A Very Hebrew Halloween

Samael
Remember that angel who wrestled with Jacob? Or the one who appeared in the nick of time and told Abraham not to sacrifice his son? What about that most fearful of divine emissaries, the Angel of Death? According to much of Jewish legend, they’re really all one entity, the mighty Archangel Samael. In his Legend of the Jews, Rabbi Louis Ginzberg gives us a pretty good idea of what that demonic dude might’ve looked like. “His height was so great,” goes the tale, “it would have taken five hundred years to cover a distance equal to it, and from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet he was studded with glaring eyes, at the sight of which the beholder fell prostrate in awe.” Some Talmudic scholars believe that it was Samael, disguised as a snake, who not only tempted Eve with the forbidden fruit but also impregnated her with the murderous Cain. Some Kabbalists are convinced that he married Lillith after her traumatic separation from Adam. With such a reputation, and a complex personality incorporating both good and evil, it’s little wonder that Samael appears often in popular culture, from science fiction books to video games.

Melchiresa
Said to possess the visage of a viper and a cloak of many shades of darkness, this demon, often believed to hang out with Satan himself, is strictly evil. His very name, loosely translated, means king of wickedness, and is often evoked as a catchall for the world’s malice. Here he is, for example, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, eternally doomed: “Accursed are you, Melki-resha, in all the plans of your guilty inclination,” reads the text. “May God [make you] an object of dread at the hand of those exacting vengeance. May God not favor you when you call on him. [May he lift his angry face] upon you for a curse. May there be no peace for you in the mouth of those who intercede. [Be cursed,] without a remnant; and be damned, without salvation.”

Leviathan
While the word simply means “whale” in modern Hebrew, this sea creature is one of the Bible’s fiercest creatures. The Book of Job has a lengthy description of this serpent-like monster: “His teeth are terrible round about,” it reads. “His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth…. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot.” Similar descriptions of Leviathan appear in ancient Canaanite poetry, making the beastie the primordial daddy of all sea dragons. But while the Canaanites believed Leviathan was villainous, Psalms reminds us that, like all of God’s creatures, he was created for the Lord’s pleasure. “There go the ships,” reads Psalm 104, “and the Leviathan which you have created to play with.” In other words, if the oceans are God’s bathtub, the Leviathan is one mighty, fire-breathing rubber duckie.

Nephilim
Genesis tells the whole story about these voracious giants: “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,” it reads, “the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” Renown, perhaps, but also intense appetites: as legend has it, the nephilim, having mated with human women and consumed all of earth’s resources, soon resorted to eating humans themselves, at which point God had no choice but to bring forth the flood.