Samael

Samael, 'the venom of God', is the great adversarial angel of rabbinic and Kabbalistic myth. In the midrash he is the accuser who prosecutes Israel and humankind before the heavenly court, the tempter, and the angel of death; it is he who, mounted upon the serpent, seduced Eve and brought mortality into the world, and who wrestled Jacob and contended with Moses. The Zohar and later Kabbalah elevate him to prince of the sitra achra, the demonic 'other side', where he rules together with Lilith as the shadow counterpart of the holy union. Sources differ on whether Samael is a fallen but still commissioned servant of God or an unequivocally evil power.

Domains

• death
• temptation

Powers

• accuses Israel before the heavenly court
• rides the primordial serpent

Epithets

• רֹאשׁ הַשָּׂטָנִים — chief of the satansLouis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, vol. 1 (1909), p. 124 (secondary)
• שַׂר שֶׁל אֱדוֹם — prince of EdomGershom Scholem, Kabbalah (1974), p. 385 (secondary)

Relations

• lover: LilithSamael and Lilith reign together over the sitra achra as a demonic counterpart to the divine couple.Zohar 1:148a (Sitrei Torah) (primary); Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah (1974), pp. 356-361 (secondary)
• lover: NaamahNaamah is counted among the mates of Samael, one of the four queens of the demons.Bahya ben Asher, commentary on Genesis 4:22 (secondary)
• lover: Agrat bat MahlatAgrat bat Mahlat is numbered among Samael's demon consorts.Bahya ben Asher, commentary on Genesis 4:22 (secondary)

Sources

• Samael is the venom-named archangel who serves as accuser, tempter and angel of death, who rode the serpent to bring about the fall, and who in the Kabbalah heads the demonic 'other side' as consort of Lilith.: Exodus Rabbah 18:5; 21:7 (secondary); Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 13 (secondary); Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah (Keter, 1974), pp. 385-388 (secondary); Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 232-236 (secondary)