Does contemporary orthodox Judaism teach that "Satan" exists?

Question

The figure of Satan (and not a שטן, which can be used as an adjective or a role) - an opposite counterpart to God, or a rebellious angel who has embraced, and epitomizes evil - is quite prominent in many currents of Christianity; but Jews are not that "big" on the notion of Satan, so to speak.

In fact, if we look at the bible, it seems that other than some uses of the word שטן in the sense of adversary-to-something/someone - Satan as such is mentioned only in the book of Zechariah, and featured prominently in the story of Job/Iyov. And that one does not attempt to explain how there's no Satan anywhere basically, but in that story he's a central character. The first episode just goes: "וַיְהִי הַיּוֹם--וַיָּבֹאוּ בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים, לְהִתְיַצֵּב עַל-יְהוָה; וַיָּבוֹא גַם-הַשָּׂטָן, בְּתוֹכָם. " - a weird introduction: Yeah, Satan, sure, everybody knows about Satan, except how he's basically never been mentioned before at all.

Anyway, I know that in the Talmud and later, there is mention of Satan, and we have these MY.SX questions answers:

• Does Satan have 12 wings?
• Do religious Jews generally believe the serpent of Garden of Eden was Satan?

which mention the Satan-is-a-fallen-angel option, the Satan-is-a-metaphor-for-Yetzer-Ha'ra option, etc.; and works such as Pirkei Rabi Eliezer, Yalqut Shim'oni and other texts. Very well, but that doesn't seem very significant and central to Jewish religious thought on most matters, on how to live one's life etc. And statistically, Satan is not mentioned that often in Jewish-religious texts (correct me if I'm wrong).

My question is where things stand these days - but not in the realm of philosophizing and pilpulim on "Can Satan be said to exist"; I'm interested in terms of what religious Jewish people, particularly children, are taught. Do teachers, and parents, tell children that Satan exists, that they need to beware Satan, that they should resist challenges and temptations by Satan (and I don't mean the Yetzer Ha'ra)? Or - is it something that may be invoked in some occasional story in a mostly-allegorical way?

And the same question for Rabbinical orations in synagogues and other public events: Is the public cautioned regarding the activity of Satan? Are undesirable events, people or organizations often described as Satanic, or under the influence of Satan? Or is that considered somewhat demagogic, and a rhetorical style respectable people would refrain from?

Note: I'm asking about more mainstream/orthodox Jewish communities and traditions, not smaller minority groups, not Reform Judaism, etc. Maybe even that is too wide a question - feel free to comment about this point.

Answer 1

Isaac, the site founder, has asked me to put my personal experience answer into an answer, so I hope that's ok :)

I've read your question and many of your comments and I'll confirm that what QwertyCTRL. said in their answer is what I was taught in Yeshiva.

What they wrote there will also help you understand what the typical Satan education and cultural significance is in orthodox Jewish life. Firstly, how young children are told the explanation that this angel is in the role of 3 guises that affect us in various ways is not fixed. It depends on the school and the family. Some may have bright inquisitive children and a certain personality that will explain this when they are young, and some will never mention it.

I should note at this point that Satan is not the name of the angel, but one of the 3 roles. Therefore, pretty much the only time you'll hear people mention the Satan is in and around Rosh Hashana, where we have the famous story from the Gemara about the Satan rising to accuse us, and how the shofar will confuse him.

Otherwise, we never say the name of the angel in question, and the vast majority of the time we talk about him in any way is when we are talking about the Yeitzer Hara. This will feature a lot in education and discipline from a fairly young age, and many children will know that he is an angel. In some chassidic circles, they likely also have strong associations of the Yeitzer Hara and the animal soul.

Generally speaking, no we do not have much to do with the Satan. I've definitely heard some Rabbis who like to use reference to him in certain talks reasonably frequently, but it's not necessarily common (but the orthodox world is large, remember this is just an anecdotal answer). We are not scared of him, although we respect him and recognise we need Hashem's help battling him (there is a lot of liturgy on this, on defeating the Yeitzer Hara). We view him as part of Hashem's plan, Hashem's servant, and something that is absolutely necessary to Hashem's plan.

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Additional comments since looking at OP's feedback:

• The traditional Jewish belief system is insanely uniform, given how ancient it is. This particular subject is prevalent in the Talmud, and stems from sources at least as ancient as 2000 years, and likely stem back to Moshe as Sinai. As such, there will be very little variation, regardless of location, as almost all Jewish communities have had access to Talmud and Talmudic Rabbinates since the times the Talmud was composed, and have it venerated as the highest authority in Jewish Oral Tradition. On top of that, there has been many writings across the years by our chief sages that the Christian belief that Satan is an enemy of God, ch'v, is heretical, so there has been an internal pressure to not add any extra fabrications to the subject of Satan. This may have happened in some very far flung, disconnected communities, but they will represent the tiny tiny minority. Otherwise, what you grow up with in USA will be identical to what you grow up with in UK, Israel, Australia, Yemen, Latin America etc etc.
• It is very important to stress that we have zero associations with Satan as an enemy of God, and in fact we put emphasis to explain that this is not the case in our education. Our aversion to anything-idolatry-sounding is huge and concrete. For this reason we refer to him as "the satan", to capture that it is a role, a job, not a demigod or independent force. It is with this in mind that we phrase anything about Satan. We would never say "we pray for protection from evil and satan", but more like "we pray for help to live righteous lives, and strength to overcome our temptations, and to not be tested, so that the satan has cannot accuse us".
• I also can't stress enough how small a subject this is in normal conversation. Most religious Jews, in any community, will know almost nothing about this angel (or angels in general), beyond the basics we have generally outlined in the answers to this question. There may be midrashim and all sorts of esoteric references to satan, evil etc, but rarely are they of any interest to normal Jewish education. Certainly a secular person would find orthodox jews to sound a little bit superstitious and bible-bashy, but I would say in comparison to a stereotypical bible thumping Christian, we would sound very down to earth and normal in comparison, because the parts of the bible and oral tradition that we obsess over is not the midrashic passages of hell and brimstone and lords of the underworld and all that, but the fine details of the day to day laws that we practice, the festivals that are coming, some interesting logical debate in the Talmud, and theological discussions about God. If we talk about evil, we will talk about it far more philosophically, and even mystically, but definitely not with the fervour of a southern Baptist preacher, if you know what I mean. I understand I am invoking a stereotype, but that's only so I can make my point. Generally, the way we speak, and bless each other, and discuss religious themes, is very different to what the OP is bringing up in and around the comments, in a specific way.

Answer 2

Every contemporary Orthodox Jew, who prays each day, says the morning blessings. In the second Yehi Ratzon said just before the blessings for the Torah, every individual specifically asks G-d to save them from Satan.

Siddur Ashkenaz

Siddur Sefard

Siddur Chabad

Siddur Catalonia according to the minhag of Catalonia, Valencia and Majorca, page 5

This is also the nusach found in the Siddur of Rav Kook (סדור עולת ראיה) and the Siddur of the Vilna Gaon.

Although the nusach for the morning blessings in Siddur Edot HaMizrach does not follow this pattern, the same type of language in Siddur Edot HaMizrach for the weekday bedtime Kriat Shema has similar language, as well as the daily inclusion of the recitation of the 42 letter name at the conclusion of the ketoret which also emphasizes קרע שטן (tearing up the accusation of Satan) in the second line. This 42 letter name is also included in the nusach Balad of the Jews of Teiman.

Answer 3

What I was taught as a child and what I teach my own children is as follows: The Satan is an angel whose job it is to tempt humans to sin and act as the "prosecutor" when we do sin. He has no independent will other than to do his job.

We understand that prayers to save us from the Satan to be similar to the prayers not to give us "tests" or bad urges (which is included in a parallel prayer to the one pictured by @Yaacov Deane). Although we know that moral tests, temptation, and prosecution are necessary, we want our triumpth over these to be relativiely easy. We do not want to face difficult temptations, difficult tests, and a difficult prosecution.

Answer 4

Satan is generally not taught to young children, as it’s not so important. Usually, the older children learn about Satan during in-school educational conversation, not even part of the curriculum.

Satan is the angel whose job is to convince people to do bad, prosecute them for doing bad, and cause human death.

In the first role, the angel’s name is the “Yetzer Hara’”, the evil inclination. It has to cause people to want to do evil, so that choosing against evil is an active choice. It wants us to defeat it, since it’s a servant of G-D, but its job is its job, and it can’t go against that.
In the second role, he’s called “Satän”, the prosecutor. When performing this action, it beings up the subject of peoples’ sins to G-D, and attempts to get those people punished.
In the third role, he’s called “Mal’äkh HaMäueth”, the angel of death. When performing this role, he takes peoples souls from their bodies, and brings them to the Heavenly Court for judgement. (Babhä Baträ 16a, 8)

From the End of Days and onward, his existence will be pointless, and he will therefore no longer be made to exist.

Answer 5

I have never witnessed adults telling children about Satan in the Jewish world like I've seen in the Christian world. Jew's are mostly convinced that humans are evil enough to cause all the bad in the world without making up an adversary for God. Some adult Jews may believe in a Satan in a very similar way to Christianity, but I've never seen them discuss it with their kids or try to convince their kids of such things. Like other answers have said, we may discuss a Satan when we get closer to our repentance holidays but other than that we don't discuss much.