The Motherly Aspect of El

The Torah says of El (a Biblical name of G-d and also the name of the Supreme God of the pre-Biblical pantheon): "אל מחללך" - "Eil meholelecha" (Devarim [Deut.] 32:18). Tehillim (Ps.) 90:2 also states of El: "תחולל ארץ ותבל" - "techolel eretz ve-tevel". The words מחלל (mecholel) and תחולל (techoleil), both in verb form and in the twin contexts of parallelism with the word ילד (yelad/yulad = used both for begetting and birthing a child), refer to the travail of giving birth. Thus, the Torah states that El had travailed in giving birth to Israel and Tehillim also refers to El as having travailed in giving birth to the earth and the world. Only a mother can travail in giving birth. So, quite apart from any feminine connotations of the epithet Shadday, it is clear that the Tanach teaches that there is a motherly aspect to El.

In addition, the implications of the creative process as birth are important. If the world and Israel are both born from the Divine, then there is a degree of mother-child continuity that compliments the kind of continuity already discussed relative to the Divine Breath. One need not see the world or people as created from nothing or contrast creation with any special Divine "sonship".

All Have One Spirit

Qohelet (Ecclesiastes) 3.19 states that humans and animals have the same “ruach”. In most versions of the text this is expressed as “ve-ruach echad lakol”. However, it is clear from the seventeenth century Concordantiae sacrorum Bibliorum hebraicorum that there is a version of the text as “ve-ruach echat lakol”. The first version treats “ruach” as masculine, the second as feminine. In Qohelet 3.21, “ruach” is feminine for both that of humans and that of animals. So, the feminine version of 3.19 is better in context. Why would it have been changed? When “ruach” refers not to breath or wind but to the Divine Breath or Spirit it is almost invariably feminine in the Tanakh. So, as “ruach echat” one can understand that the One Divine Breath is present in both humans and animals. By making it “ruach echad” there may have been an attempt to change the text to remove this equivalence. It is worth noting that the “roshei teivot” of “echat/echad lakol” are “aleph lamed” – the Divine Name El – identifying explicitly the nature of the “ruach” here. This feature further supports the idea that the One Divine Breath/Spirit is the referent in this verse. Thus, with the restoration of the more plausible text, one finds yet another reason to see the Divine in animals and oneself in animals, and to avoid killing them and to avoid any non-vegetarian food.

Divine Breath - Part II

One theological foundation for nonviolence to all living creatures, including adopting a vegetarian lifestyle, is to be found in the idea of the Divine Breath (Ruach HaQadosh = Breath of the Holy One).

Breath maintains life and so is essential, is at the very essence of any breathing creature. By analogy, the Divine Breath is the inherent Divine Life Force, is at the very Essence of G-d. The breath of any breathing creature also can be projected beyond that creature, and can form the substance of sound and word coming from that creature. By analogy, the Divine Breath also can be projected and form the substance of sound and word from G-d. So, while remaining One with G-d at the level of the Divine Essence, the Divine Breath also constitutes the substance of projected creation from G-d. Thus, through the Divine Breath, all is continuous, from the Divine Essence to every creature, even in any and every difference.

This continuity means that one should see the Divine in all and see oneself in all. Therefore, as one loves and reveres G-d, so too one should love and revere all, and as one would wish oneself to be treated with kindness and compassion, so one should treat all with kindness and compassion.

Ruach: Mercy, Grace, and Kindness

The word Ruach is composed of three Hebrew letters, resh (ר), vav (ו), and chet (ח). These letters serve as roshei teivot for a common description of G-d going back to the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy described in Shemot (Exodus) 34:6-7, Rachum ve-Chanun – רחום וחנון, Merciful and Gracious. These three letters also can be roshei teivot for rachamim ve-chesed - רחמים וחסד, mercy and kindness. Thus, the "Feminine" Divine Breath, at the Essence of G-d, but also forming the substance of all creation, is full of Mercy, Grace, and Kindness.

Divine Breath

The Hebrew Bible (Tanach) tells us that creation is accomplished and maintained by the Divine Breath (Ruach Y-H-W-H, Ruach El/Elohim, Nishmat Shadday, etc.) (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 33:6; Job 33:4). 

Breath maintains life and so is essential, is at the very essence of any breathing creature. By analogy, the Divine Breath is the inherent Divine Life Force, is at the very Essence of G-d. Since the Divine Breath is Biblically used with feminine gendered verbs and is thus Feminine, the Feminine is at the Divine Essence; hence, the feminine gender of the word for the Essence (Atzmut). 

But the breath of any breathing creature also can be projected beyond that creature, and can form the substance of sound and word coming from that creature. By analogy, the Divine Breath also can be projected and form the substance of sound and word from G-d. So, while remaining One with G-d at the level of the Divine Essence, the Divine Breath also constitutes the substance of projected creation from G-d. 

Thus, all is continuous, from the Divine Essence to every creature, even in any and every difference. 

This continuity can be more revealed or more concealed depending upon our actions. The more good we do, the more it is revealed, the more evil, the more it is concealed.

Imma Sheli Ruach HaQadosh

The above Mishnaic Hebrew text is “Imma Sheli Ruach HaQadosh (or HaQodesh)” meaning "My Mother, the Holy Spirit (Breath)". This expression affirms that G-d's inherent Ruach - Divine Breath or Spirit - is "Feminine" and "Mother". The roshei teivot, or initial letters of the four Hebrew words, are aleph, shin, resh, heh. These letters spell “asherah”, which, if taken as the proper name “Asherah”, can be a reference to the “Feminine” aspect of God as known from the First Temple period (e.g. finds at Kuntillet Ajrud and Khirbet el-Kom) and also through Kabbalah (Zohar I, 49a, and Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, Or Ne'erav, chelek zayn). In the Kabbalistic sources, "Asherah" is a name for the Shekhinah, which means happiness or bliss. So, in this case, there would not only be an assertion of the “Femininity” of the Holy Spirit (Breath) here, as “Mother”, but a tie of "Her" directly to “Asherah” as Absolute Bliss. The text also is affirming that, as Divine Breath, "Asherah" is an inherent aspect of God, not a separate deity or consort as was mistakenly believed by some in antiquity.

If the roshei teivot of “asherah” are instead taken as expressing not a proper name but a common noun, then what can be understood is a reference simply to happiness or bliss in general. Probably, one is meant to understand it both ways, as we shall see.

The final Hebrew letters (sofei teivot) of each word in “Imma Sheli Ruach HaQodesh (or HaQadosh)” (aleph, yud, chet, shin) spell the words “ei chash”, which in Mishnaic Hebrew mean “without having pain” or “without feeling pain”. It is tempting to see a further import of this saying as being a teaching to avoid causing pain to any creature. 

The remaining Hebrew letters in the phrase - mem, lamed, vav, qof, dalet - have a combined numerical value (40+30+6+100+4) of 180. This is very significant in that it represents 10 x 18. The number 18 is the value of the Hebrew word "chai" meaning life or living. Ten is a number representing totality or completeness in Biblical and Kabbalistic understanding - 10 commandments, 10 sefirot for example. So, 10 x 18 or 180 symbolizes the totality of living beings. 

One further item also is worth noting – the number of letters on the saying is 13, which equals echad or one in Hebrew. The oneness may be both that of the Divine Breath with God and also that of the continuity of the totality of living beings with the Divine.

Taken together, all of these above elements help us to comprehend this Hebrew saying as follows: there is an integral relationship between experiencing the “Mother” that is the "Feminine" Divine Breath in all living beings, the Shekhinah, the Infinite Freedom To, as perfectly one with God, the Holy One Blessed be He, the Infinite Freedom From, in Absolute Bliss, and not causing pain but only providing happiness to the totality of living beings. In addition, there can be a causal interpretation: by not causing pain and only giving happiness to the totality of living beings, understood as continuous with the Divine, one can have the bliss of experiencing God’s inherent Divine Breath as one’s “Mother”.

Another Meditation

In one earlier post, we saw that the "Feminine" aspects of G-d, Ruach – Chochmah – Malchut, using their first Hebrew letters (roshei teivot – “resh, “chet”, “mem”), create the acronym RaCHaM, which is the Hebrew root word for both womb and compassion. In another earlier post, we identified the very Essence of G-d as “Feminine”, noting that “Atzmut” and “Mahut,” the Hebrew words for the Divine Essence, are feminine. If we add to the “resh”, “chet”, and “mem” above the Hebrew letter “yud” as the initial letter of the Hebrew word “yechidah” or “only one”, which is the feminine gendered word denoting continuity and unity, and is used for the soul at One with G-d, then we allude to the continuity of Ruach – Chochmah – Malchut and to the idea that, while remaining One with G-d at the level of the Divine Essence, the Divine Breath also constitutes the substance of projected creation from G-d, that all is continuous, from the Divine Essence to every creature, even in any and every difference. 

The four letters together spell the word "RaCHMI", a Hebrew imperative – “have mercy” – in feminine gender, invoking the compassion of the Divine in "Feminine" aspect. Repeating RaCHMI in mantra-like fashion is a splendid use of this word to do this invocation. One should have in mind that the compassion being sought is from the “Feminine” “Atzmut” or very Unmanifest Essence of G-d, the Fathomless “Womb” from which all comes forth. One also should have in mind that the imperative is calling upon one’s own soul – all words in Hebrew for the soul (nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, and yechidah) are grammatically feminine in gender – to be compassionate to all that comes from G-d.

The four letters together also spell “RaCHMaY”, a very ancient Feminine Divine Name meaning “One of the Womb” or “Compassionate One”. This Name, found in the 13^th Century BCE texts from Ugarit, has been associated by scholars with Athirat (Asherah), Anat, Shapash, or seen as an independent goddess. A contemporary shamanistic approach to Hebrew/Israelite religion views RaCHMaY as follows: “the Womb of All Life, the Mother of Life, and of Life Force in its many, many forms…How can one think of Her, of what She is, and not feel awe?” (Elisheva Nesher, Shophet of AMHA, in The Goddess in America, 2016).