Ohad Ezrahi's Articles

the Feminist myth of the Jewish new-year
The Feminist Mythos of the Jewish New Year.
Ohad Ezrahi's column in the Magazine "Hayim Aherim" No. 24, September 1998.
Rosh haShanah, the Jewish New Year, is approaching and it is appropriate to know the meaning of this holiday in the context of the Kabbalah. The Mekubalim (Kabbalists) have a unique meditative work which is called Kavanot - "intent". In fact, the whole study of the Kabbalah is conceived by main stream Mekubalim as aiming to enable one to perform Kavanot. Accordingly, there are systems of Kabbalistic Kavanot for each commandment, each prayer and each holiday. The prayer of a common Jew may last for five minutes, but the exact same prayer when performed by a Mekubal mekhaven, may take over an hour of supreme concentration.
Now the Kavanot for Rosh haShanah, if studied well, point to a whole order of spiritual work which aims to raise the feminine dimension in reality and to bring an equality between the masculine and the feminine in the world. The New Year of the ARI (Lurianic) Kabbalah is the holiday of Jewish feminism! How?
Leshem Yihud - for the sake of Unification
We have already discussed (in former issues of this magazine) the systems of different Partsufim - "configurations" or "faces" - through which the Infinite Light (Or En-Sof) is revealed in reality, and we have also mentioned that the two main Partsufim in the system of divinity (the Atzilut) are the male and female faces of the divine or, in the language of the Mekubalim "Ze'er Anpin ve Nukba", which are called in the language of the Talmudic sages haKadosh barukh Hu u-Shekhinato (the Holy Blessed One and His Shekhinah). These two Partsufim symbolize two systems of consciousness through which the divinity communicates to humans: One kind of consciousness conceives of the divinity as something distant, sublime, holy and whole, and therefore also a bit intimidating; whereas another is a softer kind of consciousness - we may feel the divinity as the animating spirit (Ru'ah, meaning also "wind") flowing within everything, enlivening it from within itself, confirming and caressing; the Ru'ah-wind whose wholeness issues from the integration of all the myriad things inside her. The one is a conception of masculine divinity, the other is of feminine divinity. Therefore, the distant and holy face of divinty we call "the Kadosh barukh Hu" (a masculine third person name), and the present and soft face we call "the Shekhinah" (a feminine name), namely: the divinity which dwells (Shokhenet) inside of reality and not above and apart from it.
If we try to condense the uniqueness of the Jewish-Kabbalist concept of divinity in one sentence, we may say that it tries to connect, at each moment, these two concepts into one unity, the transcendental divinity with the immanent one, or in the language of the Kabbalah: to unify (le'yahed) the Kadosh barukh Hu with his Shekhinah. From this comes the habit of saying before every act of holy work "I am doing this for the sake of unifying the transcendental and the immanent - leshem Yihud Kudsha brikh Hu u'Shekhinteh".
Zivugim - Conjunctions
In the language of the Kabbalah we call the act of unifying the Shekhinah and the Kadosh barukh Hu "Zivug", namely conjunction or union. This is what we, as Jews, do all the time: meyahadim, namely conjoin the two faces of the divinity with each other, the transcendental male and the immanent female, and regard them as one, without separation.
For a couple, there are several possible modes of interconnection. There is a physical-sexual connection, there is a connection of partnership in feelings of love, and there is a connection of shared ideas and mutual spiritual fertilization. In the language of the Kabbalah we designate these by three types of Zivugim: Zivug be (among the) Sephirot of Yesod (of both the male and the female) which is the sexual union; Zivug be Tif'eret which is the emotional union, and Zivug be Mohin which is the spiritual-intellectual union. The goal of the Kabbalah is for male and female to realize all three types of union together. Our wish is for the divine "faces", the Shekhinah and her Loving Mate, to come together, not only in the basic sense in which they bring to our world a plenitude of physical vitality, but also in the two higher unions. This is the goal of the Kavanot work of the New Year.
The Feminist Revolt
The Lurianic Kabbala (Kabalat haARI'zl) describes the state of the relationship between the Shekhinah and her Beloved as very dynamic. They do not always merit a full union in all its aspects. On the contrary, the "initial" state is only a sexual union between them, and at times also an emotional one. According to the description, the Shekhinah is of small stature compared to the Ze'er Anpin and her head reaches only to his chest. Namely: what for her is considered "head", Mohin ("brains"), Hokhmah (Wisdom) etc, is for him considered as emotions and feelings (does this sounds familiar?). She is not on his level. So what aught to happen? The Shekhinah should increase, grow, develop and reach a state in which she is the equal of her mate in all repects.
There is a passage in the book of Kavabot called Pri Etz Hayim (the Fruit of the Tree of Life) which I like very much. In this passage, Rabbi Hayim Vital (the disciple and scribe of the ARI) writes that as long as the female receives her vitality, her lights, from the male, she cannot develop into a state in which she is equal to him because she is receiving from him. In order to grow into a state of equality she must first disconnect herself from him and become independent.
The Shekhinah, the woman, the female, the feminine must first disengage from the male, receive her own lights (from the Partsufim above them both: ""Abba ve'Ima" Father and Mother) and develop. The time when this process takes place is Rosh haShanah, the New Year. At Rosh haShanah we engage in Kavanot that facilitate the process of separation between the symbiots, as if aiding the Shekhinah (The Malkhut-Kingdom) to separate and grow by herself, without dependence on the male revelation.
This was the beginning of feminism: a revolt against the male world that was, until then, the intermediary between the woman and the world. The men supported the family (channeled vitality-Hayut), and had a monopoly on education (Mohin) which was "for males only". The first stage of feminism entails revolt and severance: We do not need men! We can be their equals in every way!
The second stage (which the global feminist process is largely at nowadays) entails the return to union (Zivug) and connection between the male and female. This re-union is not based on dependence and inequality, but on the awareness that each is different from the other and nevertheless equal in all, and fructify each other.
This Zivug, the second one, takes place at Shemini Atseret, at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles (the 23rd of the month Tishre), and we may, if the Shekhinah is willing, enlarge about it in the next article. Meanwhile, we have much work to discover and develop the feminine understanding within ourselves (men and women alike), and give it a better chance of expression: to make more room for each other, to be more accepting, to create an atmosphere of partnership and amity and to get out of the critical mind. Shall we succeed in creating a Jewish-Israeli society that will express from within it this awareness , the Shekhinah consciousness?
Worlds of Doubt


WORLDS OF DOUBT
On Certainty and Uncertainty in the Religious Experience
by Yisrael Ohad Ezrahi


Uncertainty?a word that has come to define our age, that has rooted itself in the consciousness of our generation to produce new approaches to the fundamental questions of life. It was not too long ago that each person knew his place; he knew what was certain, even when he did not feel it. Today, the situation has changed. Everything is open to question, and the strong staff of certainty, which lent support to so many past generations, has in our time collapsed under our hands.
This truth is most acutely felt in the world of science. Less than one hundred years ago, scientific progress was thought to be nearing its end. Only time and effort stood between man and an absolute knowledge of the universe. According to the theories of that era, were it possible for us to know all the details and factors present in a given moment of creation, we could deduce, through the laws of physics, all prior and subsequent states of being.
Today, after revolutions in the field of scientific thought, this view has radically changed, and needless to say, the theory has been completely abandoned. The work of Albert Einstein, Heisen-berg?s Uncertainty Principle, and Chaos Theory have brought science to a newer, and humbler, understanding of its ability to interpret reality. The inability to reach any definite conclusions concerning the nature of existence has not merely become an accepted hypothesis, but a foundation of scientific thought in our time.
This is true regarding the world of science. However, in the area of religion?the realm of faith?few people would believe that such a revolution in thought is possible.
At first glance, it would seem that a man of faith lives a life of complete certainty, or, in any event, sets certainty as the foundation of his world view. The believer is free from the doubts that plague the rest of the world. For if the smallest doubt were to creep into his awareness, his faith would be blemished. He would no longer be a believer, but a doubter, a philosopher, or a heretic.
But this is only true regarding a superficial level of faith. On another level?a deeper level?not only can a believer enter the world of doubt, uncertainty itself becomes the essence of faith (as we shall explain).
We enter now into worlds of uncertainty, moving from the skepticism of the disbeliever, to the doubts born out of the highest level of faith. On the way, we will discuss the various convictions of the religious life. We will outline the progression through the various worlds?doubt, certainty, doubt?and how they reflect an ever maturing vision of the soul in the subtle connection between G-d and man.
As a format for our discussion, we will use the Book of Job, which can be read entirely as a basis for these ideas (not to exclude other, equally valid interpretations of the text). Thus, we begin with a short summary of the book.
Job?virtuous, upright, entirely free of sin?is put to the ultimate test. His children all die, his property is destroyed, his entire body is afflicted with the most painful sores, and all for nothing?there was nothing he did to deserve such punishment. The question that rings throughout the Book of Job is, where is G-d?s justice?
Job?s situation elicits various responses. His wife would have him curse his Creator and die. Job disagrees. He maintains his faith in G-d, although he also affirms his own innocence. He believes in G-d, although he protests the lack of Divine justice that he perceives.
Three friends come to comfort Job. They are of one mind?the L-rd is just and therefore, Job must be a sinner. His suffering is the greatest proof of his guilt. If he were only to examine his deeds, they tell him, he would see that G-d is right. But Job refuses to concede to their opinion?a fact that his friends regard as a further sin.
After a long debate between Job and his three friends, a fourth friend adds his voice. Elihu ben Birkhel is the youngest of the group, yet he denounces his older friends? accusations and supports Job?s innocence. Nevertheless, he maintains that G-d is just, asserting that we can never fully understand His ways.
Finally, in the midst of Elihu?s argument, G-d reveals Himself to Job in a storm-wind. He repudiates the position of the three friends, and affirms the position of Elihu. In the end, Job never does get a clear answer to his question, but the encounter with the Ultimate provides him with a correct understanding of the vast difference between G-d and man. In light of this difference, Job?s questions disappear, as does his need to comprehend G-d?s ways.
Thus, there are five different reactions to Job?s suffering: his wife?s, his friends?, Job?s, Elihu?s, and (if we can say such a thing) G-d?s. Each is born out of a fundamentally different world view?based on either doubt or certainty. In ascending order they are doubt, certainty, doubt, certainty, doubt. These correspond to the five levels of the soul as taught by Kabbalah: nefesh, ruach, neshama, chaya, yechida. Finally, they correspond to the five worlds: Asiyah, Yetzirah, Beriyah, Atzilus, and what lies above.

DENIAL

?Then [Job?s] wife said to him, Do you still maintain your integrity? Curse G-d and die. But he said to her, You speak profanely. Shall we receive good from the L-rd, and not receive evil? ( Iyov 2:9-10).

Job?s wife represents those individuals who, in the face of their inability to understand G-d?s ways, retreat into heresy or denial. Understandably, the tragic events in her life?the total destruction of everything she held dear?brought deep doubts and questions to her faith. But Job?s wife chose not to live with these doubts; rather, she succumbed to them. She very quickly reached the conclusion that G-d?if He exists at all?is not a G-d worth serving. ?Curse G-d and die,? she told her husband.
When the lack of justice, reflected in the suffering of the world, forces one to cry out in pain, that pain breaks into the soul?s recesses and encounters there a core of faith. Then, that very cry is transformed from one of pain to an inner question, and a positive drive for resolution. This inner conflict between doubt and faith can produce new depths in the soul. However, when these doubts broke into the consciousness of Job?s wife, they did not encounter there a firm, inner faith. Questions of injustice impinging from without did not encounter an affirmation of faith emerging from within, to generate a maelstrom that penetrates to the depths. In the inner workings of her soul, the flow of influence was one-sided. The unjust reality of life entered her world-view unchallenged by any internal conviction. Thus, she reached the conclusion, ?Curse G-d and die.?
But it was not the doubts themselves that brought Job?s wife to a position of heresy. Rather, the foundations of denial were already present within her. It only required an encounter with the cruel outer world to bring her inner emptiness into revelation.
There is only one remedy for such individuals?fear of G-d and fear of punishment. Only such an attitude can prevent a complete collapse into apostasy in the face of suffering. Thus, the Talmud says: ?If you are about to kick, remember that you fear [G-d]; for one who fears, does not kick? ( Yerushalmi Brachos 4).
This form of doubt can bring a person to heresy. It cools off the inner fire of belief and generates ridicule and indifference toward matters of the spirit. It is the Amalek of the soul. (As Chassidus teaches, the word ?doubt? is the numerical equivalent of ?Amalek.?) Thus the verse says, ?Remember what Amalek did to you as you came out of Egypt; how he met you ( karcha) on the way? ( Devorim 25:17-18). Karcha?related to the word karirus, he cooled you down, and mikra, a chance encounter. For to regard the world as a mere series of chance events, without the belief in an inner spiritual purpose, is to fall into doubt, indifference and ultimately, mockery.
This seems to have been the perspective of Job?s wife. Too quickly, she concluded that her husband?s suffering was without reason or providence. There was no inner meaning to life. Thus, she lost her faith, until she even cursed the One.
In the order of Worlds, the position of Job?s wife corresponds to the world of Asiyah , the lowest level of creation, in which Divine Providence is most hidden, and the ?reality? of the created world most striking. In the soul, it corresponds to the level of nefesh, the animating force of creation. There is little perception of spirit on this level, and a person defined from the aspect of nefesh is regarded as simply another biological creature. Therefore, the outer world overwhelmed the inner assumptions of Job?s wife. Asiyah corresponds to the last letter hey in G-d?s four letter name ( d"edi), and to the world of Malchus, of which it is said, ?Her feet go down to death? ( Mishle 5:5).


CERTAINTY

There are some people who ?know everything.? For every dilemma, they have a ready and learned answer. There is no room for questions in their inner world, much less uncertainty. Individuals such as these?often at the forefront of the public eye?present a picture of truth that is unquestionable and unshakable.
This approach is represented in our story by the three friends of Job. Surprisingly, there is a certain similarity between them and Job?s wife, for neither can deal with the existence of doubt. Just as Job?s wife had a one-sided view of the world, so did his three friends?but in the opposite direction. For Job?s wife, the difficult and inexplicable facts of life impinged upon her soul, unchallenged by an inner core of faith. For Job?s three friends, the opposite was true. Their vast and proven knowledge was ever-ready to flood outward and impress itself upon reality, or at least, upon the minds of those who heeded them. They were not truly responsive to the world, thus, they too lacked the internal tension that produces depth of soul.
These men held great knowledge, but it was a knowledge that continually reaffirmed their previously held beliefs. Their self-assurance was like a wall that separated them from reality, denying the possibility of an opposing view to enter their world. Theirs was not a dialogue with life, but a monologue.
Perhaps this position is born out of fear, for an attitude of certainty creates a protective border around a person. One need not be thrown into the endless possibilities of life. The boundaries of one?s inner world are well known?secure and therefore comforting.
A world-view of infinite possibilities deeply disturbs these sure-minded men. Not only when it stirs within them, but also when they hear it articulated by others. As long as it remains unexpressed, the position of uncertainty can be tolerated, but a person who dares give it voice will only incite their wrath. Such was Job?s fate. At first, his friends came to comfort him; eventually they were to attack him.
Job curses the day he was born; he complains about the lack of Divine justice. But his three friends claim the opposite. Job is to blame for his condition. He must not be as righteous as he appears. Their accusations mount until they attribute to him the most heinous crimes.
Job returns the attack. To him, his friends are mere hypocrites, fawning G-d with their empty wisdom. ?You are from among the people, and knowledge will pass away with you? ( Iyov 12:1).
I am as smart as you, Job told his friends. ?What you know, I know also. I am no worse than you? ( ibid. 13:2). The only difference was that Job was looking for justice, whereas his friends were merely mouthing empty opinions to find favor in G-d?s eyes. ?I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with G-d,? said Job. ?But you are forgers of lies. . . . If only you would keep quiet; in that would be your wisdom? ( ibid. 13:14-15).
However, not only did Job?s three friends refuse to keep quiet, (as the verse says, ?The wise in that time shall keep silent? ( Amos 5:13)), they attacked Job with accusations of heresy. ?You throw off fear, and slight the prayer that is made before G-d. Your mouth utters iniquity, and chooses deceptive words. Your own mouth condemns you and not I; your own lips testify against you? ( ibid. 15:4-6). Job?s words, at odds with their religious convictions, only prove his wickedness, and ultimately his three friends stop trying to comfort him. And yet, they continued in their argument?the only one they knew: ?How good it is to be a tzaddik, and how terrible to be a sinner.?
One of the clearest signs of spiritual immaturity is the individual?s need to constantly persuade others of his personal truth. Just as there is a natural process of physical and emotional development, which, if impeded, can produce anxieties and neuroses; so too on the spiritual level, there is a process of maturation, reflected in one?s understanding of the tripartite relationship of G-d, man and the world. If impeded, it will leave the seeker on a low level of spiritual awareness. The need to influence others derives from a lack of spiritual resolution, and the fear to face the unknown.
Job complained about his loneliness?that no one understood him. His friends tried to define his complex situation in simple and predictable terms, but this only furthered Job?s pain. ?How long will you vex my soul, and tear me to pieces with words? Ten times you have reproached me, and are not ashamed that you slight me? ( ibid. 19:2-3).
When an individual who seeks to define life by a simplified system of values encounters a person stubborn as Job, who denies the legitimacy of that system, he will ultimately come to twist the very facts of the situation in order to conform them to the system he proposes. Thus, while Eliphaz the Temani begins by encouraging Job, and suggesting that his sufferings are born of G-d?s love ??Behold, happy is the man whom G-d chastises; therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty? ( ibid. 5:17)?he soon changes his tone in the face of Job?s repeated assertion of his innocence: ?Is not your wickedness great, your iniquities infinite? You have taken pledges from your brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing. You have not given water to the weary to drink, and have withheld bread from the hungry. . . . You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. Therefore, snares are round about you, and sudden fear troubles you? ( ibid. 22:5-10).
In the course of their debate with Job, a clear picture emerges of his three friends. Although in their own eyes, and in the eyes of many others, they are models of faith, wisdom, and piety, in truth?as G-d Himself declares at the end of the book?they do not represent the opinion of the Almighty. Their words display only one thing: an inability to deal with Job?s dilemma, and their own fear to face the unknown.
Job?s three friends and their position of absolute certainty correspond to the world of Yetzirah and the letter vav of G-d?s Name, e. The world of Yetzirah is the world of clarity, as the verse says, ?He forms light ? yotzer ohr.?
Yetzirah is the world of the angels, who stand and praise the Creator constantly. Job?s friends were also ?angels? of a sort, for they vindicated their Creator without fail. Like angels, such individuals tend to remain always in one place. Whereas a human being moves from level to level??I have given you (man) to walk among these who are standing (angels)? ( Zechariah 3:7)?individuals such as Job?s friends cannot relate to the challenges, the difficulties, and the ups and downs that are the lot of the true spiritual searcher.


THE SEARCH

The search for G-d?for truth?is not an easy path, especially for one who already has touched, to a degree, some greater truth. How easy is it to stop in that place, where one can find answers to every question, and the fear of doubt is hidden behind a veil of certainty, of ready solutions drawn from holy books. It is possible for a person to relax on the spiritual quest, and not to expose himself again to the pain of the unknown.
However, those who want to leave the small island of certainty and jump into the large ocean of uncertainty will encounter difficulties?and waves of purification. They will make their way alone, separate from all of those who choose to remain on the island, who call after them with threats laced with fear.
In the Kabbalah, and in the writings of Chabad, there is discussion of the worlds of spiritual delight that the soul experiences in Gan Eden (the afterworld). ?Tzaddikim sit with their crowns upon their head, bathing in the radiance of the Divine Presence? ( Brachos 17a). That is, in the light of spiritual realization. This is a light of the Infinite Being, whose revelations are also infinite. Thus, the souls are constantly ascending from one level to another, from the lower Gan Eden to the upper Gan Eden. However, in order to pass from one stage to the next, there must be a complete detachment from the previous level. Only then can the soul continue to rise.
In Sha?arei Tzeddek, a commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah, Rabbi Shem Tov HaSefardi writes of the path of initiation upon which his teacher lead him in the study of Kabbalah:
?On every stop along the way, my teacher would leave me for two weeks, until I could memorize all the different [Divine Names]. Then he would command me to erase everything. ?My son, one must not become fixated on any one form, even if it is extremely lofty; for this is the secret of the Divine Names?the less they are understood by you, the greater their intrinsic value.??
Similarly, the Talmud relates that before Rabbi Zeira moved from Babylonia to the Land of Israel, he fasted one hundred days in order to forget the method of Torah study he had previously learned, and to prepare himself for the new approach of the schools of the Holy Land ( Bava Metzia 85a).
A break with the past is one of the most difficult conditions for accepting a new set of relationships. Kabbalah speaks of the soul?s ascent after death. Before each new level, it must purify itself in the Nahar Dinar?the River of Fire, a metaphor for the pain the soul experiences as it leaves one set of values and encounters the unknown.
Breaking one?s previously held assumptions is a recurring battle for the seeker of truth. Even a level of realization acquired after years of searching can eventually become stale, requiring the seeker to once again throw himself into the Nahar Dinar.
There are times when a person must martial an inner strength to stand before G-d in a position of doubt and inquiry. It is much easier to rest upon the definite, and a world view in which everything is explained, with no questions or uncertainties.
But in the eyes of one who is always searching, a person who maintains the opposite position?the idea that the world is in perfect order?even when a situation calls for a fresh approach, seems merely hypocritical. ?This also will be my salvation; for a hypocrite will not come before Him,? Job told his three friends ( Iyov 13:16). Or, as the Talmud states, ?Flatterers cannot behold the Divine Presence? ( Sotah 42a). The flatterer sacrifices something very precious?his integrity. Job accuses his friends of perverting the truth in their desire to curry favor with G-d. ?Will you speak wickedly for the sake of G-d, and talk deceitfully for Him?? ( Iyov 13:7).
The desire to find favor in G-d?s eyes through a postured and superficial piety is one of the greatest obstacles facing a man of faith. Often, without even noticing it, a person can fall away from his true inner beliefs?to garb himself in what one thinks is a proper religious persona, based on outer authority or social pressure, all for the sake of finding grace in G-d?s eyes. The following story illustrates such behavior.
The disciples of the Baal Shem Tov once gathered at midnight to recount the praises of the Jewish people. In his home, the Baal Shem Tov perceived that they were doing this only to please G-d, but not from their hearts. The Baal Shem Tov walked to the shul in anger, and said to them, ?You are praising Israel like a woman praises an illegitimate son before her husband. She thinks she is giving joy to her husband, but he hates the child to death. But I say that Israel is a holy nation, they are exceedingly good, filled with Torah, mitzvos and good midos .? Thus, the Baal Shem Tov continued until he gave true joy and pleasure to G-d, and drew down blessings and grace on all Israel. ( Midrash Rivash Tov , part 2, p.22)
?Truth is the seal of G-d,? says the Talmud. The great question is, where is this truth? In heaven, in books, in the heart? In other words, what truth are we talking about?an objective, metaphysical truth, or an individual, existential truth? The problem deepens when these two do not correspond. The Talmud relates that the prophet Yirmeyahu, who witnessed the destruction of his homeland, failed to praise G-d for the show of His might, because all he saw was the opposite?the catastrophe of the destruction. ?The prophets knew that their G-d was true,? concludes the Talmud, ?but they were not hypocrites.? G-d?s truth is the absolute truth, but a person who affirms it when his personal truth claims the opposite, is suspected of hypocrisy.
A rather unsophisticated view regards the Torah as an objective truth existing primarily outside a person, to which one must adapt oneself, but I do not think that is so. For there is actually nothing that a person can perceive in the ?exterior? world that does not already exist on the inner plane. Whatever we encounter in our lives?material objects, ideas, and even the Torah itself?exists only to the degree that it can be found in our soul. In other words, the only truth a person can recognize in the world is that truth he is already able to recognize in himself. To affirm more than that is false. Indeed, there are times when a person may feel like a liar, proclaiming truths that he does not believe in his heart; as though he were putting on an act, or trying to delude G-d, ?before Whom there is no hypocrisy.?
Thus, the search for G-d begins by first finding one?s own innermost point of truth.
A chassid once came to the study-hall of Reb Simcha Bunim of Pashischa. ?Why have you come?? asked the Rebbe. ?I?m searching for G-d,? the chassid replied. ?Then you needn?t have come here,? said Reb Bunim. ?For ?the whole earth is filled with His glory.? A person comes to Pashischa to search for himself.?
Job affirmed his inner truth to the end. He did not compromise, he was not a liar.
In order to traverse this path, a person must have true fear of G-d?for the way is dangerous. One walks a very narrow path, and always on the border?the border of the permissible, the border of sanity, and in general, the border of self-consciousness. The verse says, ?With my whole heart I have sought You, let me not wander from Your commandments? ( Tehilim 119:10). Precisely because I search for You with all my heart, in complete truth and sincerity, do I pray not to stray, not to err, not to stumble and fall away from Your mitzvos.
Job maintained his stance, built upon his inner commitment to truth. ?Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die, I will not abandon my integrity. I will hold fast to my righteousness, and not let it go? ( Iyov 27:3-5). This was Job?s integrity, that he did not lie to himself. His was a true simplicity, not one derived by falsely hiding his inner doubts. This is a mistake made by many ba?alei teshuva today, especially those with a superficial understanding of Chassidus. Rabbi Nachman emphasized simplicity in the service of G-d. But these individuals try to achieve this by denying their inner doubts. In this, they are only lying to themselves. Job?s words, ?Will you speak wickedly for the sake of G-d, and talk deceitfully for Him?? apply to them as well. A person stands naked before G-d at all times, how can he hide from Him his fears? And what kind of G-d does he envision, who cannot deal with his questions, his failures, and his doubts. What a poor and tattered garment he puts on G-d!
A person must present G-d with all of his experiences. ?L-rd, all my desires are before You, and my sighing is not hidden from You? ( Tehilim 38:10). Job accused G-d of injustice. Granted, this contradicts all the accepted postulates as taught in the religious books. But Job maintained his stance. ?Heaven can bow down and split the earth, but a person still won?t change his mind? remarked the Kotzker Rebbe.
Job faced G-d with a question, and with his whole heart sought an answer. His soul was full of doubts, but they did not weaken his faith or attachment to G-d. Rather, it was these very doubts that brought him closer?to prayer and personal integrity. ?Though He kill me, I will trust in Him? ( Iyov 13:15).
Job?s doubts, which is the doubt of a true question, corresponds to the world of Beriyah and the upper hey of G-d?s Name, d. Whereas Yetzirah is a world of certainty??He forms light?? Beri-yah is a world of darkness and doubt, ?He creates darkness? boreh choshech.?
Binah, ?understanding? (an aspect of Beriyah) is called by the Zohar ?the place that is open to question.? So too, all those whose souls are connected to the world of Beriyah are filled with doubts and questions.
Every question indicates a sense of lack, which is like an empty vessel that seeks to be filled with light. So too, the deeper one searches, the greater one?s vessel to hold the light meant to fill it.




INSPIRATION

Many people in our time?a generation of uncertainty? recognize the value of inner conflict, and the search for truth that does not fixate a person on one, limited perspective. Many respect the Job ?type,? whose struggle we described in the previous section. However, for many, this struggle becomes an end in itself, and the critical perspective, which refuses to accept any single group?s conclusions as final, becomes defined as the pinnacle of realization.
But a person who seeks truth in truth, who is ready to question everything, must also be prepared to question his own skepticism. Otherwise, the attitude of doubt becomes just another pose; that can win its owner respect and self-importance, especially when it becomes the hallmark of the culture. It is in order to burst this balloon of self-importance that we present the following section.
?So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then the wrath of Elihu ben Barahk?el . . . burned against Job, because he justified himself rather than G-d. And it burned against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job? ( ibid. 32:1-3). Elihu was not one of the three friends who had come from afar to comfort Job, and who ultimately admonished him. At first he was a bystander, merely eavesdropping the conversation. Though he was the youngest of the group, he nevertheless became enraged?against Job, who questioned G-d?s justice in the world, but did not question his own righteousness; and against his three friends, for the reasons mentioned above. Elihu represents a fourth position?a certainty that transcends all doubts and inquiries, that cuts to the heart of the living truth.
?I am young, and you are old; therefore I was afraid, and dared not declare my opinion to you. I said, Days should speak, and the multitude of years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in man; and the breath of the Almighty gives wisdom? ( ibid. 32:6-8). ?At first, I thought wisdom was something acquired with age,? said Elihu. ?Now I see that it is a gift from Above, something that a person perceives within.?
This means to say, it was precisely their insistence to rely on previously acquired knowledge that caused Job?s three friends to err. Despite their vast wisdom, they did not have the framework to properly understand his situation, and as long as they tried to define Job?s case in terms of their previously held assumptions, they were at a loss to explain it. What was needed was a new approach, a flash of inspiration born out of a direct response to the present situation?to Job?s condition and suffering.
Based on the above verse, ?the breath (lit. ? nishmas??the soul) of the Almighty gives wisdom,? the Baal Shem Tov formulated his famous statement: ?The soul of a person can teach him.? A person can gather much wisdom from the world, but all of it is merely preparation to the knowledge that he can learn from his own soul. Thus, the prophet Yirmeyahu spoke of a future time: ?This shall be the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, says the L-rd. I will put my Torah in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts . . . and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the L-rd: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest? ( Yirmeyahu 31:32-33). This is the perfected state, the revelation of a higher knowledge that is impossible for one person to teach another. It is the knowledge that a person learns from his own soul, from the Divinity within him. In this, a person can be certain!
A person whose knowledge flows straight from the source stands outside the established world order; it is impossible to define him. Likewise, the classical Biblical commentators find it difficult to define the character of Elihu. Some consider him wicked, and his words slanderous. Others consider him an arrogant and foolish youth, who added no new insights to the picture. Some regard him as extremely wise, and that he revealed a correct understanding of G-d?s providence in the world. The name Elihu ben Barahk?el has the same gematriya as the word Moshiach (358). Apparently, anyone with a true aspect the Moshiach may also be suspected of being the Serpent (358)!
In complaining about the spiritual insensitivity of his friends, Job comments, ?Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! That with an iron pen and lead, they were engraved in the rock forever! ( Iyov 19:23-24). Job wanted his words to be inscribed eternally, for a later generation. Perhaps he was ahead of his time, living in a generation of great certainty with no one to understand him. Eventually, though, someone would appreciate his position. ?I know that my avenger lives; he will rise when I shall be dust? ( ibid. 19:26). But, as we shall see, Elihu did understand Job, although he did not agree with him.
Job longed for his story to be inscribed. It was, though not in a book, but in his own flesh. His scabs were the letters, and his own skin was the parchment. However, the words were not of his own composition, they were the words of G-d, written, apparently, against him.
What can one say against such powerful words? Any response is futile, so long as it is removed from the situation, judging from ?above,? as it were. Words of such immediacy can only be countered with an immediate answer, not mere intellectual speculation.
It is known that each of Job?s three friends spoke from a different perspective. Eliphaz spoke in the words of a prophet: ?Now a word came stealthily to me, and my ear took fright at it. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls. . . . Then a spirit passed before my face . . . and I heard a voice saying, shall mortal man be more just than G-d?? ( ibid. 4:13ff). Beldad argued on behalf of the tradition, and Tzofer based his argument on human understanding and rationality. It is easy to understand why Job would reject these last two positions?how insufficient they are before the immediacy of his pain. But what about Eliphaz? Is not prophecy a direct message from G-d? Is it also, in some way, foreign to Job?s experience?
Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac of Homil, the chief disciple of the Baal HaTanya, explained that there were three stages in the revelation of Kabbalah: the system of the Ramak (R. Moshe Cordovero), the Arizal (R. Yitzchok Luria), and the Baal Shem Tov. They correspond to the concepts of succession, enclothment, and inspiration.
The system of the Ramak, the earliest of the three, outlines in great detail the descending order of the worlds, from highest cause to lowest effect. Each spiritual world stands ?above? the world beneath it. Heaven is above earth; G-d stands above man. This is like the prophecy of Eliphaz. It is a revelation of truth, but a truth that exists above human experience.
The Kabbalah of the Arizal is more complex. It speaks of the enclothment of each world within the next, as the soul is clothed in the body. That which is considered ?higher? in the Kabbalah of the Ramak is considered more ?internal? in the Kabbalah of the Ari. Each upper world comprises the soul of the world beneath it. G-d?s word emanates from within a person, not from above. Less than this level of revelation, Job was not willing to accept. Rightfully so, his questions, which burned his skin from the inside, demanded an answer that also came from within.
But the Kabbalah of the Baal Shem Tov is something altogether new, something totally unexpected, just as Elihu jumped unexpectedly into the debate, offering a totally new perspective. ?There is a spirit in man, and the breath the Almighty gives wisdom? ( ibid. 32:6-8). This is not prophecy, that descends from Above and impresses itself upon the bearer as an objective and irrefutable truth; it is a form of inspiration, a remarkably precise intuition. Thus, Elihu voiced an opinion that he did not hear from another, that sprang spontaneously into his mind, yet remarkably, was the very argument that G-d Himself eventually uses against Job. The essence of inspiration is a jump. The revelation from Above skips over all intermediary stages to rest upon the lowest level, at the opposite extreme from the source. It is the manifestation of a G-dly light, incomparably higher than a person?s own soul, that suddenly reveals itself in the consciousness.
The Baal Shem Tov was a man of inspiration, and therefore, a man of certainty. Likewise, his teachings have an air of certainty; the certainty of inspiration, not close-mindedness. They shine a light in the darkness of doubt and question, as is apparent to all who have passed through that darkness. As the Zohar says, ?There is no light but that which emanates from darkness.? It is a light of the highest of the worlds.
Elihu spoke with inspiration: What was his message? Did he provide Job with a rational answer to his problem? Not quite. Elihu did not try to answer the question of why the righteous suffer. He merely set things in their proper proportion, affirming the difference between G-d and man. For all of Job?s complaints derived from his attempts to judge G-d by human standards. ?In this you are not right. I will answer you, for G-d is much greater than man,? Elihu retorted ( ibid. 32:12).
Job was making two mistakes, said Elihu. The first was his inability to recognize the great difference between G-d and man; the second, his claim that G-d was silent to his cries and refused to engage him in dialogue. Elihu pointed out that Job was expressing a contradiction. He had reduced G-d?s wisdom and judgement to human terms, yet when it came time to argue with G-d over the apparent injustice, Job suddenly claimed that the Almighty transcended His creation and was unresponsive and inaccessible. Actually, the opposite is true. G-d?s ways are totally unfathomable to man. Yet despite this division, He communicates constantly with us?even with Job?if only we have the ears to hear it.
Elihu depicts two ways in which G-d communicates with human beings: through dreams and through sickness. This means to say, it was precisely by means of Job?s afflictions was G-d calling to him, said Elihu. This perspective is the opposite of Job?s, who saw in his suffering proof of G-d?s absence. Elihu tried to teach him that through his suffering, a connection with G-d could be formed.
Elihu says: ?Surely G-d speaks once, yea twice, yet man perceives it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings upon the bed, then He opens the ears of men. . . . He is also chastened with pain upon his bed, and the multiple of his bones with strong pain . . . for his soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the destroyers? ( ibid. 33:14-22).
It?s important to note that while Job speaks constantly about his suffering, he makes no mention of a dream. Elihu, however, feels that G-d would not bring such misfortune upon a person without a prior communication, though perhaps the message went unheeded. Indeed, in the very beginning of Job?s words, we do find allusion to a dream?if not a dream of the night, then to a daydream. Job says, ?For the thing which I feared has come upon me, and that of which I was afraid is come to me? ( ibid. 3:25). Even before his world was overturned, Job was concerned and afraid. Whether asleep or awake, the very thing he envisioned did in fact occur to him.
Whenever a person is gripped by a sudden fear, he should immediately pray for G-d?s mercy to be delivered from the threat, because it is for this reason that this fear was sent from heaven . As the Sages have said: A person should always precede his prayers to his suffering ( Sanhedrin 44b). And how does a person know of this suffering before it arrives, only through the fear that G-d arouses in him. ( Tzidkas HaTzaddik 168)
Job felt this fear before he was beset with afflictions. It was like a whisper in his ear. It should have called him to attention, to a dialogue with G-d. It should have brought him to prayer.
When G-d wants to bestow goodness upon a person, and all that He wants is for the person to pray for the thing, He causes the person to experience pain or fear in the very area that [G-d wants to bestow] . . . or [the person] sees someone else who is suffering from that very problem, and prays for mercy on the other?s behalf. . . . ( ibid. 170)
Elihu, a man of supernal certainty, turns our attention to the dialogue between G-d and man. Job, in his search, also turned directly to G-d. The difference is that Job failed to see the presence of G-d in the world, that reveals itself to the inspired individual in each leaf and grain of sand. As the Baal Shem Tov said, ?When one contemplates on the world, one contemplates on the G-d of the world.? A person like Job cannot enter into a true dialogue with G-d?he is too involved with his own suffering to pay attention.
The level of inspiration, and the light that shines there, corresponds to the world of Atzilus, above the darkness of Beriyah. In Kabbalistic terms, the world of Atzilus is filled with the light of Chochmah , which shines in the soul as a light of knowledge and certainty; as the verse says, ?The wisdom of a man enlightens his face? ( Koheles 8:1). In the teachings of Chassidus, Chochmah is referred to as a point of continual outflow, a spring of living waters, a small, focused point. Thus, Chochmah is signified by the letter yud of G-d?s name, i. This spring of certainty flows spontaneously in the inspired person, and is not the product of the acquired intellect.
On the level of the soul, Atzilus corresponds to Chaya, life, that flows without stopping. It is the life of certainty.
There are numerous individuals, from various groups, who claim divine inspiration. Clearly, many are fooling themselves, carried along on waves of the imagination. Many would be like Job, struggling to uphold their own inner truth in the face of society?s decrees. But not everyone can be like Elihu, a vessel for revelation. The uniqueness of Elihu?s words is that in the midst of them, we encounter G-d?s direct communication to Job. In a sense, Elihu was preparing Job for the revelation that was to follow. For true inspiration is validated when it leads a person to the next higher level?to the greater uncertainty that derives from His very Essence. . . .


FAITH

?Then the L-rd answered Job out of the stormwind, and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?? ( Iyov 38:1,2).
These words of G-d to Job are usually understood as rhetorical. G-d confronts Job disparagingly, without even mentioning his name, as though the great G-d were declaring, ?Who is this little gnat, who dares accuse Me of such things??
But it seems to me that there is a deeper level of understanding to this verse. It can be seen as a genuine question, ?Job, who is the one who speaks from you??
The question becomes clearer from the following verses: ?Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set watch over me?? Job complains ( ibid. 7:12). ?Yet I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with G-d? ( ibid. 13:3). ?I have ordered my cause, I know that I shall be vindicated . . . Then call Thou, and I will answer, or let me speak and Thou answer me? ( ibid. 13:18, 23). G-d answers Job with a question that challenges his basic assumption: ?Who is this I, I, I, that you keep declaring? Let Me see your true essence, Job!?
Has Job has been putting on some kind of an act, that he is now required to present the truth? No, he has certainly been straightforward enough, toward himself and his friends, expressing his own thoughts, unconventional and unacceptable as they may be. Job has always been true to himself and to his own subjective perspective. Only, that was not enough.
G-d instructs man (as no one else can) down to the innermost point of his essence. While honesty and authenticity is an important part of self-realization, it is only one step in the path to faith.
Just as the body is a garment for the soul, so too the personality, the ego, is a garment for one?s true inner nature?the innermost point of the soul. G-d was demanding of Job to reveal this kernel, free of its shell. ? Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge??
This penetrating question strikes a person already committed to the search for truth, demanding of him to abandon the path that has till now led him to self-knowledge?for that is only a great mask that covers this essence. It is a question only G-d can pose. No teacher or guide can effect this; a thousand words cannot produce it. The person must be called to it himself, he must hear G-d?s question directed at him constantly??Who is this? Who are you really??
At the level of Inspiration, as with Elihu, one hears G-d?s voice moving through this world, and one responds ?Here I am.? Creation becomes transparent. ?G-d is everything, and everything is G-dly.? A person on this level has access to hidden information, to the speech of animals and birds, of angels and spirits. It is said that the Baal Shem Tov could hear secrets in the stamping of horses. The man of Inspiration is blessed with knowledge, and with a clarity that comes from absolute certainty. Not so, one who hears the question ?Who are you?? Again he is thrown into a world of endless doubt?into an uncertainty that is higher than everything.
But this type of uncertainty is very different from the one we spoke of earlier, stemming from the inner search. For there, the search leads a person to his own authentic self-understanding. But when the questioner is G-d, the words take on an entirely different connotation.
Any discussion of man and the world must take two sides into consideration, the subject and the object, the person and that which is exterior to him. But in speaking of G-d, we recognize that there is nothing besides Him. He bears the entire creation. He is the ?place? of creation. There is no subject and object, no duality. The same can be said of the G-dly spark within each person, the essential point in which many different aspects take up no place at all. The answer to the question ?Who are you?? cannot be given in words, which imply limitation and duality. The answer is in existence.
In G-d?s last words to Job, He asks, ?Have you an arm like G-d? Or can you thunder with a voice like Him? Deck yourself now with majesty and excellence, and array yourself with glory and beauty?? ( ibid. 40:8-9). Once again, these words are usually translated rhetorically. The questions are meant to mock Job and his arrogance. Nevertheless, in keeping with our commentary, we can read them as a statement. ?You have an arm like G-d!? the Eternal declares to Job. ?Reveal the G-dliness within you! Then ?You will deck yourself with majesty and excellence.?? Nevertheless, if you do not penetrate to your essential point, if you insist on clinging to your mortality, then the words retain their simple meaning, ?You deserve this mockery!?
Following these words of G-d, begins the story of the two great creatures of the world: the Behemoth (the Giant Bull) and the Leviathan. Although it seems that these creatures have no physical existence, it is not on that level that the verses are speaking. These creatures exist with full strength in the world of the soul. Leviathan, the great beast of the sea, represents the power of the hidden world, of the depths, the unknown. Whereas the Behemoth, the beast of the land, represents the revealed world, the power of the intellect and the conscious ego. The writings of Chabad Chassidus speak much about the war between these two opposing states, just as the Sages speak about the future battle between the two: Leviathan will slaughter the Behemoth, and the Behemoth will gore Leviathan, and the Righteous will eat from them both in the feast of the World to Come. The Book of Job does not mention this battle. What is important here, though, is that both these beasts are subjugated before G-d, who transcends all.
The meaning behind G-d?s words is thus: As long as you, Job, are preoccupied with your own humanity, with the self that questions and searches, then these two dimensions?the hidden and the revealed?will forever remain opposites within you. For these are eternal forces, and you are minute in comparison?dust and ashes! A transient creature torn by internal conflict.
On the other hand, both the Leviathan and the Behemoth are subdued, even united, before their Creator?and only before Him. For G-d unites all opposites. ?You have an arm like G-d,? He told Job. ?Reveal the Divinity within you and unite these two opposites in your soul. Even if you cannot accomplish this in your life, at least acknowledge the possibility, for that will bring you to humility.?
The absolute unification of all paradox is the nature of this fifth stage, that presents us with a level of uncertainty higher than all else. Certainty, at no matter what level, is unable to bear inner contradiction. It demands clarification; for things must be decided one way or another. However, this highest level of uncertainty leaves us always in doubt. It is impossible to clarify, for on this level, all opposites exist together in perfect unity.
Thus Rabbi Tzaddok HaKohen of Lublin explains the Torah?s concept of unity: ?This is the nature of perfect unity, that the existence of the creation and its lack of existence are both one? ( Sefer Zichronos 3).
The aspect of the soul which can bear opposites is the power of faith.?The Holy One, blessed be He, is the source of paradox, and the bearer of opposites. Similarly, the power of faith in the soul of every Jew bears opposites.? According to the Zohar, the highest level of Atzilus, the highest spiritual world, is known as ?The Beginning That Does Not Know, and Is Not Known.? In the classic work of Lurianic Kabbalah, the Etz Chaim, Rabbi Chaim Vital explains the structure of the world of Atzilus with the greatest precision and certainty. However, when he comes to the topic of ?The Beginning That Does Not Know . . .? he suddenly becomes uncertain, and the very chapter is titled, ?The Uncertainty of the Beginning. . . .?
Of all the possible ways of understanding this level of creation, explains Rabbi Chaim Vital, each absolutely contradicts the others. And because it is impossible to reconcile these contradictions, we must remain in doubt. This does not mean that one of the explanations is the correct, only we are unable to prove it; for Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato explains otherwise:
??The Beginning That Does Not Know . . .? is a single emanation, within which is the unification of [the lower worlds]. However, it is an emanation that is ungraspable and impossible to ascertain. One who gazes at it remains in doubt.?
??The Beginning . . .? has a single function, which must operate in terms of these various uncertainties . . . Not that these doubts are like other doubts in the world, in which we are uncertain if a thing is one way or another. Rather, as many doubts [and contradictions] that we acknowledge, all those things truly exist within it.? ( Kala?ch Pischei Chochmah, pesach 86)
In other words, all possibilities exist in ?The Beginning . . .? Though according to our human understanding, they seem absolutely contradictory. For this is the purpose of ?The Beginning That Does Not Know and Is Not Known??to lead us to that supernal uncertainty grasped only by the power of faith; for faith itself is a knowledge that does not know, and is not known.
Thus, the ultimate stance a person must take before G-d is that of inner submission, coming from this absolute and supernal uncertainty. And to the degree that a person can reveal his true essence, the Divinity within him, will he exist in a dual state of unknowningness: the self which does not know its own essence, and the Essence that does not know itself! So too in the upper worlds, we speak of ?The Beginning Does Not Know [Itself], and [only afterwards] Is Not Known [by others].? Thus the Kabbalists explain that the Moshiach, whose soul derives from this supernal world, will not even know that he is Moshiach. This is the ultimate state of not-knowing, of absolute uncertainty. Yet it is the source of all existence.
This supernal uncertainty, that lies at the heart of faith, corresponds to the concept of ?The Beginning That Is Not Known and Does Not Know? ? the highest point of Atzilus , where creation touches the Creator. It is a spark of true Oneness, hidden within the yechidah of the soul. It does not correspond to a letter in G-d?s Name, but to the upper stroke of the yud , i, that refers to the sefirah of Kesser. This upper point is like an arrow, pointing higher, to what is above the letters, above words, above all sensation?to that which is completely unknown.

?Then Job answered the L-rd and said,
I know that You can do everything,
and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
Who is he that hides counsel without knowledge?
Therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand;
things too wondrous for me, which I knew not.
Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak:
I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou to me.
I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
but now my eyes see Thee.
Therefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.?
(Job 42:1-7)
Eco-Feminism & Kabbala
Thesis Proposal, offered to the: "Ecological Conversations: Gender, Science and the Sacred
A Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowship Program"

Kabbalah and Eco-feminism
Ohad Ezrahi
Israel

Among contemporary philosophers of Eco-feminism, it has become commonplace to identify the "Judeo-Christian" roots of society as the primary source of the male-dominated world-view in which we live. The biblical God is depicted masculine form, both in his appellations, and in his appearance, and for the most part, it is through this form that he relates to man and the creation. Scripture presents a hierarchical world-view in which the male God creates a world outside of himself, similar to a man who procreates beyond his own body, as opposed to a woman who conceives and bears from within herself. God therefore takes a position removed from and above his creation, like the male of the family, and unlike the mother whose presence is constant and available to all. Similarly, the Hebrew God does not reveal himself within the world of nature - in trees, stones, birds and animals - as did the pre-Hebraic gods. Rather, God appears as a figure who constantly bends nature to his rule, who reveals himself from above, and demonstrates his authority over and absolute independence from nature?s laws. The emulation of G-d, imitation deus, a central expression of religious thought, promulgated a similar approach in the social sphere, where Scripture and the Scriptural God were adopted as the binding expression of religion. Thus was established a relationship to nature and the material world as being the enemy of human progress in its movement toward its spiritual destiny. The male figure established his authority over society and the family, and became associated with the abstract and the elevated, while the female was regarded as the opposing, inferior element, relating to the material and natural world. The feminine was subordinate, at the bottom of the hierarchy, serving mainly as a springboard from which the human species could ascend to something higher.

It can be further understood, according to this, that the development of eco-feminist thought included numerous attempts to discover alternative models to the Judeo-Christian religious approach, looking for instance, in pagan cultures, especially those who recognize the earth itself as a great mother-goddess, or as Gaia. Many interesting attempts have been made by eco-feminists to draw connections between matriarchal societies and goddess religions, between nature-based cultures and religions and contemporary feminist thought, all in order to present an alternative to the Judeo-Christian perspective, which has brought mankind to the edge of ecological destruction.

Several years ago, when I first investigated the ideas of eco-feminism, I was amazed to find such an approach in the broader world, for my own private studies in the fields of Kabbalah and Hasidism had brought me to conclusions similar to those reached by eco-feminists - precisely through the in-depth study of Jewish mystics! For while it is true that Judaism, or more specifically, the original Hebraic religion, grew out of a struggle with nature and the natural gods, nonetheless, the development of Kabbalah in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries signaled a revolution that progressively overturned more and more aspects of the original Hebrew religion.

Kabbalah returned religious credibility to Jewish mythic thought, and at the same time, began to openly recognize the feminine side of divinity, and even more, the feminine nature within the entire creation and within the human being - man as well as woman. From that initial point, the development of Kabbalah was accompanied organically by a growing appreciation of the feminine dimension within mystical thought. The explosion of Kabbalah in the thirteenth century, following the revelation of the Zohar, allows us to look backwards and identify the roots of this development in Talmudic aggadah, discerning even there the first sprouting of an alternative perspective occurring within traditional Jewish thought. Arguments concerning the figure of the Shechinah are already present in the works of the sages, as well as subtle attacks on the idea of masculine authority in wider realms of human thought. (In my work, ?Lilith, Women, The Full Circle,? presently in its final stages of composition, I discuss the repressed face of the feminine, through literary analysis of the married life of one of the sages of the Talmud.)

As the Kabbalah developed, its discussion of the nature of the Shechinah reached its peak in the writings of the Ari, Rabbi Yitzhak Luria Ashkenazi, who lived in Sefad, in Northern Israel, in the sixteenth century. The Ari developed in his teachings a complete mythos, delineating the many and varied stages in the development of the feminine. The Shechinah begins her journey as a small point found beneath the Sefirah of Yesod (the phallus) of the masculine G-d. The role of the is to help her develop and ascend. She needs to grow, stage after stage, until she is equal in stature with the masculine expression of divinity. Not only that, the goal of her ascent is to grow even further, until she rises higher than the masculine side, becoming, as it were, a crown surrounding his head. The Ari foresaw a future age in which the feminine, or the feminine consciousness, will govern all the worlds.

The process is accompanied by a struggle for identity. The various stages in the relationship of the masculine and feminine sides of divinity are depicted symbolically in physical terms. At the beginning, the "couple" stands back to back, as it were. One does not look at the other. Each one maintains an I-It relationship with the other. The development of the Shechinah depends on the cessation of this relationship, for as long as it remains, claims the Ari, it is impossible for the feminine side to develop to equal stature. The separation involves struggle, as aggressive energies are released, and finally results in a breakdown of the relationship. Only then can the Shechinah build herself, when she receives influx not by way of the male. When she finishes her development, becoming of equal stature to him, she returns to meet him, to build together a different system in which they stand face-to-face. Then, the masculine finds new interest in her that was not present when she was previously under his jurisdiction. In this way, they enter an I-Thou relationship. Understanding this process well, and its implications in terms of developing human consciousness, sheds an exciting light upon the current feminist revolution, as well as ecological application of these ideas in the relationship between the genders, or more properly, between the gender consciousness.

The problem is that the kabbalah of the Ari is written according to a unique internal code, making it difficult for a unacquainted researcher to penetrate and extract their philosophical depth and meaning. In addition, the convoluted style, numerous postulates, and the technical language, have resulted that even those who study the writings of the Ari in a traditional way (who fully grasp the specialized terminology of the material) are still, for the most part, unaware of the deep philosophical ideas inherent in the religion and concealed in the very material they are dealing with.
The thesis proposed here seeks to address this task, to reveal the vision, and release and raise up the female dimension concealed within the texts of the Ari. To show that an understanding of Kabbalistic symbolism clearly points to the possibility of applying this vision to a variety of fields of knowledge, including the ecological arena. Translating the symbolic concepts of Lurianic kabbalah into the domain of ecology will reveal a completely different understanding of the relationship between man and the natural world, an understanding that we can legitimately term "Kabbalistic Eco-Feminism." It is enough to mention here that one of the symbols of the Shechinah (the feminine manifestation of divinity) is the Earth, the Land, or in broader terms, the realm of nature itself. (It is already discussed in the writing of early kabbalists that the Hebrew word for ?Nature? has the same numerical value as the divine name ?Elokim? which represents the Shechinah, in a kabbalistic interpretation of Scripture.) ?Heaven? is the symbolic partner of the earth, though at times, it is the human being who plays the masculine role in this drama. The relationship between man and nature, between Adam and adama (the earth) parallels, in this physical world, the interaction of the ?sefirot? in the Godly dimension. And a change in the status of the Shechinah above can cause, or be revealed through, a change in the relationship between man (?adam?) and the ecosystem that is his home (?adama?).

In addition to the Lurianic myth of the maturation of the feminine, the Ari developed a unique cosmology based upon a two-world system. On the one hand, the creation is depicted in terms of concentric circles (called ?Igulim?), that would appear in cross-section like the peels of an onion. On the other hand, there is an alternative system in which the worlds are depicted linearly, in hierarchical fashion (called ?Yosher?). Of these two approaches, the first is symbolically identified with the feminine dimension, while the latter, with the masculine mode.

With the rise of the Hasidic movement in the 18th century, kabbalistic thought was developed further. The movements founder, Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, sought to understand kabbalistic symbolism in personal, psychological terms. In doing so, Hasidism opened the way for an understanding of kabbalah as a description of underlying processes occurring in the human psyche. The psychologist Karl Jung confirmed this when he admitted in an interview that the chief disciple of the Baal Shem Tov?the Maggid of Mezritch?preceded him in developing a theory of a collective mythic consciousness.

Hasidism translated kabbalistic concepts into the language of human consciousness. For instance, it understands the system of "Igulim" (circular/feminine) as representing a state of equilibrium, a meditative consciousness, and even in social system built on the premises of equality and cooperation, as opposed to the world-view derived from the "Yosher" perspective (linear/masculine), reflected in a competitive, goal-oriented, society, that legitimizes a hierarchical structure in which the higher makes use of the lower for its own purposes. The remarkable thing is that both kabbalah and Hasidism do not view these two systems as contradictory, but rather as components of one complete system, so that a vision of reality based only upon one of them perverts the truth and will certainly cause damage to human beings and the surroundings in which we lives.

It seems to me that it is an extremely important undertaking to interpret this code to the world, and especially in terms of the areas outlined above. A research grant would enable me to fully commit myself to this project, and to write a book on the subject of Eco-feminism from the kabbalistic perspective. A work that would present a kabbalistic-Hasidic based alternative way of thinking about the feminine experience both as it manifests itself in psychology of the individual (for as we said, masculine and feminine are manifested in each individual) and in the framework of social psychology, anthropology, and especially as these areas are reflected in the critical ecological situation that we find ourselves in today.
Favorite Links
 
.

Home page
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/charcoal/65/index.html



This page has been visited times.