65 texts · Page 2 of 2
Continue browsing samael texts from Jewish source collections. Page 2 includes additional passages with source attribution, category metadata, and links to individual text pages.
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating collection of stories and interpretations, gives us a glimpse. Rabbi Judah paints a stark picture: "When the blade touched his neck, the soul ...
A story found woven into the ancient text of Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer. The scene: Mount Sinai. Moses is up there receiving the Torah, the ultimate gift, the very blueprint for a just...
The scene opens with Sammael, often understood as a figure representing the accuser or even the embodiment of evil, in conversation with the Holy One, blessed be He. Sammael is ess...
The Hebrew text of (Genesis 3) says Eve "saw that the tree was good for food." The Targum Jonathan says she saw Sammael, the angel of death, standing right there, and was afraid. T...
On the last day of his life, Moses did something no prophet had ever done, he dressed his successor in public, with his own hands. He commanded that a golden throne be brought, alo...
Lilith is described as a female demon in Jewish tradition. The name appears in (Isaiah 34:14) and derives from Assyrian demon mythology, though scholars debate whether it connects ...
Prince of the demons, and an important figure both in Talmudic and in post-Talmudic literature, where he appears as accuser, seducer, and destroyer. His name is etymologized as = "...
The name of a supernatural being mentioned in connection with the ritual of the Day of Atonement (Lev. xvi.). After Satan, for whom he was in some degree a preparation, Azazel enjo...
Two words haunted ancient Israel: shedim (demons) and se'irim. The Israelites were forbidden from sacrificing to either. They sacrificed anyway. The se'irim were the hairy ones, sa...
"Behemoth" denotes the hippopotamus, though the Biblical description contains mythical elements suggesting these were not ordinary animals. The creatures appear in Job xl, where be...
When Israel came out of Egypt and stood at the shore of the Reed Sea, Samael, the angel who serves as heavenly prosecutor, rose up to accuse them. "Lord of the Universe," Samael sa...
The Torah says Eve saw the tree was good for food. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 3:6) tells us she also saw something else. "The woman beheld Samael, the angel of death, and w...
The serpent's cunning is read as a height from which to fall. Once he stood upright on legs, more clever than any creature, and could have carried a man's goods to market and back....
Abraham came down from Mount Moriah at peace. The knife had been stayed, Isaac was alive, and the offering had been accepted. But one creature was not at peace. Samael, the accusin...
This reading lifts the quarrel out of Rebecca's body and into the heavens. The two children, the sages say, were not merely jostling; they were dividing the inheritance of the worl...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Abraham — Samael at the Dawn of Creation. The Book of Genesis gives us the bare bones, but the rabbinic tradition, particularly Bereshit Rabbah, fleshes ou...
And God said unto Jacob: “Arise, go up to Beth-El” (Gen. 35:1). May our master teach us: How many times is a man’s “account book” open? Thus did our masters teach us: A man’s accou...
