Lailah ( Heb. לַיְלָה, ''Laylāh;'' Meaning: "Night") is an

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inclu ...

in some interpretations in the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

and in some later

Jewish mythology Jewish mythology is the body of myths associated with Judaism. Elements of Jewish mythology have had a profound influence on Christian mythology and on Islamic mythology, as well as on world culture in general. Christian mythology directly in ...

, associated with the night, as well as conception and pregnancy.

Etymology

"Lailah" is the same as the Hebrew word for "night" ''laylah'' ( לילה). The noun for "night" in the

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...

is derived from the tri-consonantal root: L- Y- L, also found in Arabic ''laylah'' "night" ( ar, ليلى).

An angel called "night"

Talmud

An angel named Lailah is not mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Sanhedrin The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Aramaic: סַנְהֶדְרִין; Greek: , ''synedrion'', 'sitting together,' hence ' assembly' or 'council') was an assembly of either 23 or 71 elders (known as "rabbis" after the destruction of the Second Temple), ...

'' 96a. This passage, relating to

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Je ...

's night attack on the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, reads: "And he divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and smote them". Rabbi Yochanan interprets this to mean that Abraham attacked with the help of an angel called "night". This interpretation is supported with reference to

Job Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...

3:3, which reads: "And night 'lailah''said: A male child is brought forth". In ''

Niddah Niddah (or nidah; he, נִדָּה), in traditional Judaism, describes a woman who has experienced a uterine discharge of blood (most commonly during menstruation), or a woman who has menstruated and not yet completed the associated requirem ...

'' 16b, the interpretation of rabbi

Hanina ben Pappa Hanina ben Pappa ( he, חנינה בר פפא) was a Jewish Talmudist living in the Land of Israel, halakhist, and aggadist who flourished in the 3rd and 4th centuries (third generation of amoraim). His name is variously written "Ḥanina", " ...

(3rd century AD) posits that Lailah is an angel in charge of conception who takes a drop of

semen Semen, also known as seminal fluid, is an organic bodily fluid created to contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize the female ovum. Sem ...

and places it before God: According to this exposition, the only thing God is not asked to decide is whether the child will be righteous or wicked, allowing it to have

free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to ac ...

Midrash

Midrash Tanhuma Midrash Tanhuma ( he, מִדְרָשׁ תַּנְחוּמָא) is the name given to three different collections of Pentateuch aggadot; two are extant, while the third is known only through citations. These midrashim, although bearing the name of ...

also details how Lailah is in charge of conception (לַמַּלְאָךְ הַמְּמֻנָּה עַל הַהֵרָיוֹן). As in ''Niddah'' 16b, God decrees everything about the unborn child's fate except whether it will be righteous or wicked, since this is a choice the individual has to make for themself. The angel is also mentioned in Zohar Chadash 68:3, again described as being in charge of conception and pregnancy.

Contemporary sources

The story of Lailah is mentioned by Louis Ginzberg in '' Legends of the Jews''. Folklorist

Howard Schwartz Howard Schwartz (born April 21, 1945, in St. Louis, Missouri) is a widely regarded folklorist, author, poet, and editor of dozens of books. He has won the international Koret Jewish Book Award, for the book ''Before You Were Born'', and won a 20 ...

has claimed that unlike most angels, Lailah exhibits "distinctly feminine characteristics". Schwartz suggests that Lailah is the

polar opposite A polar opposite is the diametrically opposite point of a circle or sphere. It is mathematically known as an antipodal point, or antipode when referring to the Earth. It is also an idiom often used to describe people and ideas that are opposites. ...

Lilith Lilith ( ; he, לִילִית, Līlīṯ) is a female figure in Mesopotamian and Judaic mythology, alternatively the first wife of Adam and supposedly the primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having been "banished" from the Garden of Ed ...

, who wastes seed, is not maternal, and is bent on destruction, not creation.

Rabbinical commentary on "night" itself

The word "night" appears hundreds of times in the Hebrew Bible and continues to be the subject of rabbinic discussion. The noun ''layla'' is a feminine noun in Hebrew, although

grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...

does not indicate actual

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...

in Hebrew. Nevertheless, according to Elijah Ben Solomon, the " Vilna Gaon" (1720–1797),

Talmudist The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the center ...

, halachist, and kabbalist, the Hebrew noun ''laylah'' (night) is feminine in its very essence, but has the unusual quality of dualism that combines the feminine with masculine character. In the Zohar, comparison is made between ''leyl'' (masculine noun) and ''layla'' (feminine noun) "night" is used in reference to

the Exodus The Exodus (Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yeẓi’at Miẓrayim'': ) is the founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four books of the Torah (or Pentateuch, corresponding to the first five books of the Bible), namely E ...

"to indicate the union which took place on that night between the Masculine and Feminine aspects in the Divine attributes." (Zohar, Shemoth, Section 2).Catherine Swietlicki - Spanish Christian Cabala: the works of

Luis de León Luis de León ( Belmonte, Cuenca, 1527 – Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Castile, Spain, 23 August 1591), was a Spanish lyric poet, Augustinian friar, theologian and academic, active during the Spanish Golden Age. Early life Luis de ...

, Santa Teresa ...1986 "For example, the Zohar says that sensual language must be used in order "to indicate the union which took place on that night between Masculine and Feminine aspects in the Divine attributes, and also the same union which will take place ."

References

{{Authority control Angels in Judaism Individual angels Female legendary creatures