Herein we will consider Nurho de Manhar’s Zohar: Bereshith to Lekh Lekha (1900-14 AD) wherein chap 39 includes the following:
Said Rabbi Jose:
“The nephalim here mentioned were the angels Aza and Azael, whom the Holy One hurled from heaven onto the earth. If the question he asked, how could they exist on earth in a state so different to that they enjoyed in heaven?”Said Rabbi Hiya: “They were of that class of angels of whom scripture says ‘and fowl that fly above the earth’ (Gen i., 20), and who manifest themselves to mankind, in human form. When descending upon earth they are able to assume various shapes that become materialized and thus visible to mortal eyes.
These rebel angels Aza and Azael hurled upon the earth became embodied in material bodies of which they could not after rid themselves. Charmed and overcome with the beauty of the daughters of men, they continue living unto this day, teaching men and initiating them into magical art and science.
They begat children who were termed anakim (giants), Giborim (mighty ones). Such were the fallen angels who formerly were called sons of God.”
Of course, the Rabbis’ statements are mixtures of the Bible and folkloric traditions whatever source they may have relied upon such as the Book of Enoch.
Chap 8 is titled “Previous Worlds and Races” and states, in part:
After the deluge the souls of the antediluvians incarnated in five different races or nations, viz., the Nephilim (fallen or degraded), Giborim (mighty ones), Anakim (tall ones), Rephaim (the giants), and Amalekim (Amalekites). It was through the last of these that He fell from on high. Balaam and Balak were descendants of Amalek. Take Ain and Mim (a and m) from the former, L and K from the latter, and the remaining letters form the word Babel, and the subtracted letters the name Amalek.
It is of them that Scripture refers, “therefore is the name of it called Babel because the Lord did there confound (babel) the language of the earth” (Gen. xl. 9). And they were they who survived the catastrophe of the deluge of whom it is said: “He destroyed every living thing on the face of the earth” (Gen. vii. 23).
These five races survived till the time of the fourth captivity of Israel, whose chief enemies they were, and therefore called instruments of iniquity. They are denoted in Scripture by the words, “And the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Gen. vi. 11). Of these, the first race was the Amalekites. Of the Nephilim it is recorded, “And the sons of God beheld the daughters of men that they were fair” (Gen. vi. 2). They were also the second in rank of the angel hosts that were cast out of heaven and became incarnated.
This gives us a window into the common influences between Jewish occult mysticism and, for example, Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophy’s occult mysticism as she was quite taken with the concept of “root races.”