The atmosphere in front of the FAO Schwarz flagship toy store in New York was tense. No one spoke. It was September 14, 2006, and artist and sculptor Ken Goldman had flown to the famous store from Israel to compete in the annual toy audition. Carrying the prototypes of his three new Kabbala dolls - Blue Sansoni, Orange Samonglif and Green Sanoi - Goldman took his place in line with crazed toy inventors from around the world. . . .

While most of the inventors were granted three minutes or less, Goldman had over 30 minutes to present his dolls and explain their connection to a ninth-century Kabbala text.

When he finished, the CEO and head buyer at FAO Schwarz told him to just leave everything with them. Now, a little over a year later, the dolls are being mass-produced and sold all over the world.

. . .

But although the three dolls' shapes and names are taken directly from a Kabbala text, Goldman notes that they are designed to be gifts that touch upon an old tradition of protecting children with an object; they are not meant to make a statement about the mythology surrounding Adam, Eve and Lilith, who is sometimes referred to as Adam's first wife. In the original drawings of the amulets that Goldman used as a model, the Hebrew text above loosely translates as: "Adam and Eve: Lilith aside."

According to Christopher Witcombe, author of Eve and the Identity of Women, Lilith appears as Adam's first wife in midrashic literature. Lilith, a figure often celebrated today as the first feminist, abandoned Adam to go and live near the Red Sea. In the Zohar Lilith vanishes from Adam's side after saying the unspeakable name of God. Adam then beseeches God to bring her back. Upon his request, God sends three angels - Sanoi, Sansoni and Samonglif - to Lilith. Nevertheless, despite their threats, she refuses to return, insisting instead upon harming newborn infants. She does, however, promise that no harm will come to any baby wearing an amulet with either the names or images of the three angels.