations and formulae, mostly directed against disease causing demons. The DSS Psalms collection in particular (11Q5) has four songs for the charming of demons with music. People who fell under the influence of false prophets and mediums were thought to also require the exorcism of possessing evil spirits (the false prophets and mediums themselves were subject to death, a sure cure for most possessions, see Zechariah 13).
· The Midrash mentions the procedure though at times in a tongue and cheek manner (PdRK 1:4, Num. R. 19.8). An extended story of Leviticus Rabbah 24:3 tell of the exorcism of a well of water involving iron implements and shouted formulae. Smon bar Yochai exorcises a demon that assists him in getting the cooperation of Caesar in lifting an oppressive decree against the Jews. In a medieval Midrash, Chanina ben Dosa is credited with exorcising an evil spirit haunting an old woman. Intriguingly in the last two accounts the Sages exorcise demons even though each of the evil spirits actually behaved in a beneficial fashion. By the late middle Ages, whole texts dedicated to countering demons started to appear.
· Key to any Jewish exorcism is having a truly pious man, an abba, ball, Shem, rebbe or rabbi conduct the ceremony. This in contrast with the Mesopotamian and Greco-Roman practices which generally used a physician. The process usually starts with the exorcist ritually purifying himself, either according to traditional Jewish practice or by special means such as anointing himself with water and oil. Some exorcists may invoke the presence of a maggid or beneficent spirit to assist them.-check this quote
· Many exorcisms were public events either preformed in a synagogue or at least requiring the presence of a minyan a minimum of ten men that normally makes up a ritual quorum. Various somatic symptoms (swelling, paralysis, markings and bodily sensations) were sought in victim for diagnostic purposes. Most techniques include interviewing the demon and/or dybbuk taking a personal history as it were in order to understand what is motivating the spirit and so better effect the removal. Many possessing spirits are evidently quite forthcoming and loquacious. At times cooperation was coerced from the demon by fumigation exposing it to smoke and sulfur a sympathetic invocation of the infernal realms. The goal of the interview is to eventually learn the name of the evil spirit.
· The exorcist then uses the power of the demonic spirit’s own name to overpower it by round after round of scripted ritual actions involving threats and rebukes getting more and more intense and invasive with each effort. A few ceremonies on record reached the point of actually beating the demon out but most simply involved verbal coercion.
· Jewish exorcisms are usually liturgical using protective passages from the Psalms and other sacred texts. Anti-demonic psalms have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, though whether they were used in actual exorcism is impossible to know. The same idea resurfaces in the middle Ages, with Psalms 10, 91 and 121 particularly being lauded for their power against evil spirits. Sefer ha-Gilgulim instructs the patient to recite Psalms 20, 90 and Ana Bokoah an acrostic prayer made from a name of God. Rituals accompanying the recitations can include sounding a shofar or the use of other Jewish objects such as candles, torah scrolls, kvittles, tefillin or lamps. Later exorcism reports include the use of amulets.
· According to Lurianic Kabbalah exorcism of a possessing dybbuk involves the tikkum or repair of the ghostly soul. The tzadik/exorcist accomplishes this by promising the dybbuk salvation then extracting all its goodness, restoring those resources to the root soul or Treasury of Souls until the estranged evil consciousness withers and is annihilated. Thus the Luranic Kabbalist is acting on behalf of both the victim and the dybbuk. The primary sing of successful exorcism was a bloody fingernail or toenail the point by which the dybbuk enters and leaves the body. Occasionally there are reports of spirits violently leaving through the throat, vagina, or rectum. A sudden and dramatic change in the victim’s behavior is also a sure sign of recovery. Interestingly Jewish exorcisms occasionally fail. Apparently reports of misadventures are virtually non-existent in Catholic traditions. (87-88)
· Possession, Demonic (Ibbur Ra; Nichpeh; Achuz Sheid; K’fao Shied) – Seizure by evil spirits or demons is a phenomenon going back to biblical times. Unlike some other cultures, Jews do not usually regard demons as synonymous with the malevolent (although there are exceptions). Rather, they are regarded as pre-existing spirits, or as spiritual byproducts of human criminal and immoral sexual activity.
· While there are numerous references in the Bible to people being filled with divine spirit or the spirit of Wisdom, there is only one reference to evil spirit possession in the Hebrew Scriptures: Saul(I Sam 16:23, 18:12). This spirit could evidently be temporarily exorcised by means of music, but never permanently left Saul. The apocryphal book of Tobit is devoted to a story of demonic haunting and exorcism (though it is not about possession in the sense we are using here of a living soul being bodily taken over).
· In historical documents from outside Jewish tradition there are several references to the phenomenon of demon possession among Jews. The Gospels make repeated mention of demon possession. Jesus reportedly exorcised several people including Mary Magdalene (Mark 1:24). He himself was accused of being possessed by a demon. Josephus also records a case of demonic possession (Ant. 8:2, 8:5). Even given the doubtful historical reliability of these stories, they at least suggest that belief in demon possession was part of the intellectual landscape of 1st century Jewish Palestine.
· The Dead Sea Scrolls include several exorcism liturgies. There are few references to demonic possession in the Talmud and classical MIdrash (Me. 17b; Num. R. 19.8; PdRK 1:74; Tanh., Hukat 8). Interestingly, there are discussions about how to judge the moral culpability of a person who is possessed (PdRE 12). Incantation bowls and medieval texts found in the Cairo Geniza link various illnesses to demonic attack, indicating that the level of popular Jewish culture, possession (at least in the form of invasive illness being seen as demonic) was taken seriously.
· There is a marked upsurge in accounts of possession starting in the 16th century, though these are mostly reports of spiritual rather than demonic possession. Yet incidents of possession by evil spirits are recorded in Jewish literature up to this day almost exclusively in traditional Jewish circles.
· Many symptoms are linked to possession, including compulsive deviant social, sexual and religious behaviors. An outstanding feature of all forms of possessions xenoglossia an alien voice speaking from within the possessed person.
· Possession, Ghostly (Achuz Dibbuk, Ibbur ra) - Belief that a spirit of the dead can possess the living is a surprisingly modern phenomenon in Judaism. While stories of demonic possession appear as early as biblical times, there are no unambiguous reports of possession by dead spirits until the 16th century. There are three related forms of possession described in the literature: beneficent possession by either an angelic being usually termed maggid (guide) or a righteous ancestor (ibbur) or malevolent possession by a poltergeist. An evil spirit is usually referred to as a ruach (spirit), dybbuk (clinging ghost) or tzeruf (changling or additional soul).
· In most of the accounts preserved in Judaism, souls of the dead seek to possess people either as a way of finding refuge from the punishments inflicted on them in the afterlife, or out of a desire for sexual gratification (a variation on the tradition of the incubus). According to Judah Petayah of Badhdad, many spirits find themselves adrift in the world of the living because of sex; their ghostly existence is a punishment for gross licentiousness while they were living (Minchat Yehudah). Lurianic theory developed a very elaborate model of how a soul may have its transmigrations impeded by unresolved sins. Such souls must find a material host to enter and any human is far preferable to an animal, plant or inanimate object.
· Based on recorded incidents many victims of possession are (young) women while almost all possessing spirits are male. An outstanding feature of all forms of possession is xenoglossia an alien voice speaking from within the possessed person (Zara Kodesh).
· While literary accounts of ghostly possession peak in the 17th-18th centuries periodic reports of spiritual possession continue across Jewish cultures up to this day, with the most recent publicly revealed incidents occurring(on videotape) in Israel. (203-204)
Demons
The following is a short list of Jewish Demons. As a word of caution, a new investigative group should not attempt to investigate a demonic haunting without the assistance of a more experienced group. I would advise that each and every group should have a member with a knowledge and understanding of Demonology and the occult.
· Azazel- Is a term of considerable controversy, referring to either a) an evil power or b) a location, even the meaning of the name is a topic of considerable controversy. If we assume the spelling has undergone some kind of corruption it most likely means “Wrath of God.”
· Azazel features prominently in the Yom Kippur ritual described in the Torah known to modern readers as the “scapegoat” ritual. In this ceremony the high priest transfers the sins of people onto a goat and they release it into the wilderness to Azazel. It is not clear however if the word refers to an entity or a place perhaps an infernal realm to which the scapegoat is dispatched (Lev. 16:8-10). Some scholars believe that the term refers to a barren rocky zone in the desert. Others theorize that Azazel was a goat-demon or satyr a remnant or premonotheistic Israelite beliefs (Lev. 17:7).
· Both interpretations of the word continue to have currency post-biblically. The expression “L’Azazel” becomes a colloquialism for go to hell. On the other hand given the general Near Eastern belief that the desert/wilderness was the dwelling place of demons it is not surprising to see Azazel appear as a fallen angel or demon in various post-biblical texts as the Dead Sea Scrolls (Damascus Document II) and in the Apocalypse of Abraham and I Enoch. The most famous tradition identifies him as one of the angels that fell from heaven because he became enamored with mortal women (Gen. 6.2) In I Enoch he is the angel who taught mankind the impure arts of war, lapidary and cosmetics. In the end he is exiled to the desolate wilderness (9, 10, and 13)
· Aside from etymological discussions of the meaning of the word Azazel appears as a demon in the Talmud (Yoma 67b; RaSHI commentary) and medieval Midrashic sources such as Yalkut Shimoni. In one text Azazel is regarded to be the serpent that tricked Adam and Eve into sin. Some claim Azazel is an alternate name of other demonic personalities such as Samael. In one Midrash the goat offering to Azazel on Yom Kippur is a bribe that God requires Israel to give Satan/Samael every year in order that he will deliver a god report about Israel’s conduct when called to the celestial court (Me’am Leoz, Achreil Mot-kedoshim)
· Beelzebub- A demon. He is first mentioned as a Phoenician god in II Kings 1. His name probably derives from Ugaritic “Lord Baal”, though it is often translated as Lord of Flies. By Greco-Roman times he is a demon lord and he is mentioned in Christian Scriptures (Matt. 12:24-27). He may be the same Belzebouel who appears in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
· Behemoth- A mythical beast mentioned in Job 40:15-24 and Psalm 50:10 which calls him the first of God’s creations. Other sources insist he was created on the sixth day. Behemoth drinks up all the waters that flow from Paradise (PR 16:4, 48:3). He is so big he sits on a thousand mountains (Zohar I: 18b). His bones are hard as tubes of bronze and his limbs are like iron rods.
· At the end of time he will do battle with Leviathan a battle neither will survive. In the world to come he will be an entrée at a messianic banquet. Behemoth is often portrayed in medieval Jewish illuminated manuscripts as an ox of gigantic proportions (II Esdras 6:52; B.B.74b; Lev. R. 13:3, 22:10; PdRE11)
· Belial- “Worthless”. Belial is a demon mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls apocryphal books and the Gospels. Based on the Book of Jubilee’s description of him as the accuser and tempter, Belial may be an alternative name of Satan. In some medieval works, Belial gives birth to Arminius.
· Duman “Silence” An alternative name for Domah the angel of the grave. It is also a name for one of the compartments of Gehenna (PS. 94:17)
· Lilin- An alternative term for lilot aerial night demons (Eruv. 18b). Lilians are bald but have hair covering the rest of their faces and bodies (Emek ha-Melech 140b)
· Lilith Lilit Night Demon-Now regarded to be one of the four queens of demons the nature of Lilith has undergone many reinterpretations throughout Jewish history. The origins of Lilith are probably found in the Mesopotamian lilu or aerial spirit. Some features of Lilith in Jewish tradition also resemble some of Lamashtu a Babylonian demoness who cases infant death. There is one mention of lilot (Pl.) in the Bible (Isa. 34:14) but references to Lilith demons only become common in post-biblical Jewish sources. Furthermore the characterization of Lilith as a named demonic personality really only begins late in antiquity. Amulets and magical texts well into the Middle Ages continue to speak of lilot as a class of demonic beings. Even the gender of the creature is not fixed. Incantation bowls for example explicitly protect against lilot whether male or female.
· Jewish tradition gradually fixes on Lilith as a female demon. In Talmud she is described as a demon with a woman’s face, long hair, and wings (Nid. 24b; Eruv. 100b). In amulet incantations she is addressed as a demon that preys on women in childbirth and as a killer of children (Ber. 8a; Zohar I: 148b; II 267b). Some sources also describe her as a succubus seducing men in their sleep and then collecting their nocturnal emissions in order to breed demonic offspring (Shab. 151b) Lilith does this because her consort Samael has been castrated by God. She has many demonic children the most famous being Ormuzd (B.B. 73b).
· The use of Lilith as the proper name of a specific demonic personality first appears in the Midrash. The most famous legend of Lilith is the one first appearing in the medieval satiricdal text Alef-Bet of Ben Sira. In that document Lilith is identified as the first woman God created along with Adam. The case for their having been two women in the Garden of Eden is based on the differing accounts of the creation of women (Gen. 1:27 versus Gen. 2:19-23). According to AbbS Lilith immediately quarreled with Adam over having to assume the missionary position during intercourse. When Lilith did not get satisfaction she invoked the power of the Tetragrammaton and flew away. God sent three angels Sanoi, Sansanoi and Samnaglof to bring her back. When she refused she transformed herself into a demon that weakens children through disease to take her vengeance on God and humanity. But the story concludes if the names of her three pursuing angels are used together on amulets she is powerless to harm a person bearing it. This account incidentally is a Jewish variation of a story about a demon curbed by three pursuers that also appears in Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Armenian and Slavonic legends.
· Lilith appears in a very different incarnation in Treatise of the Left Emanation the Zohar and other later mystic texts where she is one of the four queens or four mothers of demons. She is the most prominent of the four being queen of the forces of Sitra Achra the impure side of divine emanations which run loose in the world.
· In the Treatise she and Samael are the evil doppelgangers of Adam and even coming into existence as spiritual byproduct of the primordial couple’s sin. In the Zohar she is the evil antipode of the Shekhinah (II: 118a-b; III 97a). There is also a tradition in Zohar that Lilith was the Queen of Sheba who came to test Solomon.
· Lilith has a mount she rides Tanin’iver blind dragon. She can command hundreds of legions of demons. Intriguingly the Treatise of the Left Emanation starts to come full circle once again referring to multiple Lilith’s as did the ancients. This tradition of there being two (or more) Lilith’s also appears in Pardes Rimmonim.
· Mastmah – Enmity. A demonic prince perhaps an alternative name for Satan. Mastemah is mentioned as leading demonic entity opposing Moses in the book of Jubilees.
· Naamah- One of the four queens of the demons. She dwells in the sea. In one strand of the tradition she is the daughter of Tubal-Cain who copulated with angles, producing demonic children. In another she is a succubus who seduces sleeping men. She and Lilith had intercourse with Adam in order to bear demon children. Once aroused by her even if a man has sex with his wife instead any children from that conception will be inclined toward her(Gen. 4:22; Tanh., Chukat; MhG; Zohar I:9b; III: 76b-77a)
· Sacrifice (Avodah, Korban). The bible describes a variety of sacrificial offers made by the Israelites on different occasions: Olah (Burnt or Total), Shlamin (Well-being), Chet (Sin), Minchah (Meal), Chagigah (Festival) and Asham (Guilt). Human sacrifice while honored among the other Semitic peoples of the Ancient Near East is expressly forbidden for Israelites.
· Scholars argue over the degree to which the Israelite sacrificial cult served a magical function in biblical religion. Clearly, the Israelites did not believe that their offerings sustained the God of Israel as their neighbors believed they were going with their gods. Some of the most notable magical elements found in neighboring cults such as reciting incantations over sacrifices are almost completely absent from Israelite practice.
· Many Israelites however believed that making material sacrifices in the form of metal, oil, salt, water, and especially animals was the key to pleasing YHWH. So while there was no evidence of a theology of dependant deity or that there was a notion of divine human mutual dependence there was clearly some theurgic assumptions underlying the Israelite ideology of sacrifice. Mover ever, there are in the Bible remnant indications of earlier more clearly magical beliefs. These are preserved in Hebrew idioms and early stories about the sacrifices. Thus the Torah speaks of sacrifices as making a pleasing odor to God’s nostrils (Gen. 8). And we have an example of sacred meal being shared with the deity alluded to in the story of Moses and the elders ascending Mount Sinai (Ex 24)
· It is also evident that ancient Israelites did not have one shared understanding of what the sacrifices represented.
· The writers of the Bible have very specific notions about the limited role of sacrifices in the life of God (they are an external sign of our internal desire to draw close to God but mean little or nothing to God qua God). Still the fact that there are prophetic complaints that their contemporaries misunderstood the meaning of their offerings reveals that many Israelites continued to see the sacrifices in more frankly magical terms than the biblical authors.
· After the sacrifice cult ceased following the destruction of the Temple, the Rabbis spiritualized the concept of physical offerings to God by declaring prayer to be the sacrifice of the heart. Magical traditions by contrast continued to use modified forms of material sacrifice.
· Samael- This prince of demons and/or destructive angel has had many incarnations in Jewish literature. In several texts Samael seems to be the name of the Angel of Death. At least once in the Zohar he is declared the shadow of death a kind of consort to Death (I: 160b). In other texts he is regarded as synonymous with Satan but almost as often he is treated as a separate entity(BhM 1:58-61; Ex. R. 21:7). Elsewhere Samael is called chief of all Satans (Deut. R. 11:10; III Enoch). In Midrash Konen Samael is the prince of the third gate to Gehenna the gate that opens on Jerusalem (2:30). Other text designates him the guardian angel of Rome, the nemesis of Israel. He sits in the celestial palaces with Satan and Dumiel and plots the overthrow of Israel (R.H. 8a-b). When is rejoiced over God’s decree that the Ten Martyrs should die at Roman hands, God punished him by afflicting Rome with the diseases of Egypt.
· Samael has made many earthly appearances. In Pirkei de-Rabbi Eleazer (13), he is described as the greatest angel in heaven who out of jealousy over the creation of humanity, who out of jealousy over the creation of humanity decided to tempt Eve. Appearing in the form of the serpent he actually copulated with her (Targum Jonathan, Gen. 4:1; Zohar I: 37a). He is one candidate that the tradition had identified to be the angel who wrestled with Jacob (Zohar, I: 48a-b.). Satan like he accused Israel of idol worship while they dwelt in Egyptian Slavery (Ex. R. 21:7). He attempted to claim the soul of Moses who fended him off with his miraculous rod. In the Treaties of the Left Emanation, Samael is the animus of Adam; the evil doppelganger of the first man that came into being with the first human transgression.
· The Zohar has the most extensive if sometimes confusing description of Samael. The Zohar builds upon the image of Samael found in the Treatise on the Left Emanation: he is the demon king and consort of Lilith; together they are the evil counterparts of Adam and Eve. He is the tempting angel from whom the Evil Inclination emates. When he copulates with Lilith the male and female principles of the left side emanation are united and achieve their full potential and demon souls are spawned so he is in effect the evil left side counterpart of Tiferet in the seriotic system
· In later Chasidic thought Samael is the organizing force of the kelipot the garments of evil that enshroud the divine sparks contained in all things.
· Satan, ha-Satan- Adversary/Accuser. The angel of temptation and sin. From his first appearance in the book of Job(chapter 1) as one of the B’nai Elohim, the songs of God he has been the most provocative and intriguing angel in Jewish mythology. Satan has been understood and represented in many diverse ways in Jewish literature.
· Unlike in Christian mythology where Satan is often regarded as a kind of anti-God leading the forces of rebellious angels/demons against God’s rule in Jewish tradition Satan is totally subservient to God. In Jewish myth he functions as God’s prosecuting attorney indicating sinners before God and demanding punishment. As the angel of temptation heis also conducting perpetual sting operations against mortals, setting them up in situations meant to lead them into transgressions. But at no point in normative Jewish literature is there any indication that Satan can act contrary to the will of God (B.B. 16a; Zohar I: 10b).
· That being said, the identity and nature of Satan is quite variable at different times and in different texts. In some sources, Satan is identified as Samael, or as the Angel of Death (B.B. 16a), but other times they are regarded as separate entities (Sefer Hechalot). “Satan” is sometimes understood to be a proper name, but at other times it is simply an epitaph: ha-Satan, “the adversary”. Several Sages even speak in the plural of Satanism, as if adversaries were a class of destructive angles, rather than a named personality. This reflects a confusion arising from the Bible itself, which at times treats him as a distinctive personality(Job 1), but at other points uses the word Satan as referring to an anonymous entity or impersonal forces(Zech. 3; Num. 24)
· In Talmud and Midrash, Satan is portrayed as particularly preoccupied with the sins of Israel. He appears in many guises, intent on luring the upright from the straight and narrow.
· According to Sefer Hechalot, Satan sits in consultation with Samael and Dumiel, compiling a ledger of Israel’s sins. God in his gracious love, however, sends fiery seraphim every day to receive those records, only with the result that they are burnt to a crisp (8a-b).
· Satan makes frequent appearances in medieval writings. At times he seems to approach the status of being an autonomous force of evil, but such readings are ambiguous at best. Much more common are the portrayals meant to make logical sense of Satan’s role in a monotheistic worldview.
Reference:
Dennis, G.W. Rabbi. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism. Woodbury, MN:
Llewellyn Publications
