Jewish View of Satan

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ecstasyofavila

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Hi all, I’m a bit confused on the Jewish view of Satan. They say that he isn’t fallen, and that he is God’s agent who is sent to test and tempt believers; in short, he isn’t evil, and just does what God commands him to do.

Anyways to refute this? Please and thank you.
 
ecstasyofavila said:
Hi all, I’m a bit confused on the Jewish view of Satan. They say that he isn’t fallen, and that he is God’s agent who is sent to test and tempt believers; in short, he isn’t evil, and just does what God commands him to do.

Anyways to refute this? Please and thank you.
Click to expand...
My take: Jesus himself called Satan the Father of Lies. If God is perfect, how could he create and utilize a being whose very nature is counter to the Truth? And God is the Truth. That is our Catholic viewpoint.

My two cents.

Shalom
 
ecstasyofavila said:
Hi all, I’m a bit confused on the Jewish view of Satan. They say that he isn’t fallen, and that he is God’s agent who is sent to test and tempt believers; in short, he isn’t evil, and just does what God commands him to do.

Anyways to refute this? Please and thank you.
Click to expand...
The fallen angel, satan, and his cohorts, are used by God to tempt us. He and his cohorts are evil. After the angels were created they were given a test and satan and his cohorts decided not to serve the Lord.

Resisting temptation makes us stronger and closer to the Lord. And, God doesn’t allow satan and his cohorts to tempt us beyond our capacity to resist.
 
ecstasyofavila said:
Hi all, I’m a bit confused on the Jewish view of Satan. They say that he isn’t fallen, and that he is God’s agent who is sent to test and tempt believers; in short, he isn’t evil, and just does what God commands him to do.

Anyways to refute this? Please and thank you.
Click to expand...
From Rabbi Tovia Singer’s website:
The Hebrew word “Satan” means “Hinderer.” To hinder someone means to hold him back, to try to prevent him from doing something. G-d created the Hinderer to give us work to do in this world. Satan is here to make things difficult for us, so we can overcome our evil temptations, and PASS the test. That is the purpose of Satan. Satan is an angel whose purpose has been determined by G-d.
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Source
 
Thank you all for your answers! This makes sense now. 🙂
 
Where does it say in the OT that Satan and angels chose not to serve the Lord?
 
ecstasyofavila said:
Hi all, I’m a bit confused on the Jewish view of Satan. They say that he isn’t fallen, and that he is God’s agent who is sent to test and tempt believers; in short, he isn’t evil, and just does what God commands him to do.

Anyways to refute this? Please and thank you.
Click to expand...
yes, it can be a but confusing. This is because the idea of Satan evolved through the centuries in Judaism. Basically, from a co-actor with God to impose God’s discipline on man to God’s adversary. This can be seen in the Bible: in Genesis the devil lived in Paradise itself, not hell (which at the time of writing of Genesis didn’t exist in the same way we understand it today). Then, you can see him as a co-worker with God to test Job, holding a sort of advisory capacity even. And God and the devil spoke in rather friendly, indeed pally terms (“O, I’ve been round about…”). By the time of the Gospels, the devil was no longer God’s friend but plotted his downfall. Like in all religions, there would be a development of belief. No different for the idea of Satan in Judaism.
 
rweidn said:
Where does it say in the OT that Satan and angels chose not to serve the Lord?
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I believe Isaiah, 14; 12 shows where satan said that he will rise above God and so forth. That was his big mistake to think he as a creature (created) could possibly become god. that is pride at its worse
 
Satan lies all the time. There are even alleged false books of the bible where he supposedly gets confronted and lies even more. If you want to get yourself into problems, listen to him in the “Gospel of Bartholomew” where it says Jesus said “3 of 30,000 people enter heaven.” Total mess. That belief Jews hold about Satan make me proud to be Catholic.
 
G-D Created Human Beings with Free Will. Thus the ability to choose to do good or to do evil.
See Deuteronomy 30:19.
Angels have no free will in Judaism. They are G-D’s messengers, and tools. That is why we
Jews do not believe as Christians believe, re. ‘Satan’ (in Hebrew, ‘Ha-satan’ , the ‘trickster’; it’s the job, not the tool’s name).
You got that belief from Zoroastrianism, which teaches a Dualist setup (G-D vs. Satan).
Judaism teaches that there is One G-D; HE Is The Source of All, Good AND Evil.
But HE Wants us Human beings to choose Good. It’s our choice.
“Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am G-D, and there is no Other.” (Isaiah 45:22) .
Code: 
 I am proud and honoured that my soul was privileged to be at Horev (Mt. Sinai) to receive G-D's Law directly from G-D, along with all of the People of Israel ever.
Shabbat Shalom,
 
ecstasyofavila said:
Hi all, I’m a bit confused on the Jewish view of Satan. They say that he isn’t fallen, and that he is God’s agent who is sent to test and tempt believers; in short, he isn’t evil, and just does what God commands him to do.

Anyways to refute this? Please and thank you.
Click to expand...
I think the shortest explanation a Yeshiva student ever gave to me was phrased in the following manner:

“Think - head of the Gestapo”

“Ha-Satan” can’t be a rebellious angel in their understanding, it defies to ideas regarding “Ha-Shem” ( the Name as they would put it) and humans. Namely

1.) namely that Ha-Shem is all powerful.
2.) Only Humans have free will

Ha-Satan is not the enemy - he’s the SAT/GMAT/LSAT/MCAT of Life. He is the assessor, here to see if the Things we claim about our devotion to God actually pan out in the end - just like in the Book of Job.

I’ve seen two variations on this - one is that he is the Loyal Drill/Instructor Sgt who genuinely thinks we are undeserving of Gods mercy. And he’s going to prove that point to the Divine by reigning down as much misfortune and temptation as possible as is allowed by the Lord.

Cause he’s betting will break in the end.

The other variation comes out of surprisingly the mystical sects of Islam - who adopted the belief from some esoteric Jewish sects. This Shayatan as True lover of God - which again puts us in th “silly apes aren’t worthy of your Love my Lord” category.

So both renditions - we have Gods first creation essentially stating that we are too corrupt/greedy/weak/lustful/vengeful/etc to be worthy of God.

We aren’t good enough.
 
Bumping, could someone refute that guy a few posts up? I’m on mobile right now and can’t quote him.

Thank you all.
 
BunclodySenator said:
G-D Created Human Beings with Free Will. Thus the ability to choose to do good or to do evil.
See Deuteronomy 30:19.
Angels have no free will in Judaism. They are G-D’s messengers, and tools. That is why we
Jews do not believe as Christians believe, re. ‘Satan’ (in Hebrew, ‘Ha-satan’ , the ‘trickster’; it’s the job, not the tool’s name).
You got that belief from Zoroastrianism, which teaches a Dualist setup (G-D vs. Satan).
Judaism teaches that there is One G-D; HE Is The Source of All, Good AND Evil.
But HE Wants us Human beings to choose Good. It’s our choice.
“Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am G-D, and there is no Other.” (Isaiah 45:22) .
Code: 
 I am proud and honoured that my soul was privileged to be at Horev (Mt. Sinai) to receive G-D's Law directly from G-D, along with all of the People of Israel ever.
Shabbat Shalom,
Click to expand...
Shabbat Shalom. Do Jews, or some Jews, believe in evil spirits?
 
Peter_J said:
Shabbat Shalom. Do Jews, or some Jews, believe in evil spirits?
Click to expand...
Do golems and so forth count as spirits? I don’t think they’re necessarily evil, but they are commanded to keep holy the sabbath, keep kosher and follow all the same rules as Jewish humans (even though they are to some extent supernatural beings).
 
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