If Jews do not believe in the devil, who was the serpent that tempted Eve with the fruit from the tree of knowledge? Most Christians accept the serpent as Satan.
Hi! Interesting question.
I don’t think it’s correct that we “don’t believe in the devil”. However, the Torah view of Satan is totally different from that which is usually described as the Christian concept. The Satan is in no way an enemy of G-d; he (it) is not bad, he is a servant. He represents the part of a human being which causes him to want things that may not be good for him. We usually call him the yetzer hara, the desire for bad. In proper measure, many of the things we want are absolutely essential to life – food, love, wealth, etc. However, the desire for these things can take control of a person and cause him to move away from closeness to G-d. So a person’s dealing with that part of himself perhaps his main challenge in this world, which is just the way G-d wants it and the way G-d made us. The main place in the Bible that the Satan is mentioned is the first couple of chapters of the book of Job. While the imagery there is clearly something that we can only imagine approximately, I think we can at least gain some insight from it. Take a look, and you’ll see that he is one of G-d’s servants, who regularly comes to “report in”, so to speak.
Best wishes,
Michoel Reach