Ha-Satan

THREE FIGURES IN ONE RECORD, ON THE TRADITION'S OWN AUTHORITY. Reish Lakish says Satan, the yetzer hara and the Angel of Death are one, so the Angel of Death is carried here as an alias rather than authored as a separate record — and Azrael, the name usually attached to that office in popular sources, is censused BLOCKED, because the research found he appears in neither the Hebrew Bible nor the Talmud nor the Midrashim.

Domains

• accusation
• temptation
• incitement to sin
• death
• the evil inclination

Relations

• identified with: SamaelNon-symmetric, written from this end only; jewish_samael is a pre-existing record and this batch mutates none. The sources identify Satan with Samael and his deeds, while also noting that Samael is NOT identified with the angel of death in the Talmud and that his role there is marginal, becoming prominent only from the fifth or sixth century. Two overlapping figures, not one, and the overlap is recorded rather than resolved by merging.Reference treatment of Satan in rabbinic Judaism: in the Torah the word satan indicates 'accuser', 'hinderer' or 'tempter'; he is the angel who accused Joshua the High Priest of misdeeds before God (Zechariah 3:1) and who instigated David to sin by taking a census of Israel (1 Chronicles 21:1); in Tractate Bava Batra, Reish Lakish says that Satan, the yetzer hara and the Angel of Death are all one, a position Maimonides endorses in the Guide for the Perplexed; Satan is identified with Samael and his deeds, although Samael is not identified with the angel of death in the Talmud, and in Talmud and midrash Samael's role as an agent of evil is relatively marginal, becoming prominent only from the fifth or sixth century onward. (secondary)

Sources

• The Accuser: the angel who accused Joshua the High Priest before God and who incited David to number Israel; Reish Lakish holds that Satan, the evil inclination and the Angel of Death are all one, a position Maimonides endorses.: Reference treatment of Satan in rabbinic Judaism: in the Torah the word satan indicates 'accuser', 'hinderer' or 'tempter'; he is the angel who accused Joshua the High Priest of misdeeds before God (Zechariah 3:1) and who instigated David to sin by taking a census of Israel (1 Chronicles 21:1); in Tractate Bava Batra, Reish Lakish says that Satan, the yetzer hara and the Angel of Death are all one, a position Maimonides endorses in the Guide for the Perplexed; Satan is identified with Samael and his deeds, although Samael is not identified with the angel of death in the Talmud, and in Talmud and midrash Samael's role as an agent of evil is relatively marginal, becoming prominent only from the fifth or sixth century onward. (secondary); Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra (Reish Lakish: Satan, the yetzer hara and the Angel of Death are one) (primary); Zechariah 3:1 (primary); 1 Chronicles 21:1 (primary)