Lilith: Demoness or Heroine?
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Join Alicia Jo Rabins: poet, musician, composer, and Jewish educator, as she introduces Girls in Trouble, her new curriculum based on her songs about women in the Bible. Learn about all that this curriculum has to offer and how to use it in your classroom, and participate in some of the activities from Alicia’s lesson about biblical Lilith. Plus, hear Alicia perform her song about Lilith, live!
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Lilith: Demoness or Heroine?
- 16. Amulet for mother and newborn with image of Lilith in the center, 19th century, Iranian 18th- or 19th-century C.E. amulet from the Israel Museum intended to protect an infant from Lilith.
- 18. Amulet for the protection of pregnant women and newborn children, 18th Century, Indian, Kochi, Kerala
- 20. Lilith, John Collier, 1892, British
- 28. Siona Benjamin Siona Benjamin, contemporary painter, lives in New Jersey, of Bene Israel (Indian Jewish) heritage
Editor's Notes
- Incantation or magical bowls are also called demon traps. They were placed with the bottom up under the floors and thresholds of the houses in the Near East. The demons were then believed to be trapped inside the bowl with the magical spells written against them. The drawing of the demon Lilith with her hands and feet bound, her breasts bare and her hair undone, shows her as a promiscuous adulteress, who is stripped naked and cast out of the house. Left: This picture accords well with Lilith's role as a succubus, who has sexual relations with men at night in order to propagate a new generation of demons. Right: The evil Lilith is depicted on this ceramic bowl from Mesopotamia. The Aramaic incantation inscribed on the bowl was intended to protect a man named Quqai and his family from assorted demons. The spell begins: “Removed and chased are the curses and incantations from Quqai son of Gushnai, and Abi daughter of Nanai and from their children.” Although Lilith’s name does not appear, she may be identified by comparison with images of her on other bowls, where she is shown with her arms raised aggressively and her skin spotted like a leopard’s. Dating to about 600 C.E., this bowl from Harvard University’s Semitic Museum attests to the longevity of Lilith’s reputation in Mesopotamia as a seducer of men and murderer of children.
- Incantation or magical bowls are also called demon traps. They were placed with the bottom up under the floors and thresholds of the houses in the Near East. The demons were then believed to be trapped inside the bowl with the magical spells written against them. The drawing of the demon Lilith with her hands and feet bound, her breasts bare and her hair undone, shows her as a promiscuous adulteress, who is stripped naked and cast out of the house. Left: This picture accords well with Lilith's role as a succubus, who has sexual relations with men at night in order to propagate a new generation of demons. Right: The evil Lilith is depicted on this ceramic bowl from Mesopotamia. The Aramaic incantation inscribed on the bowl was intended to protect a man named Quqai and his family from assorted demons. The spell begins: “Removed and chased are the curses and incantations from Quqai son of Gushnai, and Abi daughter of Nanai and from their children.” Although Lilith’s name does not appear, she may be identified by comparison with images of her on other bowls, where she is shown with her arms raised aggressively and her skin spotted like a leopard’s. Dating to about 600 C.E., this bowl from Harvard University’s Semitic Museum attests to the longevity of Lilith’s reputation in Mesopotamia as a seducer of men and murderer of children.
- Incantation or magical bowls are also called demon traps. They were placed with the bottom up under the floors and thresholds of the houses in the Near East. The demons were then believed to be trapped inside the bowl with the magical spells written against them. The drawing of the demon Lilith with her hands and feet bound, her breasts bare and her hair undone, shows her as a promiscuous adulteress, who is stripped naked and cast out of the house. Left: This picture accords well with Lilith's role as a succubus, who has sexual relations with men at night in order to propagate a new generation of demons. Right: The evil Lilith is depicted on this ceramic bowl from Mesopotamia. The Aramaic incantation inscribed on the bowl was intended to protect a man named Quqai and his family from assorted demons. The spell begins: “Removed and chased are the curses and incantations from Quqai son of Gushnai, and Abi daughter of Nanai and from their children.” Although Lilith’s name does not appear, she may be identified by comparison with images of her on other bowls, where she is shown with her arms raised aggressively and her skin spotted like a leopard’s. Dating to about 600 C.E., this bowl from Harvard University’s Semitic Museum attests to the longevity of Lilith’s reputation in Mesopotamia as a seducer of men and murderer of children.
- On right: “Bind Lilith in chains!” reads a warning in Hebrew on this 18th- or 19th-century C.E. amulet (above) from the Israel Museum intended to protect an infant from the demoness. The image of Lilith appears at center. The small circles that outline her body represent a chain. The divine name is written in code (called atbash) down her chest. (The letters yhwh appear instead asmzpz.) Beneath this is a prayer: “Protect this boy who is a newborn from all harm and evil. Amen.” Surrounding the central image are abbreviated quotations from Numbers 6:22–27 (“The Lord bless you and keep you. . .”) and Psalm 121 (“I lift up my eyes to the hills. . .”).
- A how-to for creating your own amulet against Lilith from Sefer Raziel (Amsterdam, 1701). According to Jewish Women’s Archive, “Even today, it is possible to purchase amulets made according to this model in Jerusalem shops that sell religious articles.”
- Amulets were scrolls of parchment with texts written on them by kabbalists, believed to ward off demons with their special codes using the Hebrew alphabet. They would be placed in metal holders and worn around the neck, to guard one’s person, or hung on a wall to protect one’s home. -- Wikipedia