Which Lilith? »

Eve was not Adam's first wife. That honor belongs to Lilith, who was created as Adam's equal. When he tried to dominate her, she uttered God's secret name and flew away. Lilith is mentioned in the Talmud, elaborated on in the midrash and in the kabbalah, whispered about in stories, and passed down from mother to daughter. In this anthology, a vivid, provocative, and enlightening sampling of Jewish women's written responses to the Lilith myth are offered. The editors have provided the space for contemporary women to link themselves to a tradition and participate in a sacred activity, thereby infusing energy into Lilith and creating a new tradition.

Library Journal

In the language of cult and myth, Lilith comes down to us as "the demon of waste places who preys on males." She steals new babies from this life and provides the malevolent source of nocturnal emissions. In this eclectic mix of poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction, editors Dame (poet and lecturer, New Jersey Inst. of Technology), Henny Wenkart (editor, Jewish Women's Literary Annual), and Lilly Rivlin (writer and filmmaker) cogitate upon who and what Lilith is. This is not a scholarly work but a stab at "contemporary midrash" (a commentary on biblical text) that targets Jewish women's reflections because "Jewish women have a need to imagine Lilith." At times radical and challenging, at others simply pedestrian, it makes its contribution more in subject matter than content, for Lilith is definitely in need of further study. Recommended for women's and Jewish studies collections.--Sandra Collins, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Lib.