(25) Can you draw out Leviathan by a fishhook? Can you press down his tongue by a rope? (26) Can you put a ring through his nose, Or pierce his jaw with a barb?

(7) His protective scales are his pride, Locked with a binding seal. (8) One scale touches the other; Not even a breath can enter between them. (9) Each clings to each; They are interlocked so they cannot be parted. (10) His sneezings flash lightning, And his eyes are like the glimmerings of dawn. (11) Firebrands stream from his mouth; Fiery sparks escape. (12) Out of his nostrils comes smoke As from a steaming, boiling cauldron. (13) His breath ignites coals; Flames blaze from his mouth. (14) Strength resides in his neck; Power leaps before him. (15) The layers of his flesh stick together; He is as though cast hard; he does not totter. (16) His heart is cast hard as a stone, Hard as the nether millstone. (17) Divine beings are in dread as he rears up; As he crashes down, they cringe. (18) No sword that overtakes him can prevail, Nor spear, nor missile, nor lance.

(25) There is the sea, vast and wide, with its creatures beyond number, living things, small and great. (26) There go the ships, and Leviathan that You formed to sport with.

(7) On the fifth day He brought forth from the water the Leviathan, the flying serpent, and its dwelling is in the lowest waters; and between its fins rests the middle bar of the earth. All the great sea monsters in the sea are the food for the Leviathan. Every day it opens its mouth, and the great sea monster destined to be eaten that day (tries) to escape and flee, but it enters the mouth of the Leviathan; and the Holy One, blessed be He, plays with it, as it is said, "This is the Leviathan, whom thou hast created to play with him" (Ps. 104:26).

(15) Take now behemoth, whom I made as I did you; He eats grass, like the cattle. (16) His strength is in his loins, His might in the muscles of his belly. (17) He makes his tail stand up like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are knit together. (18) His bones are like tubes of bronze, His limbs like iron rods. (19) He is the first of God’s works; Only his Maker can draw the sword against him.

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: Once we were traveling in a ship and we saw a certain bird that was standing with water up to its ankles [kartzuleih] and its head was in the sky. And we said to ourselves that there is no deep water here, and we wanted to go down to cool ourselves off. And a Divine Voice emerged and said to us: Do not go down here, as the ax of a carpenter fell into it seven years ago and it has still not reached the bottom. And this is not because the water is so large and deep. Rather, it is because the water is turbulent. Rav Ashi said: And that bird is called ziz sadai, wild beast, as it is written: “I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the ziz sadai is Mine” (Psalms 50:11).

(9)Awake, awake, clothe yourself with splendor.O arm of the ETERNAL One! Awake as in days of old,As in former ages!It was you that hacked Rahab in pieces, That pierced the Dragon.

(12) By His power He stilled the sea; By His skill He struck down Rahab.

(11) You crushed Rahab; he was like a corpse; with Your powerful arm You scattered Your enemies.

And Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: At the time when the Holy One, Blessed be He, sought to create the world, He said to the minister of the sea: Open your mouth and swallow all the waters of the world, so that there will be room for land. The minister of the sea said before Him: Master of the Universe, it is enough that I will stay within my own waters. God immediately struck him and killed him; as it is stated: “He stirs up the sea with His power, and by His understanding He smites through Rahab” (Job 26:12). Rabbi Yitzḥak said: Conclude from here that the name of the minister of the sea is Rahab, and were it not for waters of the sea that cover him, no creature could withstand his smell, as his corpse emits a terrible stench. As it is stated: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). Do not read this phrase as “cover the sea”; rather read it as: Cover the minister of the sea, i.e., the term sea is referring to the minister of the sea, not to the sea itself.

(1) When humankind began to increase on earth and daughters were born to them, (2) the [males among the] divine beings saw how pleasing the human women were and took wives from among those who delighted them.— (3)יהוה said, “My breath shall not abide in humankind forever, since it too is flesh; let the days allowed them be one hundred and twenty years.”— (4) It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth—when divine beings cohabited with the human women, who bore them offspring. Such were the heroes of old, the men of renown.

(26) owing to the fornication wherein the Watchers against the law of their ordinances went a whoring after the daughters of men, and took themselves wives of all which they chose: and they made the beginning of uncleanness.

(27) And they begat sons the Nâphîlîm, and they were all unlike, and they devoured one another: and the Giants slew the Nâphîl, and the Nâphîl slew the Eljô, and the Eljô mankind, and one man another.

(7) and that they may offer their sacrifices no more to the goat-demons after whom they stray. This shall be to them a law for all time, throughout the ages.

UNTO THE SATYRS. Se’irim (satyrs) are the demons. They are so called because the body of one who sees them “storms.” However, it appears that they are so called because the insane see them in the form of goats (se’irim). The word “more” teaches that the Israelites did so in Egypt.

(21)But beasts shall lie down there, And the houses be filled with owls;There shall ostriches make their home,And there shall satyrs dance.

(14)Wildcats shall meet hyenas, Goat-demons shall greet each other;There too the lilith shall repose And find herself a resting place.

§ Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: In the case of a woman who discharges a fetus that has the form of a lilith, a female demon with wings and a human face, its mother is impure with the impurity of a woman after childbirth, as it is a viable offspring, only it has wings. This is also taught in a baraita: Rabbi Yosei said: An incident occurred in Simoni involving a certain woman who discharged a fetus that had the form of a lilith, and the incident was brought before the Sages; and they said that it is a viable offspring, only it has wings.

In a similar vein, Rabbi Ḥanina said: It is prohibited to sleep alone in a house, and anyone who sleeps alone in a house will be seized by the evil spirit Lilith.

§ The Gemara returns to discussing the heavenly beings. The Sages taught: Six statements were said with regard to demons: In three ways they are like ministering angels, and in three ways they are like humans. The baraita specifies: In three ways they are like ministering angels: They have wings like ministering angels; and they fly from one end of the world to the other like ministering angels; and they know what will be in the future like ministering angels.The Gemara is puzzled by this last statement: Should it enter your mind that they know this? Not even the angels are privy to the future. Rather, they hear from behind the curtain when God reveals something of the future, like ministering angels.And in three ways they are similar to humans: They eat and drink like humans; they multiply like humans; and they die like humans.

Rabbi Yoḥanan says: There were three hundred types of demons in a place named Shiḥin, but I do not know what the form or nature of a demon itself is.

Rav Yosef said: Yosef the Demon said to me: Ashmedai, the king of the demons, is appointed over all who perform actions in pairs, and a king is not called a harmful spirit. A king would not cause harm. Consequently, there is no reason to fear the harm of demons for having performed an action in pairs. Some say this statement in this manner: On the contrary, he is an angry king who does what he wants, as the halakha is that a king may breach the fence of an individual in order to form a path for himself, and none may protest his action. Similarly, the king of demons has full license to harm people who perform actions in pairs. Rav Pappa said: Yosef the Demon said to me: If one drinks two cups, we demons kill him; if he drinks four, we do not kill him. But this person who drank four, we harm him. There is another difference between two and four: With regard to one who drinks two, whether he did so unwittingly or intentionally, we harm him. With regard to one who drinks four, if he does so intentionally, yes, he is harmed; if he does so unwittingly, no, he will not be harmed. The Gemara asks: And if one forgets and it happens that he goes outside after having drunk an even number of cups, what is his solution? The Gemara answers: He should take his right thumb in his left hand, and his left thumb in his right hand, and say as follows: You, my thumbs, and I are three, which is not a pair. And if he hears a voice that says: You and I are four, which makes a pair, he should say to it: You and I are five. And if he hears it say: You and I are six, he should say to it: You and I are seven. The Gemara relates that there was an incident in which someone kept counting after the demon until he reached a hundred and one, and the demon burst in anger.

Because fear of demons in bathrooms was pervasive, the Gemara relates: Abaye’s mother raised a lamb to accompany him to the bathroom. The Gemara objects: She should have raised a goat for him. The Gemara responds: A goat could be interchanged with a goat-demon. Since both the demon and the goat are called sa’ir, they were afraid to bring a goat to a place frequented by demons.

To be saved from the demon of the bathroom, let him recite as follows: On the head of a lion and on the nose of a lioness we found the demon named bar Shirika Panda. With a bed of leeks I felled him, and with the jaw of the donkey I struck him.

And Rabbi Yitzḥak said: Anyone who recites Shema upon his bed, demons stay away from him. This is alluded to, as it is stated: “But man is born into trouble, and the sparks [reshef ] fly [uf ] upward” (Job 5:7). The verse is explained: The word fly [uf ] means nothing other than Torah, as Torah is difficult to grasp and easy to lose, like something that floats away, as it is stated: “Will you set your eyes upon it? It is gone; for riches certainly make themselves wings, like an eagle that flies into the heavens” (Proverbs 23:5). The word “sparks” means nothing other than demons, as it is stated: “Wasting of hunger, and the devouring of the sparks [reshef] and bitter destruction [ketev meriri], and the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, with the venom of crawling things of the dust” (Deuteronomy 32:24). Here we see reshef listed along with ketev meriri, both of which are understood by the Sages to be names of demons.

In another baraitait was taught that Abba Binyamin says: If the eye was given permission to see, no creature would be able to withstand the abundance and ubiquity of the demons and continue to live unaffected by them. Similarly, Abaye said: They are more numerous than we are and they stand over us like mounds of earth surrounding a pit.Rav Huna said: Each and every one of us has a thousand demons to his left and ten thousand to his right. God protects man from these demons, as it says in the verse: “A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; they will not approach you” (Psalms 91:7). Summarizing the effects of the demons, Rava said:The crowding at the kalla, the gatherings for Torah study during Elul and Adar, is from the demons; those knees that are fatigued even though one did not exert himself is from the demons; those clothes of the Sages that wear out, despite the fact that they do not engage in physical labor, is from friction with the demons; those feet that are in pain is from the demons. One who seeks to know that the demons exist should place fine ashes around his bed, and in the morning the demons’ footprints appear like chickens’ footprints, in the ash. One who seeks to see them should take the afterbirth of a firstborn female black cat, born to a firstborn female black cat, burn it in the fire, grind it and place it in his eyes, and he will see them. He must then place the ashes in an iron tube sealed with an iron seal [gushpanka] lest the demons steal it from him, and then seal the opening so he will not be harmed. Rav Beivai bar Abaye performed this procedure, saw the demons, and was harmed. The Sages prayed for mercy on his behalf and he was healed.

(15) The leech has two daughters, “Give!” and “Give!”

(18) Make two cherubim of gold—make them of hammered work—at the two ends of the cover. (19) Make one cherub at one end and the other cherub at the other end; of one piece with the cover shall you make the cherubim at its two ends. (20) The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, shielding the cover with their wings. They shall confront each other, the faces of the cherubim being turned toward the cover. (21) Place the cover on top of the Ark, after depositing inside the Ark the Pact that I will give you. (22) There I will meet with you, and I will impart to you—from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on top of the Ark of the Pact—all that I will command you concerning the Israelite people.

(2) Seraphs stood in attendance, each with six wings—two covering the face, two covering the body, and two to fly with. (3)And one would call to the other,“Holy, holy, holy! GOD of Hosts— Whose presence fills all the earth!”(4) The doorposts would shake at the sound of the one who called, and the House kept filling with smoke. (5) I cried, “Woe is me; I am lost!For I am a man of impure lipsAnd I live among a peopleOf impure lips;Yet my own eyes have beheldThe Sovereign GOD of Hosts.” (6) Then one of the seraphs—who had taken a live coal from the altar with a pair of tongs—flew over to me,

Indeed, Rava created a man, a golem, using forces of sanctity. Ravasent his creation before Rabbi Zeira.Rabbi Zeirawould speak to him but he would not reply.Rabbi Zeirasaid to him: You were created by one of the members of the group, one of the Sages. Return to your dust.

Solomonsaid to the sages: How shall I make it so that the stone will be precisely cut without using iron? They said to him: There is a creature called a shamir that can cut the stones, which Moses brought and used to cut the stones of the ephod.

§ The mishna taught: From the time when the First Temple was destroyed the shamir ceased to exist. The Sages taught: This shamir is the creature with which Solomon built the Temple, as it is stated: “For the house, when it was built, was built of whole stone from the quarry” (I Kings 6:7). Now these words should be understood exactly as they are written, that King Solomon took whole stones and shaped them by having the shamir do the cutting. This is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda.

The Sages taught: This shamir, its size is that of a barleycorn, and it was created in the six days of creation, and nothing hard can withstand it. In what is it kept, so that it will not break everything in the vicinity? They wrap it in tufts [sefogin] of wool and place it in a leaden vessel [itenei], full of barley bran, which is soft and will not be broken by the shamir.

(1) Hakdama 3 - Regarding Reincarnation, Yibbum, and Ibur. I saw fit to widen out this explanation of reincarnation, yibbum, and Ibur. Here, regarding Ibur, this [happens] during the life of a person (as explained in Hakdama 2). I wanted to say, that sometimes a person will merit through some mitzvah, and this makes a rectification. And through this rectification, he receives another Nefesh from an ancient Tzaddik (which already departed from the world). This Tzaddik [has a similarity to him in that he also] did the same mitzvah, and when the person does the mitzvah, the Nefesh of the Tzaddik enters into him (like a pregnancy or an additional soul added onto him). Not only this [that this happens from a Nefesh of a Tzaddik that already departed from this world], but it is also possible that this happens when the Tzaddik himself is alive and found with him within this person's lifetime. If this happens (that an Ibur of the Tzaddik happens when he is alive), the Ibur [of a spark of the Tzaddik's Nefesh] enters into him for the reasons we explained. So when this person does this mitzvah or mitzvot which are relevant to the Tzaddik that is with him in his lifetime, a spark of the Tzaddik's Nefesh enters into him, even though they are both alive at the same time. And this is the secret of the passuk, "Dovid's Nefesh connected to Yonoton." Even though the two of them were alive together, Dovid's Nefesh implanted (Ibur) into Yonoton. However, with regard to reincarnation ("Gilgul"), we need to widen out this concept a bit. Thus, we will begin the concept from Adam haRishon (another editor will fill in missing parts):