amberlaine
March 2nd, 2002, 10:05 AM
This thread was requested by Illuminatus in the thread "Balance and the feminine spirit"
As we all know, Judaism is a religion wherein the Divine, which I will call G!D, is a single entity, the grand overseer of the universe. THere are no "Goddesses " or "lessser gods" in Judaism--and ye there I am talking about the feminine aspect of the Divine. What am I talking about?
The book of Genesis tell, as we know, the creation story. Throughout the story of creation, the Bible said "God said, <insert phrase here>" so we see mention of the Divine name many many times (32 I think) The Hebrew word used here, consistently, as the name of G!D is "Elohim". The significance of this word is that grammatically, its someting of an abomination. Like many languages, Hebrew has gendered roots and suffixes. Here, the root word is "Eloah", a singular, feminine word meaning "God". THe suffix "im", however, is masculine, and moreover, plural. Lots of pagans in particular like to point to this as proof that Judaism has at least some peripheral belief in "many gods" and like to interpret the word Elohim as "gods and goddesses" or worse, "pantheon". But the word doesn't mean that. It means simply G!D, and yet the reason for this grammatical complexity is to imply that G!D cannot be defined in terms of gender, or singularity. Kabbalists (Jewish mystics) have often said that in fact G!D could not be defined at all--that rather is exists as the "negation of all negations". IT for this reason that we get the line in (Exodus?) where Moses asks G!D who He is, and Elohim replies, "I am that I am". THere is no other way to define the ineffable being.
But our concern here is not with the overall nature of G!D. I provide this background information to show how Genesis lays the groundwork for the feminine concept of the Divine. While G!D is almost lways discussed in terms of the masculine (presumabely beause the blokes who had the privilege of writing down the text were themselves male), the notion of the Shekinah has a rich, if somehwat overlooked, history within Judaism.
The word "Shekinah" means, "dwelling among us". It is the immanent Divine, that which joins us at the Seder table, or who enters the home at Shabbat. It is important to note, however, that Shekinah, as a feminine word, is not in and of itself a feminine being. THer eis not G!D and Shekinah--Shekinah is merely terminology that we use to describe immanence--a feminine concept. This is an important distinction, because history has shown how the less educated HEbrews began to associate Shekinah with actual female deities of the times--which is, of course, a grave mistake. But to some extent it is understandable--the literature of the Kabbalists, centuries and centuries late in term os Jewish history altogether, were fond of using mythic language to describe Shekinah, and often used such flowery phrases such as "wrapped in an embrae" etc to describe the Shekinah in relationship to G!D. Of course, among other Kabbalists, it was understood that the image here is puerely poetic, and not to be taken literally (sound familiar?) But the uneducated masses took this to mean that Shekinah must necessarily be indeed separate from G!D--an actual Goddess in its own right.
The Divine name of G!D, "YHVH" also has feminine elements. IT is said that the first H is the mother, and the second H is the daughter. THe first H is the "ideal blueprint", for example, of what a manifest feminine should (or will) be. The last H is the actual manifest feminine--G!D dwelling among us (also called the BRide--I believe part of the Shabbat ceremony includes the notion of the BRide of SHabbat, but I might be wrong about that)
This is particularly interestng because Kabbalistically speaking, the final H manifests on Earth. (Obviously--if its manifest, where else is it going to manifest?) The notion of the EArth, then, is tied closely with the idea of SHekinah--an idea which has deep meaning for the Hasids, too. In Haisidic Judaism, there is a belief that for some reason (and I"m a bit unclear as to what hte reasons are exactly) the Shekinah has been exiled from G!D. Practically speaking then, if SHekinah has been exiled from G!D, that means that G!D's presence is no longer among us--G!D has become utterly transcendent, and the chasm between man and G!D becomes almost unbridgeable. Incidentally, this is a key concept in any mystical traiditon (which HAsidic Judaism is)--that the chasm between man and G!D is great, and only through certain meditation, or actions, etc. can man come to access G!D--because His vehicle (in this case, the Shekinah) has been destroyed. (or exiled). There are certain mitzvot that Hasidic Jews perform which are thought to help reunite the Shekinah with G!D, that G!D might once again be manifest among us.
Well, that's probably more than you wanted to know, but there you have it. :)
Sources:
On the Mystical NAture of the Godhead , Gershom SCholem
The Hebrew Goddess , Raphael Patai
HAsidism: Between Ecstasy and MAgic , Moshe Idel
MAjor Trends in Jewish Mysticism , Gershom Scholem
And some threads which might be peripherally interesting on this topic:
http://www.mothersmagic.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2547
http://www.mothersmagic.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=492&highlight=shechinah
As we all know, Judaism is a religion wherein the Divine, which I will call G!D, is a single entity, the grand overseer of the universe. THere are no "Goddesses " or "lessser gods" in Judaism--and ye there I am talking about the feminine aspect of the Divine. What am I talking about?
The book of Genesis tell, as we know, the creation story. Throughout the story of creation, the Bible said "God said, <insert phrase here>" so we see mention of the Divine name many many times (32 I think) The Hebrew word used here, consistently, as the name of G!D is "Elohim". The significance of this word is that grammatically, its someting of an abomination. Like many languages, Hebrew has gendered roots and suffixes. Here, the root word is "Eloah", a singular, feminine word meaning "God". THe suffix "im", however, is masculine, and moreover, plural. Lots of pagans in particular like to point to this as proof that Judaism has at least some peripheral belief in "many gods" and like to interpret the word Elohim as "gods and goddesses" or worse, "pantheon". But the word doesn't mean that. It means simply G!D, and yet the reason for this grammatical complexity is to imply that G!D cannot be defined in terms of gender, or singularity. Kabbalists (Jewish mystics) have often said that in fact G!D could not be defined at all--that rather is exists as the "negation of all negations". IT for this reason that we get the line in (Exodus?) where Moses asks G!D who He is, and Elohim replies, "I am that I am". THere is no other way to define the ineffable being.
But our concern here is not with the overall nature of G!D. I provide this background information to show how Genesis lays the groundwork for the feminine concept of the Divine. While G!D is almost lways discussed in terms of the masculine (presumabely beause the blokes who had the privilege of writing down the text were themselves male), the notion of the Shekinah has a rich, if somehwat overlooked, history within Judaism.
The word "Shekinah" means, "dwelling among us". It is the immanent Divine, that which joins us at the Seder table, or who enters the home at Shabbat. It is important to note, however, that Shekinah, as a feminine word, is not in and of itself a feminine being. THer eis not G!D and Shekinah--Shekinah is merely terminology that we use to describe immanence--a feminine concept. This is an important distinction, because history has shown how the less educated HEbrews began to associate Shekinah with actual female deities of the times--which is, of course, a grave mistake. But to some extent it is understandable--the literature of the Kabbalists, centuries and centuries late in term os Jewish history altogether, were fond of using mythic language to describe Shekinah, and often used such flowery phrases such as "wrapped in an embrae" etc to describe the Shekinah in relationship to G!D. Of course, among other Kabbalists, it was understood that the image here is puerely poetic, and not to be taken literally (sound familiar?) But the uneducated masses took this to mean that Shekinah must necessarily be indeed separate from G!D--an actual Goddess in its own right.
The Divine name of G!D, "YHVH" also has feminine elements. IT is said that the first H is the mother, and the second H is the daughter. THe first H is the "ideal blueprint", for example, of what a manifest feminine should (or will) be. The last H is the actual manifest feminine--G!D dwelling among us (also called the BRide--I believe part of the Shabbat ceremony includes the notion of the BRide of SHabbat, but I might be wrong about that)
This is particularly interestng because Kabbalistically speaking, the final H manifests on Earth. (Obviously--if its manifest, where else is it going to manifest?) The notion of the EArth, then, is tied closely with the idea of SHekinah--an idea which has deep meaning for the Hasids, too. In Haisidic Judaism, there is a belief that for some reason (and I"m a bit unclear as to what hte reasons are exactly) the Shekinah has been exiled from G!D. Practically speaking then, if SHekinah has been exiled from G!D, that means that G!D's presence is no longer among us--G!D has become utterly transcendent, and the chasm between man and G!D becomes almost unbridgeable. Incidentally, this is a key concept in any mystical traiditon (which HAsidic Judaism is)--that the chasm between man and G!D is great, and only through certain meditation, or actions, etc. can man come to access G!D--because His vehicle (in this case, the Shekinah) has been destroyed. (or exiled). There are certain mitzvot that Hasidic Jews perform which are thought to help reunite the Shekinah with G!D, that G!D might once again be manifest among us.
Well, that's probably more than you wanted to know, but there you have it. :)
Sources:
On the Mystical NAture of the Godhead , Gershom SCholem
The Hebrew Goddess , Raphael Patai
HAsidism: Between Ecstasy and MAgic , Moshe Idel
MAjor Trends in Jewish Mysticism , Gershom Scholem
And some threads which might be peripherally interesting on this topic:
http://www.mothersmagic.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2547
http://www.mothersmagic.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=492&highlight=shechinah