Demons are sexy. In many Jewish myths and in larger Jewish contexts many demons want to disrupt your sexual purity. Typically every time you fantasize about sex it is said that you are actually fornicating with a demon. All aspects of demonology in Judaism are sexually charged and in tales of possession is where the sexual metaphors reach their proverbial climax.
Judaism has its own terms and concepts for dealing with evil spirits and spirit possession. Ru’ah is a generic word for spirits used in many Jewish contexts.1 Ibbur comes from the Hebrew word to impregnate but is also used to talk about receiving an additional soul.2 Ibbur is the most general world for possession and is used to talk about demon possession.3 It also used to talk about another type of possessions that tend to be benevolent in nature and are sometimes said to be soul fragments from dead pious people or second soul that one receives on the Sabbath.4 Sometimes though ibbur is used in a malevolent spirit possession however negative spirit possessions by deceased humans are referred to by the name dybbuk.5 One common but not exact way to distinguish dybbuk possession from others is that dybbuk possession almost always involved possession from a dead human being that’s either wicked or confused.6
When talking about demons in Judaism, Lilith is a logical place to start. Lilith is said to be the first wife of Adam who fled from Adam after refusing to lie underneath him during sex.7 Lilith is referenced in Isaiah 34:14 and she may be based on the Babylonian succubus Lilitu who was a great seducer of men and stealer of semen.8 Lilith adopts a dual role in Jewish lore: the seducer of men and the killer of babies.9 However it seems that Lilith was originally only a seducer and succubus; and her child killing tendencies previously belonged to a demon named Obyzouth whom is mentioned in the pseudepigraphical book The Testament of Solomon.10
However it came about, it is interesting that Lilith is associated with both sex and death; she is an externalization of everything that scared and fascinated the pre-modern Jewish mind. Judaism and Jewish culture can be fairly characterized as being very concerned with purity. In no two areas of life is purity more in danger than during sex and death. Therefore Lilith and her demonic children are naturally most active and dangerous when people are coming into the world and also when they are on their way out of this world. Lilith was more than a demon; she was the personification of impurity and mankind’s inclination towards evil (yetzer ha-ra).11
Lilith the seducer is said to be able to take very beautiful forms, besides being able to be the epitome of beauty she is a master in the Law.12 Lilith uses her intellectual prowess to try to talk people into sinning by trying to convince them that sleeping with her would only be a very minor sin.13 Lilith is often described as having long black hair and her long hair is said to be a symbol of not being married, so she tempts men by trying to convince them that since the Torah doesn’t specifically specify a punishment for a man lying with an unmarried woman, that it is only a minor sin.14 Lilith and all demons were also brazen enough to try to temp even the most holy of men, in fact the more holy you are the more Lilith and her children will want to try to attack and seduce you.
Lilith and her demon children, called the Lilim, want semen. It is said that every time a man ejaculates outside of his wife he is having sex with a Lilim or succubus. Lilim appear to men in many ways but it is usually through visions or dreams.15 The Lilim want semen so that they can become pregnant with half-human half-demon spawn that will haunt their fathers for all their days.16 The symbolism here is seemingly transparent, what should scare a man more than a sexually empowered woman, a woman in control, that wants to become pregnant and then the children of said arrangement will torment the man for the rest of his life?
Most men have dozens if not hundreds or thousands of half-demon spawn haunting them.17 Luckily for men though, it said that a hundred of Lilith’s children perish every day.18 Demon spawn can cause many health problems for their father or just those that happen to be near by.19 When a man dies his demon children surround his body and howl out his name, to avoid these demon, the human children of a man must take certain precautions. There are many rituals a man’s sons must perform in order to not take on his father’s demons.20 Perhaps this is an expression of a type of Oedipus complex, as well as a type of repression of it, built into the myth. When a son takes on his father’s demons he in effect becomes his father and owns his demons, in the way it may be said a man owns his wife or his children. Even more so it is possible and likely that said son could one day have sex with a Lilim perhaps even the same Lilim that knew his father. In a very convoluted way we can see something similar to an Oedipus complex as well as the an incorporation of that fact that people try to repress this urge built into the myth. It is bad for a son to take on his father’s demons and his father’s demon-lover just like it is bad for a son to take his father’s wife but that doesn’t mean that the subconscious desire isn’t there.
Copulation with demons and the resulting health issues aren’t only limited to men, one myth about the origins of the giants called the Nefilim, found in the pseudepigraphical Testament of Reuben, attributes the birth of the Nefilim not to women sleeping with the sons of God but instead to women fantasizing about the angels while having sex with their husbands.21 As it is in the case of men fantasizing about Lilith is also considered having sex with her and having children with her, so too here simply by fantasizing about the angels the women bring untold and unexpected consequences on themselves by having Nefilim children. There are also various other myths that have to do with Cain being the spawn of a demon because of Eve having sex with, being raped by, or fantasizing about a demon; an alternative myth also involves Adam and Eve cannibalizing a human baby or eating a sheep that was actually a demon.22
Despite having long black hair that is suppose to be a symbol of not being married, Lilith is said to have at least two husbands Samael, the angel of death, and Ashmedai, the king of demons. Attempts have been made to bring these beliefs into agreement by saying that there are two Liliths. One that is married to Samael and is the great seducer and one that is married to Ashmedai that is the baby killer.23 The notion that there are two Liliths fits into a larger Luriandric Kabbalist theme of their being two Adams, two Messiahs, and two covenants with God.
Let’s look as Lilith as the killer of babies. A woman fears Lilith for different reasons than a man fears her. Men fear her as a sexual fantasy but to a woman Lilith represents the risk of somebody taking away their husband and killing their children.24 For men Lilith is forbidden and sensual therefore making her tempting while yet fearing her destructive abilities.25 For a woman Lilith is nothing but trouble, a whore that wants to steal her husband’s affection and seed as well as take the life of her infant children.26 Perhaps because women aren’t typically afraid of being tempted by Lilith women seem to have the most knowledge and expertise fighting her. It is said that Lilith is attracted to the smell of breast milk and that sometimes she takes the form of a long black hair and goes into a container of breast milk to get to a baby.27 One astute mother was able to see what Lilith was up to one day and she put a lid on the jug of milk that Lilith had put herself in and she shook the jug mercilessly to torment Lilith. Lilith eventually agreed to protect the mother and child from all danger for three years in exchange for being released.28 Notice how in this story, it is the woman that’s the hero, she is strong and smart and more than capable of defending herself and her baby’s health against Lilith, something that can rarely be said about a man.
How does one go about healing themselves from the problems caused by the Lilim and various other demons? Judaism has many processes in place for dealing with the health issues that are demon related. Exorcisms are used to expel demons, the recitation and inscription of holy names or even the names of the demons are used to ward demons away, and most commonly there are many purity rituals in place so that one can regain their purity through ablutions.
The notion of purity is very important to Judaism and is one of the driving forces behind demons. Demons are a useful tool because they allow an individual or a society to externalize parts of themselves that they are not willing to include in their concept of us and can thereby make parts of their own society part of “them” by blaming it on demons or other types of spirits. Various contexts give various impressions, but it seems that typically there is no sin or transgression that can be inferred simply because somebody is being plagued by a demon. Even the most holy men get plagued by demons and are actually more likely to be done so.
Demon possession (ibbur) has been a part of Jewish culture for millennia but possession by deceased human beings is a relatively new phenomenon that the earliest known documented cases come from the late sixteenth century.29 The idea of being possessed by humans was most likely heavenly influenced by the idea of the transmigration of souls (gilgul), which can be traced, back to the thirteenth century CE.30 Dybbuk possession while different in theological significance to demon possession played a very similar role as demon possession in terms of being very sexual in nature.31
Contrasted to men being tempted by female demons such as Lilith, dybbuk possession usually happened to women and it was male spirits that usually possessed them.32 The second most common combination was men being possessed by male spirits.33 The least common scenario was female spirits possessing men.34 Dybbuk possessions thus usually play out as heterosexual or less commonly male homosexual metaphors. It is said that where the spirit enters the body is through the vagina or the anus; the association of erogenous zones with dybbuk possession further showcase the sexual nature of demons and possession in Judaism.35 One of the signs of a woman being possessed by a male dybbuk is that she will masturbate uncontrollably and she will avoid being penetrated by her husband at all cost.36
Just as encounters with demons became an externalization and symbol for men’s sexual fantasies; so too did dybbuk possession become a means by which people could express subconscious urges that were not acceptable to the larger society without the context of spirit possession. Under the context of being possessed by a dybbuk women could express their desires for more sex, or express their lack of interest in sex with men and instead demand to have sex with women. Likewise men could express desires of wanting to know another man. By externalizing these feelings the individuals and the societies at large had a way of explaining away things they did not like such as female sexuality or homosexuality. As a culture obsessed with sexual purity having something like a dybbuk, which could be explained as an impure outsider, was a very useful tool the society could use to not incorporate sexual deviants into their sense of “us” while at the same time not literally pushing their members out. With proper motivation, effort, and ritual these people could become clean again, healed, and brought back into the society. In the theme of repression Yorma Bilu speculates whether male-to-female dybbuk possession might be influenced by Oedipal urges by women to be penetrated by their fathers.37 While there isn’t a lot to go on in dybbuk literature, there is one instant where a famous nineteenth century Hasidic rabbi was said to have possessed his most favored daughter, whom he favored over all his other children including the males.38 Under the pretext of being possessed by her father the daughter challenges the moral and spiritual authority of her brothers.39
Spirit possession is not always bad and sometimes people are impregnated with the spirit of a righteous person that needs to accomplish something. Even spirit possession that is malevolent can have unexpected positive side effects such as clairvoyance.40
The way to cure a possession is through an exorcisms and a Jewish dybbuk exorcisms is said to be a very long, emotional, and exhausting struggle done by a Rabbi.41 The first important step in a dybbuk exorcism is to find out the identity and name of the possessing spirit, a theme common to many exorcism rituals around the world.42 The next step the Rabbi would negotiate with the spirit, typically what the spirit wanted had something to do with its own spiritual redemption or it wants certain mourning practices to be done on its behalf because nobody did them for it when it died.43 The Rabbi would make arrangements with the spirit to meet its conditions if it would swear a public oath to leave its victim.44 The next and final step was tricky, the spirit would want to maintain its pride and declare some sort of victory in its leaving by hurting its victim through the exit wound that it would leave though. Therefore it was very important for the Rabbi to instruct the spirit to leave though the fingers or big toe, which were said to be the safest place for a spirit to leave the body.45 Yoran Bilu points out that in contrast to modern Western practices of healing, when a Rabbi heals somebody from possession he’s not only healing the person he’s also healing his community, the deviance shown by the possessed person is harnessed and used as a tool to reinforce social control and cultural unity.46
Besides sexual impurity, demon possession was also used to explain things like madness as well as many other kinds of sickness especially in the seventeenth through eighteenth centuries.47 In this time period Jewish magic and spell makers were very popular however the old theme of antagonism toward sorcerers and against practitioners of magic was ever present.48 This antagonism did not necessarily derive from a lack of belief in the effectiveness of the person that practiced the magic but instead arise from the ever present Biblical theme of not practicing witchcraft, divination, or otherwise knowing what is hidden.49
These Jewish magical practitioners were known as the ba’al shem which literally means masters of the name, they took this name because the ba’al shem were mainly concerned with knowing and manipulating divine and spiritual names for the sake of fulfilling some goal often a healing goal.50 The knowing of spiritual names and the power that knowledge give somebody control over has a long history in Judaism. One of the most commonly known and held beliefs is that the names of the angels Seynoy, Sansenoy, and Semangeof will ward off Lilith.51 Another legend gives the secret names of Lilith herself, which were told by her to the prophet Elijah and are Lilith, Abiti, Abizu, Amrusu, Hakash, Ode, Ayil, Maturta, Avgu, Katah, Kali, Batub, and Paritasha.52 Knowing the name of an angel or a demon was thought to be an extremely powerful magical tool, inscriptions of holy names and amulets have a documented history in Judaism that’s thousands of years old.
Demons, spirits, dybbuks, shades, and any other correlating figure have played a role that is central to Judaism. They’ve served as the personification of sexual impurity, are used to scare people into doing the right things. They’ve been catalyst for people to express subconscious repressed urges. Studying demons and possessions tells more about human nature and the state of Judaism at any one particular time than it does about the nature of demons themselves. Attitudes about women, purity, sexuality, and what’s best for the society are all alluded to when looking at literature about demons and possessions in Judaism. Perhaps the greatest insight to be gained is to look at how the individual cases of temptation and possession are used as a tool by the society to reinforce its own norms and also to reassert what it means to be a member of that society as well as what it means to not be a member of that society.
Bibliography
Bilu, Yoram. “The Taming of the Deviants and Beyond: An Analysis of Dybbuk Posession and Exorcism in Judaism.” In Spirit Possession in Judaism: Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present, edited by Matt Goldish. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003, 41-72.
Goldish, Matt. “Preface.” In Spirit Possession in Judaism: Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present, edited by Matt Goldish. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003, 11-19.
Mark, Zvi. “Dybukk and Devekut in the Shivhe ha-Besht: Toward a Phenomenology of Madness in Early Hasidim.” In Spirit Possession in Judaism: Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present, edited by Matt Goldish. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003, 257-304.
Schwartz, Howard. Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Sommer, Eli. “Trance Poessession Disorder in Judaism: Sixteenth-Century Dybbuks in the Near East.” Journal of Trauma and Dissociation 5, no. 2 (2004), www.haworthpress.com/web/JTD: 131-146.
1 Matt Goldish, “Preface,” in Spirit Possession in Judaism: Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present, ed. Matt Goldish (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003), 12.
2 Matt Goldish, 12.
3 Matt Goldish, 12.
4 Matt Goldish, 12, and Howard Schwartz, “The Sabbath Bride,” in Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 309.
5 Matt Goldish, 13.
6 Yormal Bilu, “The Taming of the Deviants and Beyond: An Analysis of Dybbuk Posession and Exorcism in Judaism,” in Spirit Possession in Judaism: Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present, ed. Matt Goldish (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003), 41
7 Howard Schwartz, “Adam and Lilith,” in Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 216.
8 Howard Schwartz, Adam and Lilith, 216.
9 For many examples of these roles see the chapter “Myths of Hell” in Howard Schwartz’s, Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 211-243.
10 Howard Schwartz, “The Night Demoness,” in Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 223.
11 Howard Schwartz, “The Woman in the Forrest,” in Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 219.
12 Howard Schwartz, Woman in Forest, 219.
13 Howard Schwartz, Woman in Forest, 219.
14 Howard Schwartz, Woman in Forest, 219.
15 Howard Schwartz, “The Cellar,” in Howard Schwartz, “The Woman in the Forrest,” in Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 220.
16 Howard Schwartz, The Cellar, 220-221.
17 Howard Schwartz, Woman in the Forest, 219.
18 Howard Schwartz, Adam and Lilith, 216.
19 Goldish, 15.
20 Howard Schwartz, The Cellar, 221.
21 Howard Schwartz, “The Giants of Old,” in Howard Schwartz, “
22 Howard Schwartz, “Cain and Abel,” in Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 450-462.
23 Howard Schwartz, “The Two Liliths,” Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 222.
24 Howard Schwartz, “Lilith the Witch,” in Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 224.
25 Howard Schwartz, Lilith the Witch, 224.
26 Howard Schwartz, Lilith the Witch, 224.
27 Howard Schwartz, Lilith the Witch, 224.
28 Howard Schwartz, Lilith the Witch, 224.
29 Bilu, 42-43.
30 Bilu, 42, and Howard Schwartz, “The Creation of Souls,” in Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 164.
31 Bilu, 46.
32 Bilu, 46-48.
33 Bilu, 46.
34 Bilu, 46.
35 Bilu, 47-49.
36 Bilu, 49.
37 Bilu, 53.
38 Bilu, 53-55.
39 Bilu, 55.
40 Eli Sommer, “Trance Possession Disorder in Judaism: Sixteenth-Century Dybbuks in the Near East,” Journal of Trauma and Dissociation Vol 5 issue 2 (2004), www.haworthpress.com/web/JTD: 135.
41 Bilu, 56.
42 Bilu, 56.
43 Bilu, 58.
44 Bilu, 58-59.
45 Bilu, 59.
46 Bilu, 60.
47 Zvi Mark, “Dybukk and Devekut in the Shivhe ha-Besht: Toward a Phenomenology of Madness in Early Hasidim,” in Spirit Possession in Judaism: Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present, ed. Matt Goldish (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003), 257.
48 Mark, 257, 263-265.
49 Mark 257, 287.
50 Mark 257-258.
51 Howard Schwartz, A Spell to Banish Lilith, 218.
52 Howard Schwartz, “Lilith and Elijah,” in Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 224-225.
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