What is hasatan in Judaism?

Question

I recently had a Jewish person tell me that hasatan is not a devil.
If he is not a devil, what is he according to Jewish belief. I know hasatan is an opposer and your scripture speaks little of him.
And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. (Job 1:5-7 KJV)
This is one of the few sections mentioning the name of hasatan or satan in Christianity. I believe the text is quite similar to the texts in the Jewish holy books.

Here we see job is making offerings to God. The sons of God or the believers on the law of Moses known as the Jews were presenting themselves before The Lord making offerings. I know this is usually interpreted as a divine council of angels or heavenly beings but I believe the prior verse in context tells us that job was making offerings and presenting himself before The Lord. Many of the use ages of sons of God could also be interpreted as man. This theme reoccurs in Christianity as the believers are called the sons of God. This could also be ambiguously used for the believers on the most high God.
Regardless of my opinions on this, the sons of God presented themselves before The Lord and hasatan came also. Hasatan is regarded as separate, as he came "also" and not "with" or "among" the "sons of God".
If he is not a son of God he is not human or angel; that I believe would be an obvious point.
If he is not a devil; then what is he?
This Jewish person also told me that devils do not exists; which I find to be unbelievable.
Possession was common theme even in Judaism.
I know that the most high God does not possess.
Then who does that also?

Answer 1

The Hebrew word 'sahtan' means 'adversary'. Angels that are created as sahtanim (pl) serve the purpose of placing stumbling blocks before us, not to see us fail though. Rather, the purpose of these stumbling blocks serve to provide us with opportunities to choose to do good over bad, thereby becoming closer to HaShem.



It is the job of one of these sahtanim, referred to as hasahtan, that acts in the heavenly court as the prosecutor.



There is no such thing as a devil or 'unclean spirits' in Jewish beliefs or texts. To put it mildly, the Christian/your interpretation of the story of Yov is radically different than the Jewish interpretation.



Note: According to Judaism, angels are task specific creations without freewill.



Edit:



I have no idea where you got your ideas about Jewish beliefs but every claim you've made about Judaism is wrong.



1. While the Christian Old Testament was based on the Tanach (Jewish Bible), the OT was thoroughly altered to support the teachings of Christianity. The OT is not considered a valid religious text within Judaism.



2. There are no devils, no satyrs, nor is there possession in Judaism.



3. All sahtanim are angels, they're just a specific type of angel. Angels cannot and do not judge the souls of people.



4. Most of what you say simply does not make sense. You received your answer from two different Jews, the same and only answer.

Answer 2

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RE:

What is hasatan in Judaism?

I recently had a Jewish person tell me that hasatan is not a devil.

If he is not a devil, what is he according to Jewish belief. I know hasatan is an opposer and your scripture speaks little of him.

And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified...

Answer 3

Judaism does not believe in devils. Period. And HaSatan--literally translated as "the accuser", is little more than a prosecuting attorney in the Heavenly Court.

Answer 4

"Satan" is NOT a proper name referring to a particular being who is the antagonist or rival of G-d, as Christianity erroneously teaches. In its original application, in fact, it is a common noun meaning an adversary who opposes and obstructs. It is applied to human adversaries in 1Shmuel 29:4; 2Shmuel 19:23; 1Melachim 5:18; 11:14, 23, 25, and its related verb is used of prosecution in a law court (Tehillim 109:6) and the role of an antagonist in general (Tehillim 38:20, 21; 109:4, 20, 29).



In Judaism, ha-satan (the adversary) is mostly identified with the yetzer ra (man's evil inclination), but also identified with one who leads astray, then brings accusations against man. Its chief functions is those of temptation, accusation and punishment. Under the control of G-d it acts solely with divine permission to carry out its deeds.



As we see in the book of Iyov (Job), ha-satan's function is described as that of testing the sincerity of men's characters. Ha-satan is at all times under the control of G-d and keeps within the limits which G-d has fixed for it.



The angel who was sent to obstruct Balaam (BaMidbar 22:32) was evidently chosen, as a "satan" (le-satan), and perhaps the consonants l-s-t-n are rather to be read as the infinitive liston, "to oppose or obstruct." (Ency. Judaica)



While the evil impulse is strong, Judaism believes that a person can choose to overcome it. This is the concept of free choice, which is basically the purpose of our existence: To choose good over evil. The teachings of the Torah are referred to as the antidote to the yetzer hara. Similarly, Ben Sira (21:11) states: "The man who keeps the Torah controls his natural tendency."



"Man is the creature created for the purpose of being drawn close to G-d. He is placed between perfection and deficiency, with the power to earn perfection. Man must earn this perfection, however, through his own free will... Man's inclinations are therefore balanced between good (Yetzer HaTov) and evil (Yetzer HaRa), and he is not compelled toward either of them. He has the power of choice and is able to choose either side knowingly and willingly..." - Aish HaTorah

Answer 5

Judaism seems to be more comfortible with exploring the questions without giving pat answers. I find this very difficult to communicate especialy with Christians and ex-Christian Atheists. The major point of the book of Joab is specificaly to say Yes - it is troubling - we don't have an easy pat answer. After everyone gives their ideas, God comes out and says (rhetoricaly) "Where you there when I built the world?" In relation to "God" -- the universal, eternal, creative conciousness -- we are fundamentaly limited in information and understanding == Of course, that does not stop us trying. So putting the above, together with Isaiah's shocking assertion -- "I create ... light and darkness ... and evil - I am God" and with Ecclesiastes -- "to everything turn turn turn there is a season turn turn turn a time for every purpose under heaven" We get this story the sages told in the Gemarah -- "One day the sages prayed for God to remove the evil impulse The next morning the roosters failed to lay eggs." ie: "evil" in nature is realy largely an error of human perception In the world at large -- earthquakes, tzunamis ... supernovas ... exploding suns These are all the healthy workings of the universe in the manner God designed it. An interesting thing about Jewish mystics is that they say that "evil" is God's atribute of justice --- ie: when God judges purely (unmercifully) -- the result will be perceived as evil by us (death, destruction...) Thus -- in the story of Noah -- humanity bolloxed up the world so badly that it was going to implode upon itself. Many Jewish sages say that the flood was the "mercy" -- that God stopped the total destruction and caused a "controlled Abend" (to borrow from my professional lingo) and the same can be said as we bollox up the world today -- the death caused through depletion of the ozone layer, the thawing of the ice caps... the new and more massive hurricanes ... etc. -- these are all natural responses of a healthy universe. But they do in fact act as judgements against us through the basic rules of cause and effect. == The only -actual- "evil" is the immoral actions of human beings. But again -- remember the story of the roosters! So - what we call "the evil inclination" is realy the driving impulses of our material (animalistic) nature. And these are also necessary. (if you're a Star Trek fan, you should call to mind the story where Kirk is split into "evil Kirk" and "good Kirk" -- and it turns out that "good Kirk" is a useless dishrag) So, realy -- the only time we have "evil" is when we surrender our higher will-power to the animal instincts. As the imprecation of Noah to his sons goes (if you translate the sons' names into what they realy mean) "wisdom shall dwell in the tents of beauty and the emotional impulses shall be their slave"

Answer 6

Ha Satan