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).

Thoughts on the Judean Pillar Figurine

Over 3,000 fired clay pillar figurines in female form with pinched or molded heads, bare breasts supported by arms, and a pillar-like lower body, have been found in archeological contexts in Israel, mostly from the southern kingdom of Judah, and mostly from the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. The most common theory regarding their identification and function is that they represent a goddess like Asherah or Ashtart and were a focus of domestic cult for child birth and lactation (cf. W.G. Dever 2005 - Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel, and R. Kletter 1996 - Judaean Pillar-Figurines and the Archaeology of Asherah). Recently, much has been made of the clay fabric, the domestic refuse context of the majority of the figurines, and lack of distinctive attributes to argue that they could not represent major deities (cf. E. Darby 2014 - Interpreting Judean Pillar Figurines: Gender and Empire in Judean Apotropaic Ritual). Instead, it has been suggested that they represent minor guardian figures used in specific rituals for healing and protection.

That clay could be used for major deities is suggested by Egyptian rituals that likely represent Isis in clay figurines (cf. E.A. Waraksa 2009 - Female Figurines from the Mut Precinct: Context and Ritual Function). Logically, refuse contexts would be a problem for even minor divine or semi-divine guardian figurines unless the figurines no longer contained that presence. After the ritual has been completed, the presence would be gone and the figurine could be discarded. But in such a case, there is no obstacle to a major deity having been present in or through the figurine during ritual.

The lack of distinctive attributes may be explained by seeing them not as representing a deity, but as expressions of Y-H-V-H's “feminine” aspect or activity of life force (“Ruach” or breath), which I associated in a previous post with the Freedom to assume any definition, not as a separate personality with its own attributes. Given that women are the ones in whom a new form grows and from whom new life emerges, it would have been only natural to characterize this aspect of the Divine as "feminine".

The only attributes of the figurine are its feminine form, breasts, and the red and yellow colors of paint applied to it (along with black paint for certain details).  Most are connected to the life force – the “feminine” breath of G-d, breasts as source of life sustaining milk, and the red color of blood as a vehicle for the life force. In addition, the red color may have symbolized, along with the yellow, the terebinth tree - designated as "elah" ("goddess") in Hebrew since the flowers and fruit of that tree are red and its resin yellow.

The presence of these figurines in tombs need not be regarded as evidence against them as representatives of the Divine life force. The Tanach provides ample evidence for G-d's presence even in Sheol (e.g., Tehillim 139:8) and the hope for being raised back to life from Sheol (e.g., 1 Shmuel 2:6). And the reference to G-d and His Asherah in the inscription at the Khirbet el-Qom tomb (8th century BCE) show this as well. To place a figurine of this type in a tomb, an apparently rare occurrence, would reflect a hope for being returned to the realm of the living by G-d's “feminine” life force that remains available even in Sheol for such a restoration.

Finally, it is worth noting that a now lost seal from Judean Lachish shows a feminine figure with hands at the breasts like the figurines but which certainly had major Divine status since the seal shows an adjacent worshiper, branch or tree, and solar disk (cf. T. Romer, 2015, The Invention of God, p. 171), but the figure itself lacks any attributes beyond a diadem, which also appears painted on some of the figurines.