ENOSH

ENOSH (Heb. אֱנוֹשׁ; "man, mankind"), eldest son of seth and the father of Kenan (Gen. 4:26; 5:6, 9; I Chron. 1:1–2). He lived 905 years (Gen. 5:11). It was in his day that the name YHWH was first invoked (ibid. 4:26). -In the Aggadah The generation of Enosh is the "counsel of the ungodly" of Ps. 1:1. Enosh and his contemporaries studied and practiced the arts of divination and control of heavenly forces, thereby making way for the generation of the flood (Zohar 1:56a), and were also the first to practice idolatry (Sif. Deut. 43; see also Shab. 118b). Four revolutions in nature occurred during the days of Enosh: the mountains became barren; corpses began to putrefy; the faces of men became apelike (rather than Godlike); and demons lost their fear of men (Gen. R. 23:6). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Cassuto, in: EM, 1 (1965), 450; E.A. Speiser, Genesis (1964), 37–38. IN THE AGGADAH: I. Ḥasida, Ishei ha-Tanakh (1964), 73.