Editing Lilith (section)

=== Alphabet of Ben Sira ===
{{Main|Alphabet of Ben Sira}}
[[File:Lilith (Carl Poellath).jpg|thumb|''Lilith'', illustration by Carl Poellath from 1886 or earlier]]

The [[pseudepigraphic]]al<ref>The attribution to the sage [[Ben Sira]] is considered false, with the true author unknown.</ref> 8th–10th centuries ''[[Alphabet of Ben Sira]]'' is considered to be the oldest form of the story of Lilith as Adam's first wife. Whether this particular tradition is older is not known. Scholars tend to date the Alphabet between the 8th and 10th centuries AD. The work has been characterized by some scholars as [[satire|satirical]], but [[Louis Ginzberg|Ginzberg]] concluded it was meant seriously.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BEN SIRA, ALPHABET OF - JewishEncyclopedia.com |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2888-ben-sira-alphabet-of |access-date=23 June 2022 |website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref>

In the text, an [[amulet]] is inscribed with the names of three [[angel]]s ([[Senoy]], [[Sansenoy]], and [[Semangelof]]) and placed around the neck of [[newborn]] [[boy]]s in order to protect them from the [[lilin]] until their [[circumcision]].<ref>Alphabet of Ben Sirah, Question #5 (23a–b).</ref> The amulets used against Lilith that were thought to derive from this tradition are, in fact, dated as being much older.<ref>Humm, Alan. [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/Lilith/alphabet.html Lilith in the Alphabet of Ben Sira] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970222082625/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/Lilith/alphabet.html |date=22 February 1997 }}</ref> The concept of Eve having a predecessor is not exclusive to the Alphabet, and is not a new concept, as it can be found in [[Genesis Rabbah]].{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} However, the idea that Lilith was the predecessor may be exclusive to the Alphabet.

The idea in the text that [[Adam]] had a wife prior to Eve may have developed from an interpretation of the [[Book of Genesis]] and its dual creation accounts; while Genesis 2:22 describes God's creation of Eve from Adam's rib, an earlier passage, 1:27, already indicates that a woman had been made: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." The Alphabet text places Lilith's creation after God's words in Genesis 2:18 that "it is not good for man to be alone"; in this text God forms Lilith out of the clay from which he made Adam but she and Adam bicker. Lilith claims that since she and Adam were created in the same way they were equal and she refuses to submit to him:

<blockquote>After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, "It is not good for man to be alone." He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, "I will not lie below," and he said, "I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one." Lilith responded, "We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth." But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air.

Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: "Sovereign of the universe!" he said, "the woman you gave me has run away." At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to bring her back.

Said the Holy One to Adam, "If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day." The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, "We shall drown you in the sea."

"Leave me!' she said. "I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days."

When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: "Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant." She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels' names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers.</blockquote>

The background and purpose of ''The Alphabet of Ben-Sira'' is unclear. It is a collection of stories about heroes of the [[Bible]] and [[Talmud]], it may have been a collection of [[Folklore|folk-tale]]s, a refutation of Christian, [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite]], or other separatist movements; its content seems so offensive to contemporary Jews that it was even suggested that it could be an anti-Jewish [[satire]],<ref>Segal, Eliezer. [http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/950206_Lilith.html Looking for Lilith] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011218042030/http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/950206_Lilith.html |date=18 December 2001 }}</ref> although, in any case, the text was accepted by the Jewish mystics of medieval Germany.<ref name="Kosior-2018" />

[[File:Filippino Lippi- Adam.JPG|upright=1.3|thumb|right|[[Adam]] clutches a child in the presence of the child-snatcher Lilith. Fresco by [[Filippino Lippi]], basilica of [[Santa Maria Novella]], Florence.]]

''The Alphabet of Ben-Sira'' is the earliest surviving source of the story, and the conception that Lilith was Adam's first wife became only widely known with the 17th century ''Lexicon Talmudicum'' of German scholar [[Johannes Buxtorf]].

In this folk tradition that arose in the early Middle Ages, Lilith, a dominant female demon, became identified with [[Asmodeus]], King of Demons, as his queen.{{sfnp|Schwartz|1988|p=7}} Asmodeus was already well known by this time because of the legends about him in the Talmud. Thus, the merging of Lilith and Asmodeus was inevitable.{{sfnp|Schwartz|1988|p=8}} The second myth of Lilith grew to include legends about another world and by some accounts this other world existed side by side with this one, ''Yenne Velt'' is Yiddish for this described "Other World". In this case Asmodeus and Lilith were believed to procreate demonic offspring endlessly and spread chaos at every turn.{{sfnp|Schwartz|1988|p=8}}

Two primary characteristics are seen in these legends about Lilith: Lilith as the incarnation of lust, causing men to be led astray, and Lilith as a child-killing witch, who strangles helpless neonates. These two aspects of the Lilith legend seemed to have evolved separately; there is hardly a tale where she encompasses both roles.{{sfnp|Schwartz|1988|p=8}} But the aspect of the witch-like role that Lilith plays broadens her archetype of the destructive side of witchcraft. Such stories are commonly found among Jewish folklore.{{sfnp|Schwartz|1988|p=8}}

==== The influence of the rabbinic traditions ====
Although the image of Lilith of the ''Alphabet of Ben Sira'' is unprecedented, some elements in her portrayal can be traced back to the talmudic and midrashic traditions that arose around Eve.

First and foremost, the very introduction of Lilith to the creation story rests on the rabbinic myth, prompted by the two separate creation accounts in Genesis 1:1–2:25, that there were two original women. A way of resolving the apparent discrepancy between these two accounts was to assume that there must have been some other first woman, apart from the one later identified with Eve. The Rabbis, noting Adam's exclamation, "this time (''zot hapa‘am'') [this is] bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23), took it as an intimation that there must already have been a "first time". According to Genesis rabbah 18:4, Adam was disgusted upon seeing the first woman full of "discharge and blood", and God had to provide him with another one. The subsequent creation is performed with adequate precautions: Adam is made to sleep, so as not to witness the process itself (Sanhedrin 39a), and Eve is adorned with fine jewellery (Genesis rabbah 18:1) and brought to Adam by the angels Gabriel and Michael (ibid. 18:3). However, nowhere do the rabbis specify what happened to the first woman, leaving the matter open for further speculation. This is the gap into which the later tradition of Lilith could fit.

Second, this new woman is still met with harsh rabbinic allegations. Again playing on the Hebrew phrase {{Transliteration|he|zot hapa‘am}}, Adam, according to the same midrash, declares: "it is she [''zot''] who is destined to strike the bell [''zog''] and to speak [in strife] against me, as you read, 'a golden bell [''pa‘amon''] and a pomegranate' [Exodus 28:34]  ... it is she who will trouble me [''mefa‘amtani''] all night" (Genesis Rabbah 18:4). The first woman also becomes the object of accusations ascribed to Rabbi Joshua of Siknin, according to whom Eve, despite the divine efforts, turned out to be "swelled-headed, coquette, eavesdropper, gossip, prone to jealousy, light-fingered and gadabout" (Genesis Rabbah 18:2). A similar set of charges appears in Genesis Rabbah 17:8, according to which Eve's creation from Adam's rib rather than from the earth makes her inferior to Adam and never satisfied with anything.

Third, and despite the terseness of the biblical text in this regard, the erotic iniquities attributed to Eve constitute a separate category of her shortcomings. Told in Genesis 3:16 that "your desire shall be for your husband", she is accused by the Rabbis of having an overdeveloped sexual drive (Genesis Rabbah 20:7) and constantly enticing Adam (Genesis Rabbah 23:5). However, in terms of textual popularity and dissemination, the motif of Eve copulating with the primeval serpent takes priority over her other sexual transgressions. Despite the rather unsettling picturesqueness of this account, it is conveyed in numerous places: Genesis Rabbah 18:6, and BT Sotah 9b, Shabbat 145b–146a and 156a, Yevamot 103b and Avodah Zarah 22b.<ref name="Kosior-2018" />