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The
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Apple Tree Editor
Dwelli
What is the "Shechinah"?
The Sabbath is welcomed as a bride.
You've always wondered now you know
Here is your chance to learn all kinds of compelling and unusual facts
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homework assignments).
very Shabbat, we sing a
wedding song of sorts.
Echa Dodi, "Come,
My Beloved," welcomes
the Shabbat Queen. As we sing the
last stanza ("Come in peace, crown
of God/Come with joy and cheer-
fulness/Amidst the faithful of the
chosen people/Come, 0 bride!
Come, 0 bride!"), we turn to the
door, bow and welcome the bride
with whom we are about to re-
enter a "marriage."
The Shabbat bride is probably
the best known of the feminine
images in Jewry, but it is hardly
the only one. Proverbs speaks of
Divine Wisdom, or hochma, as a
woman: a sister, a wife, a protec-
tor.
So, too, has the Torah been
defined as feminine; consider the
way in which it is dramatically and
carefully dressed and adorned and
even kissed, which recalls bridal
processions and, as we heard this
week on Simchat Torah, one who
is called to read from the Torah on
the holiday is known as a hatan, or
bridegroom.
Probably the most mysterious of
all feminine images in Judaism,
however, is that of the Shechinah.
The word itself translates to
"dwelling." When rabbis used the
word Shechinah, they referred to
God's spiritual presence in our
world, rather than the unknow-
able, more ethereal aspects of His
being that lie out of our reach.
Initially, the Shechinah was not
spoken of as a woman, but rather
as simply a nurturing, safeguard-
ing presence. Those who converted
to Judaism were said to have come
"under the wings of the
Shechinah," while Moses was
believed to have gone to his grave
also riding the "wings of the
Shechinah."
So when, then, did this seeming-
ly more knowable aspect of God
become feminine?
In the Kabbalah.
The Kabbalah, Jewish mystical
writings that developed in France
and Spain toward the end of the
12th century CE, was the first to
describe the Shechinah as a
woman (alternately as a queen, a
daughter and a bride, and at times
as all of Israel itself). In fact,
author and scholar Gershom
Scholem labeled this kabbalist
novelty "one of the most impor-
tant and lasting [of its] innova-
tions."
Probably the best-known kabbal-
ist text, the Zohar, was written
down by Moses de Leon of
Granada (c. 1300 C.E.), who
attributed the work to Simeon ben
Yochai, a talmudic scholar of the
2nd century CE.
The Zohar was the first to sug-
gest that God and the Shechinah
had been separated after Adam's
sin of eating the forbidden fruit.
So, too, do all of man's sins further
separate God and the Shechinah,
just as by doing mitzvot (corn-
mandments), we help to unite the
two, the Zohar said.
In this way, the Jewish people
themselves are like the Shechinah:
As we do mitzvot, we become clos-
er to God, and as we stray from
His commandments, so God
moves further from our reach.
Throughout history, rabbis and
scholars have written of various,
specific images of the Shechinah;
one said that he saw the Shechinah
at the Kotel, or Western Wall of
the Temple in Jerusalem, for exam-
ple. Still others have concentrated
on a more alluring aspect of this
mysterious femininity, saying that
when the Shechinah unites with
God, it is like a husband and wife
joining in marital relations.
Not surprisingly, Jewish femi-
nists have taken a great interest in
the Shechinah, which also has
become the focus of a number of
folk tales and stories in modern
Jewish literature. ❑
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