A Meditation on the Divine in Feminine Terms

The previous post touched on the integral, equal “feminine” and “masculine” aspects of G-d, and explained how the freedom from any limit (the “masculine G-d”) is the freedom to assume every limit (“feminine ruach of G-d”) and the freedom to assume every limit (“feminine ruach of G-d”) is the freedom from any limit (the “masculine G-d”). Thus, one can legitimately regard either the “masculine” or “feminine” aspect of G-d as including both aspects. Throughout the Tanach, the emphasis is typically on the “masculine” aspect including both aspects. However, there are places where the other approach is displayed. One such place is the Shir Ha-Shirim (Song of Songs). The Zohar makes clear that the feminine lover in the Song is not merely the people of Israel or the soul, but is a “feminine” aspect of G-d – the sefirah Malchut (e.g., the Zohar on Parshat Tzav – see http://www.kosherkabbalah.org/upload/27%20-%20Tsav.pdf, for example, sections 2, 44, 149, and 156).  In fact, there is such a level of equality between the male and female lovers in the Shir Ha-Shirim - both are inflamed by love, both seek the other, both regard the other as the summa bonum - that one may legitimately understand that each fully experiences the Divine Beloved through the mortal beloved.

One verse in the Song is particularly apt for our consideration, the beginning of 6:9, which reads “echat hi’ yonati tamati”, “One is She, My Dove, My Perfect One”. There are two parts here. The first expresses G-d’s freedom from any limit, even that of defined self. Just as the masculine form “echad” (aleph, chet, dalet) has been read as an acronym for “ain chotzeitz davar” (“no-thing intervenes”) (cf. R. Avraham Sutton, Giluy HaYachid), so too, we may read the feminine form “echat” (aleph, chet, tav) as an acronym for “ain chotzeitz techum” (“no limit intervenes”). Thus, “echat” is evoking G-d’s freedom from any limit. The next word, “hi’” - She, contains the three consonants - heh, yud, and aleph - used in the Divine Name “Ehyeh” (I will be) that evokes the most basic of all freedom from limitation - freedom even from defined self. The second part expresses G-d’s freedom to assume every limit. The word “yonah” (dove) brings to mind the fluttering of the “ruach Elokim” over the waters in B’reishit (Gen.) 1:2 (cf. Rashi's commentary, for example), and G-d’s dynamic freedom to assume limitation that the “ruach Elokim” conveys, as explained in the previous post. The word “tamah” (perfect, complete) brings to mind the wholeness, inclusiveness of that freedom, and the inter-inclusiveness of both freedoms. So, “echat hi’ yonati tamati” is an invocation of both aspects of G-d's Freedom, wholly in “feminine” terms.

There is a fruitful meditation that one can do with this verse from Shir Ha-Shirim. The commandment to wear tzitzit (fringes) with a thread of blue on the corners of our garments is in order to “remember all the commandments of Y-H-W-H” (Bamidbar [Num.] 15:38-39). If one examines the Hebrew of 15:39, one can see that it is not only about remembering all the commandments, but also G-d – for it reads “uzchartem et kol mitzvot Y-H-W-H”, and the particle “et” is “aleph, tav”, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, signifying the all-inclusiveness of G-d, the First and Last (cf. Yeshyahu (Is.) 44:6). Now, to do this meditation, one should look at the blue and white threads of a fringe of the tallit katan or tallit gadol, using any of the halachically permissible forms of blue dyed threads, and mentally repeat the verse “echat hi’ yonati tamati”, associating the first part – “echat hi’” – with the inward breath and with the blue color, since blue is the color of the limitless sky or sea (freedom from any limitation), and the second part – “yonati tamati” – with the outward breath and with the color white, since white light is inclusive of all colors (freedom to assume every limit). The two pauses or "gaps" between the inhalation and exhalation are the Absolute Union of the two freedoms from which each arises, through which each is transformed from one to the other, into which each returns, and which remains unchanged nonetheless. In this way, one uses the ruach (breath) itself to meditate on these integral, equal aspects of G-d, wholly in “feminine” terms, as “Feminine Beloved”.