Question: Can you give me examples of Jewish mythology, like Lilith and Samson?

Answer: The expression “mythology” has a rather wide range of possible meanings. If you mean, “examples of events and individuals in Jewish literature which likely never existed” then I would point you to creatures like the Leviathan (see Psalms 74 and Isaiah 27 as examples) which are used not as literal descriptions, but to pithily represent core Torah principles. Rabbi S.R. Hirsch, for example, understands the Leviathan to refer to God’s subtle influence on the development of nations and on great world-wide historical trends.

There are also individuals who have become associated in some minds with Judaism without ever having actually appeared as such in Jewish sources. I would suspect that the popular conception of the Lilith you mention is among those. These may be mythological, but they’re not particularly Jewish.

Finally, there are individuals who play clear and decisive roles in the Bible or later Jewish history who could hardly be called mythological, as their historicity is a most reasonable assumption. Samson (see Judges 13-16) is an example of that category.

I hope this helps.

With my best regards,

Rabbi Boruch Clinton
Ottawa, Canada