#they're all gonna be quite sketch-like and unfinished like this one tho

[lost-in-yahargul]

uhh the doll doing maintenance on herself

Keeping those joints in good condition!!

[traumaticemphaticfantastic]

[Reposting this because I realized I got the formatting all wrong last time, much apologies I have been going through some stuff lately]

Back in March of 2023 and into earlier this year I was working on my character-design skills and decided to do (And continue my journey in now) a little sketching project wherein I draw various Jewish characters and creatures from Jewish folklore and biblical stories, I wanted to design them in the context of a cartoon or comic book (As that's the sort of style I obviously specialize in) with simpler less complicated designs. I'm going to be sharing here what I have so far and what I continue to make into the future, but I will be doing it in batches as to not overwhelm anybody.

Now, the characters I have today are part of a more traditional Judaism's biggest (Non-human) baddies, Lilith and her husband, Ashmedai, as well as two sketches of just regular demons. Lilith and Ashmedai are the king and queen of all demons in Jewish tradition, though "Demons" is probably not the best way to put it because Jewish demons are incredibly, *incredibly* different than they are in Christianity (Don't know enough about Islam or Jinn to have a take on their differences tho sry). In Judaism demons are usually written about as annoying little "Mazziks" or "Shedim" (They have lots of terms for them from what I understand), these little guys are invisible and have a tendency to cause you harm in various mischievous ways, they can purportedly also shapeshift into tangible mimics of humans and animals, this they will also use to cause you harm.

Demons are described as similar to angels but different in many other ways, they are not fallen angels and are in-fact their own class of similar entities which G-d intended to create (Though may have got too tired by Shabbat and left them unfinished without bodies).

The crazy thing about them too is that apparently they're *everywhere* like in the tens of thousands just in your immediate vicinity, so many that apparently a Rav by the name of Beivai bar Abaye managed to see the demons in their true form and quantity after performing a ritual involving rubbing the ashes of a black cat's afterbirth in his eyes and as a result he "Was harmed" (Don't worry though he was saved by The Sages through prayers for mercy). But don't worry! if you want an easier and less harmful way to see the demons all you have to do is spread regular old ashes around your bed and (Apparently) when you wake up you will see the demons' footprints which happen to look like those of a chickens.

There's a lot more about general demons that I won't get into here for your sake (For instance their strange affinity for bathrooms), but if you're interested in learning more I highly recommend Sefaria.org for further reading on subject, they provide very nice translations of very old and great Jewish texts and they're quite the read and not just concerning demonology!

Now as for Ashmedai and Lilith: Lilith was once Adam's first wife, but when she wanted to top Adam during sexual intercourse he basically said

"No Lilith, I'm the man I need to top you!" to which Lilith said "Forget this!" And said the divine name which granted her the ability to fly and flew all the way to a cave near the sea. Adam was mad about this so he asked G-d to retrieve his wife to which G-d sent three angels "Sanoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof" (Which as an aside, as hard as I try I CANNOT think about these names without thinking about them being spoken in the Doodlebob voice) who go to Lilith's cave and basically say "Go back to Eden girl" and Lilith's like "Naw, and just cause you said that I'm gonna start strangling human babies as their mothers give birth to them!" And the angels are like "Oh alright, BUT on one condition: If humans make amulets with our names inscribed on them, you won't be allowed to kill their babies" and Lilith basically says

"Cool." And so she was replaced with Eve, she became the queen of demons, and to this day she's been doing sinful stuff and giving birth to thousands of demon babies and killing human babies as well (She's also responsible for wet dreams cause she can enter your dreams apparently but don’t worry, there's an amulet for that too).

A little tidbit: the reason my version of Lilith is depicted as nude is because if she was the first woman before Eve and dipped before the eating of the fruit incident, logically she would know no shame and would have no need to clothe herself, it's why I draw all my demons as naked actually!

Ashmedal is Lilith's husband and the king of demons, he is said to have been enslaved by the great King Solomon and made to help build the First Temple of Israel after having his location doxxed via Solomon capturing and tormenting a pair of male and female demons into confession, all this to find a kind of stone-cutting masonry worm called a "Shamir" because Solomon was told the Temple should not be built with any tool. Within the same story it's also revealed that even the king of demons studies Torah both in heaven and on earth (As I said Jewish demon lore isn't at all like Christianity's) and in a lot of ways Ashmedai is actually a really good guy, he helps people onto the literal right path as to assure their place in the world to come, he cries at a wedding because he knows the bridegroom won't be alive much longer, surprisingly chill king of demons. Also King Solomon loves to get drunk and one of his men throw a clod of dirt at a rooster to get to the Shamir which is in its nest, this causes the rooster to strangle itself to death because it was just borrowing the Shamir from the angelic minister of the sea and felt immense shame in not being able to return it. But, this post is getting longgg and frankly the story of King Solomon of Ashmedai is absolutely BONKERS in the best kind of way, I cannot do it justice here PLEASE read the full thing on Sefaria I am begging you it is a masterpiece in Jewish writing.

Whew! That was quite fun to type out, and that's not even the half of it! Jewish demonology may not be as present within the modern world as it was in the ancient one, but it's certainly very amazing mythology and I absolutely love learning and reading about it because of how truly unique it is! Anyways, that will be all for today, may all of you who see this be well and may you avoid the demons’ mischief!