Lailah ( Heb. לַיְלָה, ''Laylāh'', meaning "Night") is an

angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

in some interpretations in the

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

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 Abrahamic culture in general. Christian mythology directly ...

, 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 languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...

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

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 Middle Aramaic , a loanword from , 'assembly,' 'sitting together,' hence ' assembly' or 'council') was a Jewish legislative and judicial assembly of either 23 or 70 elders, existing at both a local and central level i ...

'' 96a. This passage, relating to

Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

's night attack on the four kings led by

Chedorlaomer Chedorlaomer, also spelled Kedorlaomer (; ; ''Khodollogomor''), is a king of Elam mentioned in Genesis 14. Genesis portrays him as allied with three other kings, campaigning against five Canaanite city-states in response to an uprising in the day ...

, 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, labor (labour in Commonwealth English), occupation or job is the intentional activity people perform to support the needs and desires of themselves, other people, or organizations. In the context of economics, work can be seen as the huma ...

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

Niddah A niddah (alternative forms: nidda, nida, or nidah; ''nidá''), in traditional Judaism, is 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 ...

'' 16b, the interpretation of rabbi

Hanina ben Pappa Hanina ben Pappa () 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", "Hananiah", and "Ḥinena". ...

(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 a bodily fluid that contains spermatozoon, spermatozoa which is secreted by the male gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphrodite, hermaphroditic animals. In humans and placen ...

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 generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...

Midrash

Midrash Tanhuma Midrash Tanhuma (), also known as Yelammedenu, is the name given to a homiletic midrash on the entire Torah, and it is known in several different versions or collections. Tanhuma bar Abba is not the author of the text but instead is a figure to w ...

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 The ''Zohar'' (, ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material o ...

Chadash 68:3, again described as being in charge of conception and pregnancy.

Contemporary sources

The story of Lailah is mentioned by

Louis Ginzberg Louis Ginzberg (, ''Levy Gintzburg''; , ''Levy Ginzberg''; November 28, 1873 – November 11, 1953) was a Russian-born American rabbi and Talmudic scholar of Lithuanian-Jewish descent, contributing editor to numerous articles of '' The Jewis ...

in ''

Legends of the Jews The ''Legends of the Jews'' is a chronological compilation of aggadah from hundreds of biblical legends in Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash. The compilation consists of seven volumes (four volumes of narrative texts and two volumes of footnotes with ...

''. Folklorist

Howard Schwartz Howard Schwartz (born April 21, 1945) is an American 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 2005 National Jewish Book Award ...

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 binary oppositions. Polar Opposite o ...

Lilith Lilith (; ), also spelled Lilit, Lilitu, or Lilis, is a feminine figure in Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology, theorized to be the first wife of Adam and a primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having been "banished" from the Garden of Eden ...

, 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, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...

does not indicate actual

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

in Hebrew. Nevertheless, according to Elijah Ben Solomon, the "

Vilna Gaon Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, ( ''Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman''), also known as the Vilna Gaon ( ''Der Vilner Goen''; ; or Elijah of Vilna, or by his Hebrew acronym Gr"a ("Gaon Rabbenu Eliyahu": "Our great teacher Elijah"; Sialiec, April 23, 172 ...

" (1720–1797),

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

, halachist, and kabbalist, the Hebrew noun ''laylah'' (night) is feminine in its very essence, but has the unusual quality of

dualism Dualism most commonly refers to: * Mind–body dualism, a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, or that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another * P ...

that combines the

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...

with

masculine Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some beh ...

character. In the

, comparison is made between ''leyl'' (masculine noun) and ''layla'' (feminine noun) "night" is used in reference to

the Exodus The Exodus (Hebrew language, Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yəṣīʾat Mīṣrayīm'': ) is the Origin myth#Founding myth, founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four of the five books of the Torah, Pentateuch (specif ...

"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. While serving as professor of Biblical scholarship at th ...

, 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