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Ha-Satan Partnered With Noah and Bled Four Animals Into the Vine

When Noah planted the first vineyard, Ha-Satan asked to be partners. Four animals died at the roots. Noah agreed before he knew the terms.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Earth Was Clean and Noah Planted
  2. Four Animals Buried in the Roots
  3. What Jubilees Says Happened After the Flood
  4. The Vine and the Medicine

The Earth Was Clean and Noah Planted

Noah stepped off the ark into a silence that had no precedent. Every city that had stood before the flood was gone: the populations, the markets, the courts, the workshops, the temples. The earth was clean in the way that only total destruction leaves a place clean, and it smelled like it. He built an altar and offered a sacrifice. Then he planted a vineyard.

It should have been a hopeful act. The vine was life returning, the possibility of abundance after catastrophe, something a man could tend through seasons and watch grow. According to Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, which compiled centuries of Talmudic and post-Talmudic tradition into narrative form in the early twentieth century, Ha-Satan, the Accuser, appeared while Noah was digging the first holes for the roots and asked what he was planting.

Ha-Satan in Jewish tradition is not a cosmic rebel. He is an angel who operates within God's permission, the prosecutorial force of the heavenly court, the one who tests human character and reports his findings. He asked an innocent question. Noah explained: the vine produces sweet fruit, whether dry or moist, and the wine it yields rejoices the heart of man. Ha-Satan heard the part about rejoicing the heart and said: let us go into partnership in this business.

Four Animals Buried in the Roots

Noah agreed. Ha-Satan, to seal the arrangement, brought four animals to the vineyard and slaughtered them over the freshly dug ground, letting their blood soak into the soil where the roots would take hold. The four animals were a lamb, a lion, a pig, and a monkey.

This was not arbitrary. The four animals were the curriculum. Ginzberg's synthesis preserves the teaching explicitly: when a man drinks one cup of wine, he is like a lamb, gentle and harmless and easy to be with. When he drinks two, he believes himself a lion, strong beyond his actual measure, ready to insist on his greatness. When he drinks three or four, he begins to behave like a pig, wallowing without care for what surrounds him. When he drinks past the limit entirely, he becomes a monkey, dancing and capering and saying things he will not remember, with no dignity left in him and no awareness of what he has become.

Ha-Satan planted all four possibilities in the roots of Noah's vine before a single grape had grown. The wine would always carry the partnership's terms within it.

What Jubilees Says Happened After the Flood

The Book of Jubilees, a second-century BCE text that retells Genesis with unusual attention to what was left out of the plain narrative, gives a parallel account of Noah's post-flood education that approaches the same period from a different angle. In Jubilees 10, God knew that the survivors of the flood would not immediately become righteous, that they would not "walk in uprightness nor strive in righteousness." So God sent down angelic teachers to give Noah practical knowledge: medicine. Specifically, the medicines required to protect human beings from the demons who were now active in the world.

After the flood, the spirits of the dead giants, the children of the Watchers who had mixed with human women before the waters rose, were free to afflict the living. Noah needed the knowledge to fight them. One of the angels was commanded to teach Noah all their medicines, how to recognize demonic attack, how to use herbs and specific treatments to counter it. The knowledge was written down in a book, Jubilees says, and Noah gave it to his son Shem, and it passed forward from there.

The Vine and the Medicine

The two traditions do not conflict. They circle the same problem from opposite sides. The vineyard partnership story says: the first new thing Noah built in the restored world carried destruction inside it from the beginning, planted there by the Accuser with Noah's full consent before the first harvest. The Jubilees medicine story says: God also gave Noah the means to protect his descendants from the forces that would exploit human weakness, including presumably the weakness that the vineyard would produce.

The flood had cleaned the earth. It had not changed the structure of the world that would grow back in the clean earth's soil. Ha-Satan was still present. The spirits of the dead giants were still present. The vine would still produce both the lamb and the monkey. What God gave Noah was not the removal of danger. It was the knowledge to survive it.

NoahWineDemonsHa SatanFloodPost Flood
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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Legends of the Jews 4:72Legends of the Jews

It involves Noah, freshly off the ark, and a very persuasive Satan.

Noah, according to this legend found in Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, decides to plant a vineyard. A noble pursuit. He is looking to create something good, something that brings joy. But then Satan shows up. And the conversation goes something like this:

Satan asks, all innocent-like, "And what may be the qualities of what it produces?"

Noah, full of pride in his future vintage, explains, "The fruit it bears is sweet, be it dry or moist. It yields wine that rejoiceth the heart of man."

And that's all Satan needs to hear. "Let us go into partnership in this business of planting a vineyard," he proposes.

Now, you might be thinking, "Partnering with Satan? What could possibly go wrong?" Well, this is where the story takes a decidedly dark turn. To seal the deal, to, shall we say, infuse the vineyard with a bit of…complexity, Satan performs a rather gruesome ritual.

He slaughters four animals: a lamb, a lion, a pig, and a monkey. And here's the kicker: he makes the blood of each flow under the vine. Talk about a terroir with a story!

The meaning? That’s where the legend truly shines. As Ginzberg tells us, through this act, Satan reveals the different stages of wine's influence.

Before man drinks of it, he is innocent as a lamb. A gentle buzz, a sense of peace. Perhaps a little prayer of gratitude for the day. If he drinks of it moderately, he feels as strong as a lion. Courage, confidence, and maybe a little loud singing.

But…if he drinks more of it than he can bear, he resembles the pig. Gluttony, sloppiness, and a distinct lack of grace. And if he drinks to the point of intoxication, then he behaves like a monkey. He dances around, sings obscenely, and knows not what he is doing. Have you ever seen this play out? That progression from lamb to lion to… well, you get the picture. This isn't just about wine, is it? It’s about the potential for anything good to be corrupted, to be taken too far. It's about the delicate balance between joy and excess, between celebration and self-destruction.

The legend doesn't condemn wine. Instead, it serves as a potent reminder: know your limits. Respect the power of the grape. Because sometimes, the most dangerous partnerships are the ones we make with ourselves. And maybe, just maybe, a little bit of lamb-like innocence is a good thing to hold onto, even after the first glass.

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Book of Jubilees 10:18Book of Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees, a text considered scripture in some traditions but not included in the Tanakh, fills in gaps in the Genesis story. It's like the director's cut with extra scenes and behind-the-scenes explanations. And in its tenth chapter, we get a glimpse into Noah's post-flood education.

See, according to Jubilees, God knew that humanity wasn't exactly going to emerge from the Ark as a band of perfectly righteous individuals. They wouldn't "walk in uprightness, nor strive in righteousness." So, what to do?

The solution? Send down some angelic teachers.

Not just to teach them Torah or ethics. These angels were tasked with revealing something quite practical: medicine. "One of us He commanded that we should teach Noah all their medicines," the verse states.

Now, here's where it gets interesting. The angels weren't just dealing with illnesses. They were dealing with the cause of those illnesses, which, in this worldview, was often demonic. The text mentions "malignant evil ones" who were causing trouble. Think of it like this: they were spiritual viruses spreading spiritual diseases.

And the angels? They rounded up most of these troublemakers, binding them in a "place of condemnation." A celestial jail, if you will. But, crucially, they didn't capture them all. A tenth of these demons were left on Earth, "that they might be subject before Satan." Think of it as a controlled release, a necessary evil to maintain some kind of cosmic balance or perhaps as a test for humanity.

So, Noah wasn't just given a list of symptoms and cures. He was given the whole package: "all the medicines of their diseases, together with their seductions, how he might heal them with herbs of the earth." He learned about the demonic influences and the natural remedies to combat them. Talk about a holistic approach to healthcare!

And what did Noah do with all this newfound knowledge? He wrote it down. "Noah wrote down all things in a book as we instructed him concerning every kind of medicine." Imagine that book! A compendium of angelic wisdom, demonic strategies, and herbal cures, all compiled by the man who survived the Flood. It's a fascinating thought, isn't it? What happened to that book? What secrets did it hold?

The Book of Jubilees offers a unique perspective, blending the practical with the supernatural, the physical with the spiritual. It suggests that even in the aftermath of a cataclysmic event, the pursuit of healing and understanding continues, guided by divine intervention and human effort. It makes you wonder: what other hidden stories are waiting to be uncovered in the ancient texts? And what can they teach us about ourselves and the world around us?

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Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 9:21Midrash Aggadah

"And he drank of the wine." Some say: on the same day he planted, on the same day he drank. (And sixteen vavs [thirteen vavs] are stated in this passage, to teach you how grievous is the drinking of wine.) When Noah came to plant a vineyard, Ha-Satan came and said to him, "Let my portion be in the vineyard with you." Noah said to him, "Yes." What did Ha-Satan do? He brought a lamb and slaughtered it and watered it with its blood; and afterward he brought a lion and slaughtered it and watered it with its blood; and afterward he brought an ape and slaughtered it and watered it with its blood; and afterward he brought a pig and slaughtered it and watered it with its blood. He hinted to him by this that when a man drinks one cup, he is like a lamb, meek; he drinks two cups, he is like a lion, and says, "I will show what I will do tomorrow with so-and-so and so-and-so"; he drinks much wine, he begins to dance like an ape; he drinks far too much, he begins to vomit and to soil his garments like a pig, which is filthy.

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