Samael Rode the Serpent and the Cunning That Brought Ruin

"And the serpent was cunning." This is what is written, "for in much wisdom is much vexation" (Ecclesiastes 1:18); according to the greatness of the serpent was his downfall. More cunning than all, more cursed than all. He stood upright and had legs. He was a heretic. He was like a camel. He withheld a great good from the world, for had it been otherwise a man could have sent his merchandise by its hand and it would go and return. The ministering angels said before the Holy One, blessed be He, "What is man that You should know him? Man is like a breath." He said to them, "That which you now praise Me with above, he proclaims My oneness below; and not only that, but he assigns names." When they saw this they said, "Unless we take counsel that he sin before his Creator, we cannot prevail against him." Now Samael was a great prince in heaven; the living creatures had four wings and the seraphim six, but Samael had twelve. What did Samael do? He took his band and went down and looked at all the creatures, and found none more cunning to do evil than the serpent, as it is said, "and the serpent was cunning." Its form was like a camel, and he mounted and rode upon it. And the Torah cried out, "when she lifts herself on high" (Job 39:18); Master of the worlds, "she scorns the horse and its rider" (Job 39). A parable: a man who has an evil spirit, all that he does and all that he speaks is not from his own mind but from the mind of the evil spirit within him; so the serpent, all that he did he spoke only from the mind of Samael. A parable: a king married a woman and gave her authority over all that was his, except one barrel full of scorpions. An old man came to her asking vinegar and said, "How does the king treat you?" She said, "Well; he gave me authority over all except this barrel full of scorpions." He said, "But the king's finest treasures are in this barrel; he only wishes to marry another woman and give them to her." What did she do? She reached out her hand, and they began to bite her. When her husband came he heard her crying out and said, "Have you perhaps touched that barrel?" So the king is Adam, the woman is Eve, the one asking vinegar is the serpent. The serpent reasoned with himself: if I go and speak to Adam, I know he will not heed me, for a man is always firm. Rather, I will go and speak to Eve, for I know she will heed me, since women heed every creature. The serpent went and touched the tree. The tree began to cry out, "Wicked one, do not touch me, let not the foot of pride come upon me." The serpent went and said to the woman, "Behold, I touched the tree and did not die; you too touch it and you will not die." At once she touched it and saw the Angel of Death coming toward her. She said, "Woe is me, now I shall die, and the Holy One, blessed be He, will make another woman and give her to Adam." Immediately "she took of its fruit and ate and gave also to her husband." Elijah, of blessed memory, asked Rabbi Nehorai: Why did the Holy One, blessed be He, create creeping things and reptiles? He said to him: they were created for a purpose. When the creatures sin, the Holy One, blessed be He, looks at them and says, "If these, which were not created for any need, I sustain, how much more those created for a need." He further said: they also have a use. The fly is a remedy against the hornet's sting, the bedbug against the leech, the serpent against a sore, the snail against a scab, the spider against a scorpion's sting. Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: of all that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, He created nothing in vain: the gnat as a remedy for the serpent, the fly for the hornet, and so on.