The Evil Angel: Why Did Hashem Create Satan?

Eliav Asks:

"Hello, as we know, we believe in the sovereignty of the Creator of the Universe, who is beyond material and time, rules over the universe, and judges all souls. How does this reconcile with the existence of a spiritual being called Satan? Is he also part of Hashem's creation in the world? Many people believe that Satan is a kind of spiritual being fighting or opposing, God forbid, the reign of the Creator. I want to understand who he is, what his role is, what his place is, and what is the explanation for what he does? Thank you very much."

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Hello Eliav, and thank you for your questions.

The Imaginary Satan of Christianity:

Misguided views spread about Satan's character were promoted by the Christian church, and I will explain the foundation of their error.

Christians were once Roman pagans who believed in various deities fighting for control of the world. Therefore, when Romans converted to Christianity and first embraced the Bible's faith, they distorted many beliefs within Judaism, presenting them in a distorted form. Thus, the imaginary red figure with a pitchfork emerged, which according to mistaken Christian belief is a "fallen and rebellious angel" operating independently from the kingdom of hell, while Hashem rules the kingdom of heaven. This is another example of the distortion in Christian belief, which never completely shed the pagan beliefs of their Roman ancestors. To this day, Christians attribute all suffering and disease to Satan, while all goodness and beauty in the world are attributed to Hashem. They essentially believe in two authorities fighting over human souls...

We do not have enough space here to list all the contradictions in this childish belief, but the greatest contradiction comes from the simple recognition of the Creator of the Universe, who is the cause of all causes, fills all of reality, and sustains it by His will, including all dominions and angels within it, so that not even a mosquito could exist and move without His decision to maintain it, how much more so a person or an angel: "If a man hides in secret places so that I do not see him, declares Hashem, do I not fill heaven and earth? " (Jeremiah 23:24). Hashem alone controls all the forces in creation and judges them: "Hashem your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is impartial and accepts no bribes, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow" (Deuteronomy 10:17),

"I Hashem search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to what their deeds deserve" (Jeremiah 17:10),

and no one else rules over reward and punishment in the afterlife: "Hashem kills and brings to life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up" (1 Samuel 2:6), countless verses are said in this way in the Bible.

Additionally, it is clearly understood that Hashem is responsible for all that occurs in the world, even what appears and feels to us as evil: "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction" (Deuteronomy 30:15),

"Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Hashem your God disciplines you" (Deuteronomy 8:5),

"I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I Hashem do all these things" (Isaiah 45:7).

Therefore, the primary tenet of Jewish faith is: "Hashem is Creator and Ruler over all creations, and He alone has made and does and will do all things".

From this, there is no place for a childish Christian belief in Satan within Judaism.

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Satan in the Sources

The word "angel" in Biblical language means messenger: "Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way" (Exodus 23:20). All angels were created by Hashem as His messengers, carrying out His will in the world: "He makes His angels spirits, His servants flames of fire" (Psalm 104:4).

The need for angels arises because Hashem is too awesome and wonderful for creatures to withstand His presence and survive ("You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live" - Exodus 33:20), hence angels were created as intermediaries and holy forces in the world acting by the power of Hashem to perform His deeds. Except for Moses, all prophets communicated with Hashem through angels (Abarbanel on Exodus 19:1-2).

Judaism teaches us that Satan is another angel in Hashem's realm. However, the very word "Satan" in the prophets is a general name for any entity sent to harm, even a disease or a wicked person:

"But now Hashem my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary and no misfortune" (1 Kings 5:18),

"Hashem raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom" (1 Kings 11:14),

The Book of Job is the first source in the Bible that describes an angel known as "Satan," tasked with testing humans with harsh trials; but of course, Satan is not described there as an autonomous being, God forbid, but as another angel of Hashem. Hashem thus commanded Satan concerning Job: "And Hashem said to Satan, 'Behold, all that he has is in your hand; only do not lay a hand on him.'" (Job 1:12).

Satan is the angel appointed over trials and severe tests, and like all angels, he acts by the power of Hashem who controls him and instructs him. Because he is a messenger to harm the world, he is called "Satan" based on his role.

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Even the evil inclination in our hearts is a Satan trying to lead us into transgressions, as Hashem described to Cain: "If you do well, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must rule over it" (Genesis 4:7), a moral lesson given to us all.

Our Sages clarified that Satan has many names based on his many roles in our world, and they said of him: "He is Satan, he is the evil inclination, he is the Angel of Death" (Baba Batra 16a).

From this, we can understand that Satan has no defined form or place, as it describes Hashem's way of punishing sinners with purifying afflictions to bring them back to righteousness and atone for sins. Think of Satan as the surgeon's scalpel!

Our Sages said (Pesachim 50a): "This world is not like the world to come: In this world, on good news one says 'Blessed is He who is good and does good,' and on bad news 'Blessed is the True Judge.' In the world to come all will say, 'He who is good and does good.'"

It is crucial to understand that the evil inclination is a messenger intended to serve Divine goodness and lead to it, and hence not all of its roles are harmful. So said our Sages:

"Were it not for the evil inclination, a person would not build a house, marry a wife, beget children, or engage in business" (Genesis Rabbah 9:7). The Torah does not require us to renounce this world and extinguish the evil inclination within us, but teaches us to serve Hashem "with all your heart - with both your good and evil inclinations" (Berakhot 9:5).

That means the role of Satan is necessary and beneficial to ultimately benefit creation, with the power to use it for good or ill resting in our hands!

Even when Satan is sent to test us with sins, it is done to increase our reward in the afterlife. The Zohar (Part II, 163a) describes a parable about a king who wanted to test his son, so he hired a woman to try to entice him to sin. When the son passed the test, he received great honor and wealth from the king. In the allegory, this woman is Satan sent by Hashem to test us to increase our reward in the afterlife.

The primary place of Satan is in the hearts of humans, and from this, we control him as the Torah says: "sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must rule over it" (Genesis 4:7), and our Sages said: "The wicked are ruled by their hearts; the righteous have their hearts in control" (Genesis Rabbah 34:10).

Only after transgressions have been committed does Satan take on a tangible form of various afflictions designed to atone for the sins committed.

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The Satan We Send to Punish Us:

Satan's role is not only to cause sin but also to punish those who fall into his trap. The sages said that the evil inclination descends and tempts, afterward ascends and accuses, then also descends to punish: "He is Satan, he is the evil inclination, he is the Angel of Death. He descends and entices (the person to sin), ascends (to heaven) and provokes (urges punishment for the sinner), seeks permission (to kill the sinner), and takes the soul" (Baba Batra 16a).

The Vilna Gaon wrote: "Initially, he descends and misleads, finally ascends and accuses and descends with him to Gehennom and takes revenge" ('Aderet Eliyahu' on Deuteronomy 7:15).

There is profound insight in this concept, revealing an important foundation about the suffering in this world and the world to come.

Our Sages said that the mitzvot we perform and the transgressions we commit return to us as merits or punishments that come upon us measure for measure. So they said: "One who performs a single mitzvah gains an advocate (defense attorney), and one who commits a single transgression gains a prosecutor" (Pirkei Avot 4:11), "The wicked are controlled by their evil inclination, the righteous are judged by their good inclination, intermediates by both" (Berakhot 61b).

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Our Sages also said: "To those who come to the evil inclination, the evil inclination judges him; to those who come to the good inclination, the good inclination judges him, as it says: 'For He stands at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul...'" (Avot d'Rabbi Natan: Chapter 32:2-3). It also says in the Zohar: "The guilty - the evil inclination judges him, the righteous - the good inclination judges him, intermediate - both judge him" (Zohar Part II, 41b).

Try to imagine this with an analogy of a father teaching his son how to use fire correctly to cook with its heat and warm by its light, and of course, warns him about it with clear instructions. Nevertheless, the son chose to stick his hand into the fire and got burned by his own fault. Can the son now ask his father why he was punished with a painful burn? Certainly not, this is not revenge but a natural law of creation that he should have known and acted according to his father's instructions. In the allegory, Hashem created laws of reward and punishment in creation, and taught in His Torah how we will merit eternal reward and happiness by following His commandments, and from which harmful transgressions to distance ourselves to avoid damaging our soul or bringing upon ourselves harsh afflictions, God forbid.

In the book "Nefesh HaChaim" by Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin ztz"l, it is explained that the punishment of Gehennom is not a punishment or revenge, but the sin itself is what punishes the person. All actions are recorded, and the person receives their punishment from the evil forces they themselves created through their actions.

Nefesh HaChaim (Gate I, Chapter 12):

"Also the punishment of Gehennom, its concept, too, is that the transgression itself is its punishment. As it is written (Proverbs 5): 'The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him; he is held fast in the cords of his sin,' 'Your wickedness will punish you' (Jeremiah 2)... not on the way of punishment and revenge, God forbid, but evil pursuits corrupt (the one who commits evil), for the transgression itself is its punishment, because from the creation, He established His Name, which is blessed, all order of managing the worlds to be dependent on the awakening of human actions, for better or for worse, God forbid. That all his deeds and matters are automatically recorded each in its source and root, and he is compelled to receive his judgment through those forces of impurity he strengthened by his actions. Depending on the value and type of blemish, which thus corrects the blemish of the worlds and his soul, or by the power of repentance that reaches its higher root."

Nefesh HaChaim (Gate II, Chapter 8):

And this is what it means in their statement (Bava Kama 50a): "Anyone who says that Hashem overlooks (i.e., where he waives) owed retribution, his life shall be overlooked, which initially appears wondrous. And it was explained a little above in Gate I, Chapter 12. And in our words here, the matter is explained more beautifully with good taste that it is not on the way of revenge, God forbid, but just as by the nature of man, that if he eats a food that in its nature damages and harms his body, it will harm him, or also he will get sick from it, and if it is poison, he will die from it, and by himself, he risks his life. So it is in the matter of the sins of the sinning soul, God forbid, since so He established in His will, the nature of the order of affairs and their matters of the worlds, that the good and bad actions of man are like food and sustenance for them. There is no overleniency in this. And he is compelled to empty the impurity he strengthened by his sin in the worlds..."

From this, we can understand a deep idea, that Satan is not a specific creature but rather a part of our soul's creation - it is the inclination that provokes us to sin and also the afflictions that return to afflict us for sins we have committed. In other words, we create Satan with our forces!

Since Satan is a function in creation, in the Garden of Eden, there is no longer any room for his existence:

"...And what does it mean there shall no evil befall You, thus did David say to the Holy One, blessed be He, Sovereign of the Universe, let there be no evil in Your dwellings, and evil here refers to Satan and the evil inclination, as it is said because man's inclination is evil, and just as there is no evil inclination in the abodes of Hashem, so in the future, Israel will not have Satan or the Angel of Death or the evil inclination dwelling among them, when - in the world to come." (Letters of Rabbi Akiva).

However, there is room for good hope even in this world because with the coming of the complete redemption there will no longer be an evil inclination in the world, nor a need for atoning afflictions, as it is said in the prophets:

"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9).

Therefore, our Sages said that Satan will be slaughtered at the time of redemption, meaning his role in the world will end (Sukkah 52a):

"In the future, Hashem will bring the evil inclination and slaughter it before the righteous and the wicked. The righteous will see it as a high mountain, and the wicked will see it as a thin strand. These will weep, and those will weep. The righteous will weep and say, how could we overcome such a high mountain? And the wicked will weep and say: how could we not overcome this thin strand?"

May we be meritorious in our imminent redemption, with the tears of those who conquer mountains.