The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism by Geoffrey W. Dennis

Author:Geoffrey W. Dennis
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: jewish encyclopedia, jewish myth and magic, encyclopedia of jewish myths, rabbi dennis, rabbi geoffrey dennis, jewish myth magic and mysticism
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2016-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

Lailah: ()). “Night.” Not to be confused with Lilith, this is the Angel of conception (and sex):

For R. Chanina b. Papa made the following exposition: The name of the angel who is in charge of conception is “Night,” and he takes up a drop and places it in the presence of the Holy One, blessed be He, saying, “Sovereign of the universe, what shall be the fate of this drop? Shall it produce a strong man or a weak man, a wise man or a fool, a rich man or a poor man?” (Nid. 16b)

Lailah escorts new souls to their bodies and erases from their memories all the Torah they knew in the Guf ha-Briyot (Sanh. 6b; Tanh. Pekudei 3; Zohar I:91b; ZCh 68.3). It may be that Lailah is regarded as the good doppelganger and antipode to Lilith, though this is not confirmed explicitly in any text.

Lailah is also portrayed as a warrior angel:

[discussing asking for divine help in battle, the Sages quote] “If I [King Sennacherib] go [to battle] and am successful, I will sacrifice my two sons to thee,” he vowed. But his sons heard this, so they killed him … So he fought against them, he and his servants, by night [lailah] and smote them (2 Kings 19:37) … R. Isaac the smith, said: He [the angel] set into motion the activities of the night [i.e., the stars] on his behalf, as it is written, They [fought for Deborah, Barak, and Israel] fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. (Judg. 5:20; Sanh. 96a)

Though it is never stated explicitly in the sources, the name is feminine in gender, suggesting Lailah is a female angel. The interpretation of the words lail and lailah in Zohar II:38b comes the closest to confirming this assumption.

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