Based on this description, the personification of Wisdom in Proverbs certainly seems to represent a mythic figure. Wisdom appears earlier in Proverbs 3:19: Yahweh by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens. Jeremiah 10:12 speaks of God having established the world with wisdom: He has made the earth by His power, has established the world by His wisdom, as does Psalms 104:24: How manifold are Your works, O Lord! With wisdom have You made them all. One kabbalistic interpretation of the first verse of Genesis (bereshit bara elohim et ha-shamayim ve et ha-aretz) interprets the first words as “With the beginning” instead of “In the beginning,” since bereshit can be understood both ways. Reshit, “the beginning,” is then identified with Wisdom, since Proverbs 8:22 states that “God created me at the beginning.”
Drawing on his allegorical method, Philo identifies God as the “father” of all that was created, and Wisdom as the “mother,” i.e., the knowledge with which God had intercourse, though not in the manner of humans, to engender all that was created (De Ebrietate 30). This is a good example of how Philo’s allegories straddle allegory and myth.
Some view Wisdom as an early personification of God’s feminine aspect, the Shekhinah. Wisdom also resembles the Gnostic concept of the Anima Mundi, the “world soul.” Indeed, the most extensive development of Wisdom as a mythic figure is found in Gnostic literature. See, for example, Ptolemy’s version of the Gnostic myth in Against Heresies by Irenaeus 1.1.1-1.8.5, which was the best-known account of Gnostic myth until the discovery of the Coptic manuscripts of Nag Hammadi.
In some texts, Wisdom is given a more active role in Creation. In 3 Enoch 30:8, for example, on the sixth day of Creation God commanded Wisdom to create man out of the seven components: his flesh from earth, his blood from dew and from the sun, his eyes from the bottomless sea, his bones from stone, his reason from the speed of the angels, his veins and hair from the grass of the earth, his spirit from God’s spirit and from the wind.
Sources:
Job 28:13-28; Proverbs 1:20-33, 8:1-31, 9:1-6; Targum Neophyti on Genesis 3:24; Philo, De Cherubim 14:49; Philo, De Fuga et Inventione 50-52; Philo, De Virtutibus 62; Philo, De Ebrietate 30; Philo, Quaestiones et Solutiones in Genesim 4:97; 1 Enoch 42; Wisdom of Solomon 7:25ff., 8:3; Midrash Mishlei 8; The Wisdom of Ben Sira 24:3-9; Sancti Irenaei libros quinque adversus haereses 1:30; Odes of Solomon 7; Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 4:38; Genesis Rabbah 1:1.
Studies:
Wisdom Has Built Her House: Studies on the Figure of Sophia in the Bible by Silvia Schroer.
63. MOTHER ZION
Mother Zion cries and laments over the children of Israel when they are in exile, and she waits for them to return to her bosom.
When Jeremiah saw the smoke of the Temple in Jerusalem rising up, he broke down. And when he saw the stones that once were the walls of the Temple, he said: “What road have the exiles taken? I will go and perish with them.”
So Jeremiah accompanied them down the road covered with blood until they reached the river Euphrates. Then he thought to himself: “If I go on to Babylon, who will comfort those left in Jerusalem?” Therefore he took his leave of the exiles, and when they saw he was leaving, they wept, as it is said, By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, sat and wept, as we thought of Zion (Ps. 137:1).
As he was returning to Jerusalem, Jeremiah lifted his eyes and saw a woman seated at the top of a mountain, dressed in black, crying in distress, in great need of comfort. So too
was Jeremiah in tears, wondering who would comfort him. He approached the woman, saying, “If you are a woman, speak, but if you are a spirit, depart at once!” She said: “Do you not recognize me? I am she who has borne seven sons, whose father went into exile in a distant city by the sea. Then a messenger brought the news that my husband, the father of my children, had been slain. And on the heels of that messenger came another with the news that my house had fallen in and slain my seven sons.”
Jeremiah said: “Do you deserve any more comfort than Mother Zion, who has been made into a pasture for the beasts?” And she replied: “I am Mother Zion, the mother of seven, as it is said, She who bore seven is forlorn, utterly disconsolate” (Jer. 15:9).
This myth grows out of the verse She who bore seven is forlorn, utterly disconsolate (Jer. 15:9). It also is linked to Isaiah 66:8: For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. The “she” is identified with the Land of Israel, giving birth to the figure of Mother Zion, a personification of Zion. Mother Zion cries and laments over the children of Israel when they are in exile, and she waits for them to return to her bosom. There is also an important passage in 2 Kings 19:21-28 concerning “Fair Maiden Zion,” another feminine personification of Zion. This is also understood to be the feminine personification of Jerusalem: Fair Maiden Zion despises you, she mocks at you; Fair Jerusalem shakes her head at you. Other passages in Isaiah personify Jerusalem’s grief in ways identical to that of Mother Zion: Her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground (Isa. 3:26).
At the same time, Mother Zion is an early incarnation of the Shekhinah, who is the mother of Israel, and whose home was the Temple in Jerusalem. Thus the link between Mother Zion and the Shekhinah is a natural one, and Mother Zion may be viewed as one of the personas of the Shekhinah, as distinct as Her identity as the Bride of God. Still, the figure of Mother Zion must be seen as a strong remnant of goddess worship in Judaism, where Mother Zion is the goddess of Zion. The concept of Zion itself attributes a sacred quality to the Land of Israel, transforming it into the Holy Land, and making a personification such as Mother Zion possible.
An earlier version of this vision of a mourning woman, much like that in Pesikta Rabbati, is found in IV Ezra 9:38-10:24, dating from around the first century. Thus a strong case can be made that there is a direct chain of tradition from Jeremiah 15:9 to IV Ezra to Pesikta Rabbati, an early medieval midrash. A subsequent version of this story, dating from the sixteenth century, concerns a vision of Rabbi Abraham Berukhim. See “A Vision at the Wailing Wall,” p. 63.
Sources:
Pesikta Rabbati 26:7; 4 Ezra 9:38-10:24; Em ha-Banim S’mehah.
Studies:
“The Metamorphosis of Narrative Traditions: Two Stories from Sixteenth Century Safed” by Aryeh Wineman.
64. THE CREATION OF THE SHEKHINAH
God’s heavenly treasures were hidden in the innermost of many chambers. They could not be revealed to anyone, for they were too well hidden.
So God decided to bring together His heavenly treasures in his daughter, the Shekhinah. That way he would make them available to the world, but only to those who knew where they could be found.
So God saw to it that His daughter, the Shekhinah, contained within Herself all the paths of wisdom. Whoever knows those paths has access to God, and to all heavenly wisdom. And whoever would like to fathom those paths must turn to Her for help, for only She knows where God has hidden His heavenly treasures.
This myth is presented in the form of a parable in Sefer ha-Bahir, where God is identified as a king, as is standard in rabbinic parables about God. His daughter is the Shekhinah. Despite the allegorical format, the myth being conveyed is quite apparent—it is the myth of the divine pair, but here the male and female are both somehow contained within the same mythic figure. Thus God contains both the male and the female elements, even though they may appear to act independently of each other. Here monotheism reclaims the wholeness of God no matter how many aspects of God are portrayed. From this perspective, dualism itself becomes a form of monotheism. This paradox makes it possible to define a divinity capable of changing His mind, who could have masculine and feminine aspects and still be considered a single divine being.
The concept that God has masculine and feminine aspects is explicitly stated in Zohar 3:290a: “As the Ancient One, whose name be blessed, took on a form, He shaped everything in male and female form. In another form things could not exist. Therefore the first beginning of deve
lopment was at once male and female, with Hokhmah as father and Binah as mother.” And the Zohar restates the Bahir’s identification of the Shekhinah as mother, daughter, and sister: “She (Malkhut—the sefirah representing the Shekhinah) is sometimes called daughter and sometimes sister, and here She is called mother. And in fact She is all these” (Zohar 2:100b).
What are the heavenly treasures in the parable? They are the secrets of Creation and other heavenly mysteries. God is not going to reveal these to everyone, but only to the initiated. These secrets were all used to create God’s daughter, representing God’s feminine aspect, known as the Shekhinah. Thus all the mysteries of God are focused in this single figure.
The parable in Sefer ha-Bahir also states that God hid His treasures not only in the Shekhinah, but in Her garments as well. These garments can be identified as the Oral Torah, or even as the Torah itself. This suggests that the Torah is the means by which God reveals His secrets of Creation.
See “God’s Daughter,” p. 312.
Sources:
Sefer ha-Bahir 63.
Studies:
The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God by A. Marmorstein, pp. 103-104.
“Shekhinah: The Feminine Element in Divinity” in On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead by Gershom Scholem, pp. 140-196.
“Daughter, Sister, Bride and Mother: Images of the Femininity of God in the Early Kabbala” by Peter Schäfer.
“The Metamorphosis of Narrative Traditions: Two Stories from Sixteenth Century Safed” by Aryeh Wineman.
65. GOD’S NAMES FOR THE SHEKHINAH
Because of His love for the Shekhinah, God sometimes calls Her “My sister,” since they are both from the same place. Sometimes He calls Her “My daughter,” since She is truly His daughter. And sometimes He calls Her “My Mother.”
When Abraham said of Sarah, “She is my sister” (Gen. 20:2), he was speaking about the Shekhinah, who was constantly with Sarah. Indeed, when Abraham saw the Shekhinah in the abode of Sarah, he was emboldened to declare, “She is my sister.” For in so speaking, Abraham was making a mystical allusion, for the Shekhinah is the daughter of Supernal Wisdom, and in calling her his sister, Abraham was following the admonition, Say unto Wisdom, you are my sister (Prov. 7:4).
The Shekhinah represents the feminine aspect of God. In this passage from the Sefer ha-Bahir, the point is made that all representations of the feminine are included. For just as humans have daughters, sisters, brides, and mothers, so the divine feminine figure has all of these characteristics as well.
Abraham’s identification of Sarah as his sister is interpreted in the Zohar as a reference not to Sarah, but to the Shekhinah. The Zohar states that Abraham used the term in a mystic sense, as in the verse my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled (S. of S. 5:2). The Zohar also identifies the Shekhinah with the figure of Wisdom, linking “She is my sister” with the verse, Say unto wisdom, You are my sister (Prov. 7:4).
Sources:
Sefer ha-Bahir 63; Zohar 1:80a-82a, 1:11b-112a, 2:98b-99a.
Studies:
“Daughter, Sister, Bride and Mother: Images of the Femininity of God in the Early Kabbala,” by Peter Schäfer.
“Bride, Spouse, Daughter” by Arthur Green.
66. THE TWO SHEKHINAHS
God’s daughter, the Shekhinah, exists in two realms at the same time. There is a Shekhinah above, just as there is a Shekhinah below.
In Her divine manifestation, She stays in heaven, as it is said, All of the glory of the king’s daughter is within Her (Ps. 45:14). There she guards the secrets of the Written Torah.
But in her earthly manifestation she comes down to earth from a faraway land, from the side of light, and she reveals the secrets of the Oral Torah. For She is God’s messenger, and the world is illuminated through Her deeds, for her deeds give light to the world.
So that they can always communicate, God has built a window between them, and whenever She needs Her Father, or He needs Her, they join one another through the window. In this way God Himself enters the world in the form of His daughter.
This parable in Sefer ha-Bahir presents the relationship between the feminine elements of the sefirot in mythic terms. The two Shekhinahs, also known as the Two Mothers, refer to the third sefirah, Binah, the symbol of the mother, and the tenth sefirah, Malkhut, which represents the Shekhinah. Thus Binah stands for the upper feminine, the heavenly Shekhinah, and Malkhut stands for the earthly feminine, whose home is in the Temple in Jerusalem. The importance of this myth is to demonstrate that a divine feminine presence can be found above and below. The role of the heavenly Shekhinah derives from the position of the third sefirah, Binah, where the Shekhinah represents God’s glory, and she is united with God in the innermost chamber of the king. At the same time, the earthly Shekhinah is linked to the tenth sefirah, Malkhut, where the Shekhinah is in a position to exert her influence on the lives of human beings.
Another way of reading this myth is to see it as referring to the two Torahs, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. Sefer ha-Bahir makes an explicit reference to this tradition in identifying the Shekhinah as a princess, coming from “a faraway land, from the side of light,” which would seem to be a reference to heaven. In this kabbalistic myth, the heavenly manifestation of the Shekhinah is linked to the Written Torah, and Her earthly manifestation is linked to the Oral Torah. While the accepted rabbinic tradition is that God revealed both the Written and the Oral Torah at Mount Sinai, Sefer ha-Bahir seems to be suggesting that the Written Torah remains in heaven, while the Oral Torah has been revealed on earth. See “The Betrothal of the Torah,” p. 256.
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav’s famous first story, “The Lost Princess,” from Sippurei Ma’asiyot, also concerns a princess, and, as is almost always the case, the king represents God, while the princess represents the Shekhinah, the feminine aspect of God. In “The Lost Princess,” Rabbi Nachman describes this princess as having vanished mysteriously, somehow lost to the Other Side. The quest to return the lost princess from Her exile turns out to be an arduous one, which remains unfinished at the end of Rabbi Nachman’s story.
Sources:
Sefer ha-Bahir 54.
Studies:
Origins of the Kabbalah by Gershom Scholem, pp. 49-198.
“Daughter, Sister, Bride and Mother: Images of the Femininity of God in the Early Kabbala.” by Peter Schäfer.
“Bride, Spouse, Daughter” by Arthur Green.
The Early Kabbalah, edited by Joseph Dan, pp. 59-69.
“The Metamorphosis of Narrative Traditions: Two Stories from Sixteenth-Century Safed” by Aryeh Wineman.
“The Quest for the Lost Princess” by Howard Schwartz.
67. THE EARTHLY DWELLING OF THE SHEKHINAH
From the beginning of the world’s Creation, the Shekhinah dwelt in this lower world. Her original abode was in the Garden of Eden, residing on a cherub under the Tree of Life. Indeed, the primal root of the Shekhinah was planted there. Bands of angels descended from heaven to serve the will of the Shekhinah in all ways. When God went in and out of the Garden, everyone in the world gazed upon the splendor of the Shekhinah, which radiated from one end of the world to the other, far more brilliant than the sun.
When Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden, they dwelt at the Gates of the Garden to gaze upon the radiant appearance of the Shekhinah. In the presence of the Shekhinah they experienced no illness nor suffered any pain. No demons could obtain power over them, nor could they injure them.
Some say that the Shekhinah remained on earth until Adam sinned, and then was removed to the first heaven. Others say that as soon as Adam broke the commandment, the Shekhinah fled on Her own from the Garden of Eden. Still others say that the Shekhinah remained on earth until the rise of idolatry in the generation of Enosh. Using magic taught to them by the fallen angel Azazel, that wicked generation brought down the sun, the moon and the stars and stationed them before their idols, to serve them.
Then the angels brought a complaint before God,
and God immediately removed the Shekhinah from their midst. And as the Shekhinah ascended on high, the angels surrounded Her with psalms and songs and by the sound of the shofar and trumpets, as it is said, God went up with a fanfare of trumpets (Ps. 47:6). Indeed, some say that in this way the angels themselves succeeded in raising up the Shekhinah on high. The glory of the Shekhinah rose from the heavenly firmament to the chambers of the palace, from the chambers of the palace to the palace of majesty, from the palace of majesty to the fiery citadel, from the fiery citadel to the flaming castle, from the flaming castle to the ranks of the angels, from the ranks of the angels to the wheels of the chariot, from the wheels of the chariot to the Throne of Glory.
Then the heavens rejoiced, clothed in joyful garments and wrapped in glory. The sun and the moon and all the stars danced before the Throne of Glory and before God. But while the heavens celebrated, the Prince of the World and all the orders of creation put on mourning and clothed themselves with grief and sighing, as it is said, Therefore the land will mourn (Hos. 4:3).
Still others say that the Shekhinah departed from earth after the sin of Adam, but returned when the Ark of the Tabernacle was constructed, and made Her home there. Later, She took up residence in the Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem and remained there until the Temple was destroyed. Some say that the Shekhinah returned to heaven after that, while others say that She went into exile with her children, Israel, but she still returns from time to time to visit the Kotel, the last remaining wall of the Temple, that once was Her home.
Then there are those who insist that the Shekhinah never dwelt in the lower world from the time of the Creation until the Tabernacle was erected. But from that time forward she did dwell there.
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