Sariel

6:44 AM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Sariel (Aramaic: זהריאל, Greek: ‘Ατριήλ, "Command of God" "God's command") is one of the archangels mainly from Judaic tradition. Other possible versions of his name are Suriel, Suriyel (in some Dead Sea Scrollstranslations), Seriel, Sauriel, Surya, Saraqael, Sarakiel, Suruel, Surufel and Sourial.
Suriel is sometimes identified with Metatron. In 1 Enoch, he is one of the Seven holy archangels who is "of eternity and trembling". In Kabbalistic lore, he is one of seven angels of the earth. Origen identified Suriel as one of seven angels who are primordial powers. In Gnosticism, Suriel is invoked for his protective powers. He is commemorated in the calendar of the Coptic Orthodox church on 27 Tubah.[citation needed]
Like Metatron, Suriel is a prince of presence and like Raphael, an angel of healing. He is also a benevolent angel of death (one of a few). Suriel was sent to retrieve the soul of Moses. It is said that Moses received all his knowledge from Suriel, (although Sariel is credited as "instructor of Moses" whom brought knowledges from God to Moses and escorted Moses and Israel people to Red Sea and acrossed it.)[citation needed]

In traditional texts[edit]

History[edit]

According to the Book of Enoch, Sariel, also called Saraqael (communicants of God) and Azrael (whom God helps, Help of "God"), was one of the leaders of angels who lusted after the daughters of men. They descended to the summit of Mount Hermon, in the days of Jared, to acquire wives and lead men astray.[1] Sariel specifically taught men about the course of the moon.[2] Knibbs' translation of the names of the Book of Enoch says it was Sariel who taught humans the "course of the moon" (the Lunar Calendar). His name is also listed as Arazyal and Asaradel in some 1 Enoch translations,[3] the name being a combination of sa'ar and 'God.' In the book of 2 Enoch he is usually listed as the fourth angel with the name of Samuil or Sariel.[3]
The book of War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness lists the name of Sariel (שריאל, Ministry of God, an alternate spelling of Sariel) along with Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel as names to write upon the shields of soldiers in a tower during maneuvers (1QM 9,15). It is used on the shields of the third Tower (1QM 9,16).[4]
The angel Suriyel is briefly mentioned in the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan as bearing Adam and Eve from the top of a high mountain to the Cave of Treasures.[5]
"… bring what he had brought, and give it to Adam. And they did so, one by one. 6 And God commanded Suriyel and Salathiel to bear up Adam and Eve, and bring them down from the top of the high mountain, and …" - Bible. O. T. Apocryphal books. English First Book of Adam and Eve.
In the Ladder of Jacob Sariel is dispatched by the Lord to Jacob to explain to him the meaning of the dream about the ladder.
In the Talmud he is said to have taught Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha hygiene.[citation needed] The name Juriel is described as "An angel of the divine face or presence." which is why Sariel might be considered a possible name forMetatron.
Beta Israel writings call him "Suriel the Trumpeter" and "Suriel, the Angel of Death".[citation needed]
The book of Liber Juratus by Honorius of Thebes, has a number of translation which lists Saryell as being "the names of the angells of the .8. monthe that is sayde marquesnan" and Saryel as "the names of the angells of the .10. monthe (Tammuz) that is sayde thebeth be these". In a different translation Sariell is "The names of the angels of the eighth month, which is called marquesnan heshvan" and Sariel as "The names of the angels of the tenth month, which is called Tevet". The month of Heshvan marquesnan would make Sariel's ruler Barfiell, or the month of Tevet would make the ruler Anael.[3]
In The Lesser Key of Solomon it lists the dukes Asteliel and Gediel as commanding Sariel by night. The book A dictionary of angels by Gustav Davidson and The complete book of devils and demons by Leonard Ashley list Sariel as a Fallen Angel.
The University of Michigan has a section devoted to Traditions of Magic in Late Antiquity, Protective Magic, Babylonian Demon Bowls. One clay bowl Seleucia-on-Tigris, 6th or 7th century lists Sariel twice:
"I wrote all of the curses upon a new bowl of clay and I sent back the curses of those who cursed Negray daughter of Denday to their masters until they release and bless in the name of Sariel the angel and Barakiel the angel and in the name of Sariel and Barakiel you release from the curses of those who curse Negray daughter of Denday as a man is freed from the house of bondage and from the house of weapons amen amen selah"

Samael , the Serpent angle

6:42 AM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Samael (Hebrew: סמאל‎) (Wrath of God) (also Sammael or Samil) is an important archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic lore, a figure who is accuser (devil), seducer and destroyer, and has been regarded as both good and evil. Rabbinical writings describe Samael as the guardian angel of Esau and a patron of Edom (or, the Roman empire).[1]
He is considered in Talmudic texts to be a member of the heavenly host (with often grim and destructive duties). One of Samael's greatest roles in Jewish lore is that of the main archangel of death. He remains one of YHWH's servants even though he wants men to do evil. As an angel, Samael resides in the seventh heaven, although he is declared to be the chief angel of the fifth heaven, the reason for this being the presence of the throne of glory in the fifth heaven.[2]

Judaism[edit]

In Judaism, Samael is said to be the angel of death, one of the seven archangels, the ruler over the Fifth Heaven, and commander of two million angels. Yalkut Shimoni (I, 110) presents Samael as Esau's guardian angel.[1]
According to The Ascension of Moses[3] Samael is also mentioned as being in 7th Heaven:
In the last heaven Moses saw two angels, each five hundred parasangs in height, forged out of chains of black fire and red fire, the angels Af, "Anger," and Hemah, "Wrath," whom God created at the beginning of the world, to execute His will. Moses was disquieted when he looked upon them, but Metatron embraced him, and said, "Moses, Moses, thou favorite of God, fear not, and be not terrified," and Moses became calm. There was another angel in the seventh heaven, different in appearance from all the others, and of frightful men. His height was so great, it would have taken five hundred years to cover a distance equal to it, and from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet he was studded with glaring eyes, at the sight of which the beholder fell prostrate in awe. "This one," said Metatron, addressing Moses, "is Samael, who takes the soul away from man." "Whither goes he now?" asked Moses, and Metatron replied, "To fetch the soul of Job the pious." Thereupon Moses prayed to God in these words, "O may it be Thy will, my God and the God of my fathers, not to let me fall into the hands of this angel."
In The Holy Kabbalah (Arthur Edward Waite, 255), Samael is described as the "wrath of God", and is listed as fifth of the archangels of the world of Briah. Also in the Kabbalah, Samael was said to be the Serpent who tempted Eve into sin. He even seduced and impregnated her with Cain. Samael then became the consort of Adam's first wife, Lilith, . He created with her a host of demon children, including a son, Sariel, the "Sword of Samael" [4] (orAsmodai).[5] God feared that Samael and Lilith would destroy the earth with their heinous progenies, thus he castrated the corrupt angel, and cursed him with the name Satan.[6]
Samael is sometimes confused in some books with Camael, an archangel of God, whose name is similar to words meaning "like God" (but Camael with a waw missing).
It is also said that the Baal Shem once summoned Samael, to make him do his bidding.[7]
In several interpretations of the Ascension of Isaiah, Samael is often identified as Malkira (Heb.: מלך רוע melek roa; lit. "king of evil" or "king of the wicked") or Belkira (prob. בעל קיר baal qir, "lord of the wall"), which are both epithets of the false prophet sent by Belial to accuse Isaiah of treason, notably the Ascension of Isaiah also identifies him as Satan.[2]

Demonology[edit]

According to some myths, Samael was mated with Eisheth Zenunim, Na'amah, Lilith and Agrat Bat Mahlat, all except Lilith being 'angels' of sacred prostitution.[8]
It should be noted, however, that this link is a dubious one and likely arises from a case of mistaken identity equating Samael with the demon Azazel whom is himself in Zoharistic lore a combination of the angels Azael andAza.[9]

Gnosticism[edit]

In the Apocryphon of John, found in the Nag Hammadi library, Samael is the third name of the demiurge, whose other names are Yaldabaoth and Saklas. In this context, Samael means "the blind god",[10] the theme of blindness running throughout gnostic works[citation needed]. His appearance is that of a lion-faced serpent.[11] In On the Origin of the World in the Nag Hammadi library texts, he is also referred to as Ariael, the Archangel of Principalities.

Anthroposophy[edit]

To anthroposophists, Samael is known as one of the seven archangels: Saint Gregory gives the seven archangels as Anael, Gabriel, Michael, Oriphiel, Raphael, Samael and Zachariel. They are all imagined to have a special assignment to act as a global zeitgeist ("time-spirit"), each for periods of about 360 years.[12] Since 1879, anthroposophists posit, Michael has been the leading time spirit. Four important archangels are also supposed to display periodic spiritual activity over the seasons: Raphael during the spring, Uriel during the summer, Michael during the autumn, and Gabriel during the winter.

Nisan (or Nissan)

12:42 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Nisan (or Nissan) (Hebrew: נִיסָן‎, Standard Nisan Tiberian Nîsān) on the Assyrian calendar is the first month and on the Hebrew calendar is the first month of the ecclesiastical year and the seventh month (eighth, in leap year) of the civil year. The name of the month is Babylonian; in the Torah it is called the month of the Aviv, referring to the month in which barley was ripe. Assyrians refer to the month as the "month of happiness." It is a spring month of 30 days. Nisan usually falls in March–April on the Gregorian calendar. In the Book of Esther in the Tanakh it is referred to as Nisan.

Holidays and observances

  • 1 Nisan - Kha b-Nisan - the first day of the Assyrian New Year
  • 14 Nisan – Fast of the Firstborn – on 12 Nisan when the 14th falls on Sabbath
  • 15-21 Nisan – Passover – also 22 Nisan outside of Israel
  • 26 Nisan - traditional yahrzeit of Joshua[1]
  • 27 Nisan – Yom HaShoah – on 26 Nisan or 28 Nisan when the 27th falls on Friday or Sunday respectively, interfering with Shabbat

In Jewish history

1 Nisan – (3761 BCE) – Creation of the Universe
  • The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 10b-11a) gives two opinions as to the date of God's creation of the universe. According to Rabbi Eliezer, "The world was created in Tishrei," that is the sixth day of creation, which is the day of which Adam and Eve were created, was the 1st of Tishrei, celebrated each year as Rosh Hashanah. According to Rabbi Joshua, "The world was created in Nisan."According to the Kabbalists and Chassidism, the world was first created in the "realm of thought" or in "embryonic state" in Tishrei, and came to the contemporary stable state of the "realm of action" in Nisan, possibly not until the time of the Exodus. Menachem Nachum Twersky of Chernobyl wrote that the pre-Exodus world was considered "nonexistent" due to its originally unstable chaotic state. The last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and some other Jewish mystics believed differently, that is, the physical world was created in Tishrei, while the "supernal idea" of creation had emerged earlier, in the month of Nisan.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson

10:55 AM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Lubavitcher Rebbe
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson2 crop.jpg
Menachem Mendel Schneerson at the Lag BaOmer parade in Brooklyn, 1987.
Synagogue770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY
Began10 Shevat 5711 / January 17, 1951
PredecessorYosef Yitzchok Schneersohn
Personal details
BornApril 5, 1902 OS (11 Nissan5662)[1]
Nikolaev, Kherson Governorate,Russian Empire (present-dayMykolaiv, Ukraine)
DiedJune 12, 1994 NS (3 Tammuz5754) (aged 92)[2]
Manhattan, New York, USA
BuriedQueens, New York, USA
DynastyChabad Lubavitch
ParentsLevi Yitzchak Schneerson
ChanaYanovski Schneerson
SpouseChaya Mushka Schneerson
SemichaRogatchover Gaon
Menachem Mendel Schneerson (April 5, 1902 – June 12, 1994), known to many as the Rebbe,[3][4] was an Orthodox rabbi, and the last Lubavitcher Rebbe. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.[5][6][7][8]
As leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he "took an insular Hasidic group that almost came to an end with the Holocaust and turned it into one of the most influential and controversial forces in world Jewry,"[9] with an international network of over 3000 educational and social centers.[10][11] The institutions he established include kindergartens, schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, care-homes for the disabled and synagogues.[12]
Schneerson's published teachings fill more than 300 volumes and he is noted for his contributions to Jewish continuity and religious thought,[13] as well as his wide-ranging contributions to traditional Torah scholarship.[14]He is recognized as the pioneer of Jewish outreach.[15][16]
In 1978, the U.S. Congress designated Schneerson's birthday as the national Education Day U.S.A.,[17] honoring his role in establishing the Department of Education as an independent cabinet-level department.[18] In 1994, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his "outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity."[19]

Life[edit]

1902–1923[edit]

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born on Friday, April 18, 1902, equivalent to 11 Nissan, 5662, in the town of Nikolaev.[20] His father was Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, a renowned Talmudic scholar and authority on Kabbalah and Jewish law.[21] His mother was Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson (nee Yanovski). He was named after the third Chabad rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, from whom he was descendent in direct paternal lineage.
In 1907, when Menachem Mendel was six years old, the Schneersons moved to Yekatrinislav (today, Dnepropetrovsk), where Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was appointed Chief Rabbi of the city. He served until 1939, when he was exiled by the Soviets to Uzbekistan.[22]Schneerson had two younger brothers, Dov Ber who was murdered in 1944 by Nazi collaborators and Yisrael Aryeh Leib, who died in 1952 while completing doctoral studies at Liverpool University.[20]
Schneerson who was described as a slim boy with blond hair,[23] was gifted with extraordinary intelligence and empathy.[24] During his youth, he received a private education and was tutored by Zalman Vilenkin from 1909 through 1913. When Schneerson was eleven years old, Vilenkin informed the boy's father that he had nothing more to teach his son.[25] At that point, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak began teaching his son Talmud and rabbinic literature, as well as Kabbalah. Schneerson proved gifted in both Talmudic and Kabalistic study and also took exams as an external student of the local Soviet school.[26] He was considered an Illui and genius, and by the time he was seventeen, he had mastered the entire Talmud, some 5,894 pages with all its early commentaries.[27]
Throughout his childhood Schneerson was involved in the affairs of his father's office. He was also said to have acted as an interpreter between the Jewish community and the Russian authorities on a number of occasions.[28] Levi Yitzchak's courage and principles were a guide to his son for the rest of his life. Many years later, when he once reminisced about his youth, Schneerson said "I have the education of the first-born son of the rabbi of Yekatrinoselav. When it comes to saving lives, I speak up whatever other may say."[29]
Schneerson went on to receive separate rabbinical ordinations from the Rogatchover Gaon, Rabbi Yosef Rosen,[30] and the Sridei Aish, Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg.[31]
770 Eastern Parkway
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1923–1941[edit]

In 1923 Schneerson for the first time visited the sixth Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, where he met the Rabbi's middle daughter Chaya Mushka (Mousia). Sometime later they became engaged, but were not married until 1928 in Warsaw, Poland.[32] Taking great pride in his son-in-law's outstanding knowledge, Yosef Yitzchok asked him to engage in learned conversation with the great Torah scholars that were present at the wedding, such as Rabbi Meir Shapiro and Rabbi Menachem Ziemba.[33] The marriage was long and happy (60 years), but childless.[24]
Menachem Mendel Schneerson and Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn are both descendants of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, known as the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Rebbe of Chabad Lubavitch.[34] Schneerson later commented that the day of his marriage bound the community to him and him to the community.[35]
After his wedding to Chaya Mushka, Schneerson and his wife moved to Berlin where he was assigned specific communal tasks by his father-in-law, who also requested that he write scholarly annotations to the responsa and various hasidic discourses of the earlier Rebbe’s of Chabad-Lubavitch. Schneerson studied mathematics, physics and philosophy at the University of Berlin.[36] He would later recall that he enjoyed Erwin Schrödinger’s lectures.[37] His father-in-law took great pride in his erudite son-in-law's scholarly attainments and paid for all the tuition expenses and helped facilitate his studies throughout.[38]
During his stay in Berlin, his father-in-law encouraged him to become more of a public figure, yet Schneerson described himself as an introvert,[39] and was known to plead with acquaintance not to make a fuss out of the fact that he was the son-in-law of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson.[40]
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