Samael- Hebrew/Jewish AngelAngel"Angel of Death"

The Fall

Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer describes Samael as the great prince in heaven, leader of the seraphim, endowed with twelve wings where ordinary seraphim have six. When God created Adam in the divine image and commanded the angels to honor this creature of dust, Samael refused. A being formed from earth, exalted above beings formed from fire. He could not accept it.

His jealousy drove him into Eden. The Midrash and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan say Samael rode the serpent, or possessed it, or spoke through it. The intelligence behind the temptation in Genesis 3 was not the snake's. It was angelic. The Zohar names Samael as consort of Lilith after the Fall; together they rule the sitra achra, the "other side," the dark mirror of the divine order.

The Sword

Samael is the malakh ha-mavet, the angel of death. He appears at the moment of dying covered entirely in eyes, with six wings spread wide and a sword drawn. At the tip of the sword hangs a single drop of bitter gall. When the dying person opens their mouth at the sight of him, the drop falls in. That is death.

But some escape. The Talmud in Shabbat 30b tells that King David knew he would die on Shabbat, so he studied Torah without stopping, because the angel of death cannot touch one engrossed in God's word. Samael sat at the foot of the stairs and waited. He shook a tree to make a noise. David paused. Death seized him. On Yom Kippur the angel of death has no authority at all, and the supremely righteous die not by his sword but by the kiss of God.

Samael and Moses

When the time came for Moses to die, God sent Samael. Moses refused to yield. He had ascended to heaven to receive the Torah. He had spoken with God face to face. He would not submit to the angel of death.

Samael came with his sword drawn. Moses overwhelmed him with the divine Name inscribed on his staff, beat him, and drove him away. Samael returned to God and said he could not fulfill his mission. In the end, as Devarim Rabbah records, God descended and took Moses' soul with a kiss, the mitah bi-neshikah, the death reserved for the supremely righteous. The angel of death had to stand and watch.

The Akedah

Samael came before God and accused Abraham: "This old man, You gave him a son at a hundred, and of his entire feast he did not sacrifice a single dove or pigeon to You." God answered by commanding the sacrifice of Isaac.

Then Samael tried to stop the very sacrifice he had provoked. He appeared to Abraham on the road as an old man: "Where are you going? Do you not know God will demand your son?" Abraham kept walking. Samael turned to Isaac: "Your foolish father leads you to slaughter." Isaac held firm. Samael conjured a river across their path. Abraham waded in up to his neck and cried out to God. The waters receded.

The Talmud in Sanhedrin 89b identifies the rescuing angel as Michael. Samael provoked the test. Michael ended it.

Prince of Esau

When Jacob wrestled a mysterious figure at the ford of Jabbok through the night, Bereshit Rabbah and the Zohar identify the opponent as Samael, Esau's guardian angel, fighting to prevent Jacob from becoming Israel. Jacob prevailed but Samael struck his hip, and he limped ever after.

In Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer, Samael is Esau's heavenly patron from before birth. Michael stands for Israel. Samael stands for Edom. When the rabbis identified Edom with Rome, the two angels' warfare gained the shape of every exile and persecution Israel endured.

On Yom Kippur, two goats were brought before the high priest. One was offered to God. The other was sent to Azazel in the wilderness, and Azazel, in some traditions recorded in Yoma 67b, is Samael. When the scapegoat reached him bearing Israel's sins, the accuser became the advocate, testifying that Israel was clean.

The End of Venom

At the end of days, Samael will be defeated. Isaiah declares: "He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces." The sword dripping with gall will be shattered. The eyes that watched for human sin will close.

But some traditions imagine something else. Not destruction but purification. The venom will be removed from his name, leaving only the el, the God-element buried inside it. The adversary will cease to be adverse. Death will swallow death.