Azazel
Jewish mythology (rabbinic–kabbalistic) · numen · Jewish mythology (rabbinic–kabbalistic) traditional religion; continuing · numen
THE ONE WHO WOULD NOT REPENT. The Talmud pairs him with Shemhazai precisely to contrast them: Shemhazai hangs himself upside down between heaven and earth in perpetual atonement, and Azael refuses and is bound in the desert. Holding one without the other would destroy the contrast the story exists for.
Domains
- the fall of the watchers
- sorcery
- binding in the desert
- refusal of repentance
Relations
- fellow leader of the fallen with: Shemhazai
Sources
- Reference treatment of the fallen angels in rabbinic tradition (b. Yoma 67b and the Watchers traditions): Samyaza, also known as Shemhazai, Azza or Uzza, is a fallen angel who ranked as leader of the Watchers, and compels the other 199 fallen angels to take human wives; in tractate Yoma 67b the angels protest to God that humans will inevitably sin, prompting God to send them to earth to demonstrate their own susceptibility to temptation, and on descending they succumb to the allure of women's beauty, engage in illicit unions and sire demonic offspring; in the Babylonian Talmud the name evolves to Shemhazai, often paired with Azael as leaders of the fallen angels; Shemhazai repents by suspending himself upside down between heaven and earth in a posture of perpetual atonement, while Azael refuses repentance and is bound in the desert, becoming the source of sorcery.
- Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 67b