Kabbala: Lilith as
God's Consort In this striking passage we see Lilith
becoming the consort of God! This resulting from God's
regular consort, the Matronit, being in exile. While they
are apart, the Matronit is abused by the left emanations
(bad guys) while Lilith takes her place at God's side. Keep
in mind here that 'God' in this context refers to one of
the emanations of God, not the absolute (Ein Sof). Of
course, it would be tempting to combine this with the
'Adam's first wife' streams of the tradition, leaving us
with a story in which Lilith is at first rejected by Adam
only to be elevated to be the mate of God himself. I
suspect, however, that these stories come from different
places and cannot be justifiably combined. Zohar 3:69a One
day the companions were walking with Rabbi Shim'on bar
Yohai. Rabbi Shim'on said: "We see that all these nations
have risen, and Israel is lower than all of
them.
Why is this? Because the King
[God] sent away the Matronit from Him, and took the slave
woman [Lilith] in her place.
Who is this slave woman? The
Alien Crown, whose firstborn the Holy One, blessed be He,
killed in Egypt. At first she sat behind the handmill, and
now this slave woman inherited the place of her mistress."
And Rabbi Shim'on wept and said: "The King without the
Matronit is not called king. The King who adhered to the
slave woman, to the handmaid of the Matronit, where is his
honor? He lost the Matronit and attached Himself to the
place which is called slave woman. This slave woman was
destined to rule over the Holy Land of below, as the
Matronit formerly ruled over it. But the Holy One, blessed
be He, will ultimately bring back the Matronit to her place
as before. And then, what will be the rejoicing? Say, the
rejoicing of the King and the rejoicing of the Matronit.
The rejoicing of the King because He will return to her and
separate from the slave woman, and the rejoicing of the
Matronit, because she will return to couple with the King.
(Patai81:468)