Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

There is nothing in the Torah, or in the Talmud and Midrash, or Kabbala that would suggest that there is a supremely evil being that is determined to wage war against God. The noun “Satan” in the Tanakh simply means “adversary” or, “to oppose.” The Hebrew term appears in Numbers 22:22,32; 1 Samuel 29:4; 2 Samuel 19:22; 1 Kings 5:4; 11:14,23,25; Psalm 109:6, normally translated in English as adversary or accuser. In Job 1-2; Zechariah 3:2; and 1 Chronicles 21:1 the same term is translated as a proper name and designates the angel that acts as the “Public Prosecutor.”

The passage in 1 Chronicles 21:1 is based upon the parallel story in 2 Samuel 24:1, but it is God who entices David to count his people and not Satan! The Satanic angel who serves as Public Prosecutor is not an apostate nor is it some fallen being, an idea that is nowhere suggested in the Hebrew Bible. However, it is in the apocryphal books of the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls we find that Satan who is more commonly referred to as “Bliyal” (“the baseless one”), is portrayed as the “Adversary of God.”

Apocryphal literature later influenced the early Christian Bible. In the Book of John (16:11) for instance, Satan appears with a capital “S.” Matthew, Mark, and Luke clearly accept and teach a doctrine of a personal Satan and called the Satanic agents, “fallen angels” or “demons” (Mark 3:22). Sometimes referred to as Lucifer, Christian legends teach that Satan vaingloriously sought to overturn the regime in heaven and waged war against God’s loyalists. Defeated by the Archangel Michael, the angel who would be God was cast into his inferno, to brood in the darkness, “hatching vain empires.” Satan did not go unescorted, along with him went about a third of the heavenly host, a horde of fallen angels.

According to Christian doctrine, angels were created separately and were given free will, just as humans were. Their “fallenness” had to do with a denial and distortion of angelic life just as human fallenness has to do with the denial and distortion of goodness and truth. In contrast, normative Judaic faith teaches that only humanity was endowed with freedom of choices; angels are often described as “omdim” (beings who occupy a stationary position cf. Isaiah 6:2, Eze. 1:21-25, 10:3-6) while human beings are described as “mehalchim” (movers) for only human beings are capable of transcending their baser natures. Angels are often compared to animals (cf. Eze.1:5) because the character of angels is instinctive much like an animals’ instinct. Angels cannot help but be what God intended for them to be. Their being and personality are defined by their nature.

This may also explain why they are sometimes referred to as seraphim (“fiery ones”) as in Isaiah 6:2, because it is the nature of fire to ascend and so it is the angelic nature to also “ascend” to God much in the same manner. Other times angels are called, “hayoth” (= “animals”) as in Eze 1:5, 13, 32.

For poets like Milton, Satan is the archetypal antihero, the rebel who wages eternal guerrilla warfare against his Creator. One famous passage, contains the psychological animus that motivates Satan’s behavior: “ Better to reign is worth ambition though in hell: Better to reign in hell than serve in heav’n . . .”

Maimonides and rabbinic tradition took a much more sober view of Satan. Frequently Maimonides in his “Guide to the Perplexed” argues that Satan is only a metaphor for the evil inclination (Yetzser Hara) and is not a supernatural being. This has some basis in the Talmud (Cf. Bava Batra 16a) but many of the Talmudic rabbis did regard Satan as a supernatural being who serves God by testing humanity’s moral character. Rabbinic tradition even says that Satan’s intent is to serve Heaven, not itself! R. Levi said, “Both Satan and Peninah both acted with pious intent.”[1]

Portraits of Satan differ throughout much of the medieval period, well into the 18th and 19th centuries. Indeed, to some of the Hassidic masters, Satan’s work ethic even provides lessons in piety. According to Hassidic tradition, Satan is never lazy in carrying out his responsibilities; Satan is always out there testing our moral resolve –even when we are performing good deeds!

Here is a Hassidic anecdote to illustrate: Once Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (18th century) was once asked to lead the congregation in prayer on Simchat Torah. As he ascends the pulpit of the synagogue, but the saintly rabbi stands in silence for a moment, as though his mind his transfixed on a different reality. He then returns to his seat without reciting a word. His father-in-law wanted to know the reason for such an action: Levi Yitzchak explained. “When I was ready to begin my prayers, I suddenly felt the Evil Impulse, the Satan, wished to recite them with me. Therefore I asked him: ‘Who are you to dare recite these important prayers before the whole congregation?” ‘And who are you?’ was his reply. I replied, ‘I am a man learned in the Torah,’ But Satan replied, ” So am I, and when you studied, I kept you company,’ But I am also a Hasid of the Mezeritzcher Maggid,’ I rejoined. ‘So am I; I kept you company then as well,’ he said. ‘Since this is so,’ I replied, ‘if you are both a ‘scholar’ and a ‘Hasid,’ go and say the prayers yourself.’ And so, I descended from the Bimah.”

The Sufis, the mystics of Islam, imagined that the pride of Iblis (deriving from the Greek διάβολος or diábolos) may have been motivated by its devotion to God. According to one account, when he was asked to bow before Adam, God’s newest and best-beloved creation, Iblis refused. “There is only one God,” he declared, “and I will make obeisance only to Him.”

Satan was at once a hard-bitten realist and a philosophical cynic, raising question about the nature and root of man’s hubris and his hypocritical claim of “piety,” much as we see in the opening chapters of Job. . In the explanation offered in the Book of Job, Satan is depicted not as a devil but as one of the principal angels of God!

In the prophetic literature, Isaiah proclaims that God is equally the Creator of good and evil. “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things” (Isa 45:7). Perhaps one of the clearest explanations I have encountered regarding the purpose of Satan, actually comes from Goethe’s famous work, Faust, where he writes: “Of all the spirits of negation The rogue is least of burdens to be borne. Man’s efforts sink below his proper level, And since he seeks for unconditioned ease, I send this fellow, who must goad and tease and to serve creation, through a devil . . .”

Rabbinic tradition also anticipated this thought: “R. Aha said: When the righteous wish to dwell in tranquility in this world, Satan comes and accuses of being lazy, “The ‘righteous’ are not merely content with what is in store for them in the World of Eternity, but they wish to enjoy a life of ease in the temporal world too?!” [2] From this perspective, when humans get lazy with their spiritual or moral development, Satan is there (so to speak) to help prod us along the spiritual path we need to embark upon. In Jungian terms, Jacob’s individuation requires that he and his sons undergo a radical transformation to heal the sibling rivalry that has plagued their family since the beginning of Jacob’s marital life. We grow through adversity, and should we survive life’s ordeals, we become better people-despite our past mistakes.

Evil thus serves a spiritual purpose and can only be transcended provided we learn how to recognize and subdue our darker nature by not lettting it control or micromanage our ethical or spiritual lives. Mature spirituality requires that we serve God not because of the praises or respect we yearn to receive from our community or ego, but because “virtue is always its own best reward” (Philo of Alexandria).

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Notes:

[1] BT Bava Bathra 16a.

[2] Gen Rabbah 84:3.