Jewish folklore?

Question

Any info on the angel Lailah would be greatly appreciated. The person who give the most information gets best answer!!! Also any information on how she parallels Lilith would also be great.

Answer 1

Lailah Angel of Conception.

http://www.jbooks.com/interviews/index/I... You Were Born retells the Jewish myth of Lailah, the angel of conception. According to this midrash, there is an angel, Lailah, who brings the soul and the seed together and then sees to it that the seed is planted in the womb. In doing so, Lailah serves as a midwife of souls. While the infant grows in the womb, Lailah places a lighted candle at the head of the unborn infant, so he or she can see from one end of the world to the other. So too does the angel teach the unborn child the entire Torah, as well as the history of his or her soul

http://www.jbooks.com/interviews/index/I...

LAILAH

http://www.drstandley.com/angels_lailah....



LAILAH/ ANGEL OF NIGHT/  ( FEMALE/ MALE)

Lailah: Jewish Angel of Night, 2004/09/14 11:26

Lailah, the Angel of Night, is commonly lately regarded in Jewish legend as male [Niddah 16b; Sanhedrin 96a], but the name is feminine & patently a name of Lilith, or equivalent to the Greek Goddess Nyx. (As a male angel the name would be Leliel, but several midrashim nevertheless incurably identify "him" as relatively having the female name some time accompanied a la

Samael by his bride Lilith. In any case, though he or she's an Angel of Darkness, with demonic propensities, this isnt a fallen angel, but is between the heavenly collectively hosts).

http://www.thefutureteller.com/forums/wi...

IN KABBALA

   Rabbinic and kabbalistic texts speculate that the origin of souls is somewhere in

heaven. This myth provides the heavenly origin of souls, and in itself fuses many traditions.

First, it develops themes based on the biblical account of the Garden of Eden. It

also builds on the tradition that just as there is an earthly Garden of Eden, so is there a

heavenly one, as expressed in the principle, “as above, so below.” Just as there is a Tree

of Life in the earthly garden, so there is a Tree of Life in the heavenly one.

Had Adam and Eve tasted the fruit of the earthly Tree of Life, they would have been

immortal. But once they had tasted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, immortality was

closed to them. Therefore He drove the man out, and stationed east of the garden of Eden the

cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the Tree of Life (Gen. 3:24).

   As for the Tree of Life in Paradise, its blossoms are souls. It produces new souls,

which ripen, and then fall from the tree into the Guf, the Treasury of Souls in Paradise.

There the soul is stored until the angel Gabriel reaches into the treasury and takes out

the first soul that comes into his hand. After that, Lailah, the Angel of Conception,

guards over the embryo until it is born. Thus the Tree of Life in Paradise is a Tree of

Souls. See “The Treasury of Souls,” p. 166. For an alternate myth about the origin of

souls, see “The Creation of Souls,” p. 163. For the myth of the formation of the embryo

see “The Angel of Conception,” p. 201.

http://www.umsl.edu/~schwartzh/samplemyt...

Lilleth Lillah Poems

//www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/2938/li...

[edit] "Angel (Malakh) Laila"

[edit] As told by Howard Schwartz...

The Angel Laila can be simply described by children's book author Howard Schwartz as:

"there is an angel, Lailah, who brings the soul and the seed together and then sees to it that the seed is planted in the womb. In doing so, Lailah serves as a midwife of souls. While the infant grows in the womb, Lailah places a lighted candle at the head of the unborn infant, so he or she can see from one end of the world to the other. So too does the angel teach the unborn child the entire Torah, as well as the history of his or her soul. Then, when the time comes for the child to be born, the angel extinguishes the light in the womb and brings forth the child into the world. And the instant the child emerges, the angel lightly strikes its finger to the child’s lip, as if to say “Shh,” and this causes the child to forget everything learned in the womb. Still, the story implies, that knowledge is present, merely forgotten, much like the Jungian concept of the collective unconscious." "This myth also explains the origin of the mysterious indentation every person has on their upper lip. The myth goes on to say that Lailah watches over the child all of his days, serving as a guardian angel. And when the time comes for a person to take leave of this world, Lailah leads him from this world to the next."

This text is from the book Before You Were Born. Schwartz, Howard. Illus. by Kristina Swarner. Brookfield, CT: Roaring Brook Press, 2005. 32 pp. [1]

[edit] As told by Louis Ginzberg

The story of Lailah is also told by Louis Ginzberg in Legends of the Jews. [2] ."

[edit] As interpreted from Midrash Tanhumah

Angel Lailah is more than a folk tale. The story of Lailah comes straight out of Midrash Tanhuma. One English translation can be found here [3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malakh

Answer 2

The angel of conception,she brings together the seed and the soul . While in the womb she teaches the baby about his heritage but at birth she places her finger over the lips and the child forgets the divot over the upper lip remains. She also guides the person after death.