Shekinah or Elohim - The time of the meeting and reconciliation of opposites.

 

In Hebrew: שכינה - Pronunciation: [ʃe̞χinä].

Etymology
Shekinah has root with the Hebrew verb שכן. In Biblical Hebrew, the word literally means, settlements, housing or housing, and is quoted frequently in the Hebrew Bible Exodus 40:35 "Moses could not enter the tabernacle of the congregation because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Eternal filled the tabernacle. "We could also observe in Genesis 9:27, Genesis 14:13, Psalms 37:3, Jeremiah 33:16, as well as the weekly Shabbat blessing recited in the Temple of Jerusalem, "He who makes his name may dwell, shochan, in this House to dwell among you love and brotherhood, peace and friendship."

Significance in Judaism
Designated facet of divine revelation to men, the "Divine Presence", was considered the face "feminine" and "mother" of the Eternal own. The word "Shekinah" does not appear in the Jewish Bible and is not mentioned in the New Testament, is a word derived from the Hebrew root ש - כ - נ (sh-kn), meaning "dwelling", "make His home." According to Kabbalistic conception and the branch of Judaism Hasidism, Shekinah is a powerful cosmic energy itself, which dwells on the "inside" of the Universe and vivifies it, and its "soul" or "spirit." The Shekinah, as a concrete idea, only appears in rabbinic writings, with small "allusions" to this divine presence among the people of Israel, the Torah, when the Eternal said to his people "וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם" - "I shall do a sanctuary for me, that I may dwell among them ";" וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְהָיִיתִי לָהֶם לֵאלֹהִים "-" and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will be for them the Eternal "and" יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת הַשֹּׁכֵן בְּהַר צִיּוֹן "-" the God of hosts, who dwells in Zion. " This facet of divinity, which is the lowest of all other revelations, is the communicative medium between man and the Eternal. She is "measurable" in accordance with the position of each person and his acts, being that sometimes it reveals and sometimes hides, as the Sages of Israel said, when referring to the Second Temple, which had no "shadow of Shekinah." Regarding the diaspora, the rabbis said that, somehow, the Shekinah preserved a relationship with Israel, especially when it went through difficult periods, scattered among the nations, "to all the places where Israel was exiled, exiled Shekinah was with him ", also suffering with him in misfortune. Rabbi Chanina, the Talmud, exacerbates this view when he says that "he who slapped the face of Israel, is as if slapped the face of the Shekinah." The Shekinah in Islam The word سكينة (Sakhinah) is mentioned six times in the Quran. It is a guarantee of peace, calm and tranquility. Chapter 2, verse 248 says: "And his messenger said to them: Verily! The sign of his kingdom is that there shall come to you At-Tabut (the Lost Ark), where sakinah from your Lord is reminiscent of Moses and Aaron left behind, carried by angels. Verily, in this is a Sign for you if ye are believers. "It is often described as' comforting feeling of being in the presence and under the protection of the Eternal." Another explanation for Shekinah, is that Shekinah is divine grace, or Primordial Light eternal. It is the title used by Kabbalists the Tenth Sephira, Kether, the first Triad Supreme, the Mystery of Mysteries quoted by Blavatsky as Sophia and Shekinah: A look at the Divine Feminine in Western Monotheism. Over time, terms like Sophia, Shekinah, and the Holy Spirit came to describe the active presence of the Eternal in the world, while the Eternal became a figure transcendently detached from the material world. this emphasized the distinction between the presence of the Eternal in the world and the incomprehensible reality of the Eternal own. The same is also known as Sophia, the Greek word for wisdom, was the first female figure of personification of Eternal found in the Hebrew Bible. She appears in the Book of Job and the Book of Proverbs in the canonical scriptures. In Proverbs, She is said to have existed before the creation of the world as the first creations of the Eternal. In the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, or Sophia is Torah. She is a universal and cosmic force associated with the history and law of the covenant of Israel. In another apocryphal book the Wisdom of Solomon, contains a retelling of the story of Israel's salvation with Sophia being represented as i own Eternal instead of images of YHWH. Elizabeth Johnson, in his book, She Who Is, gives five possible interpretations of the theological significance of Sophia:

1) Personification of cosmic order, which represents the meaning of the Eternal in the implementation of its creation.

2) Personification of wisdom sought and taught in the synagogues of Israel.

3) The symbol of the divine attribute of the Eternal in a keen intelligence.

4) A mediator divine and almost independent between the material world and the Eternal totally transcendent.

5) The female personification of the very being of the Eternal in creation, salvation, and engagement with the world.

 

Sophia is represented not only the western characteristics traditionally associated with women: birth, fertility, nutrition, sensuality, sexuality and chastity. She also represents a full range of other features, including a thirst for blood and certain punitive powers. The descriptions of the attributes and activities of the Divine Sophia are almost identical to the Eternal male. In Gnostic tradition, Sophia aspired to forbidden knowledge and disgraced. His regrets about this act formed the world of matter in which she was forced to wander seeking to reunite with the source that was Eternal. The Islamic mystical tradition of Sufism also contains a vision of Sophia. The poet and visionary of the 12th century, Ibn al-Arabi, Sophia had a vision that led him to imagine all women as powerful incarnations of the Eternal, than a love men inspired, who ultimately turned to God. Somewhat androcentric, this vision has brought a feminine dimension to a tradition in which the Lord was seen as almost exclusively male. The wisdom of the primitive Christian theology Jesus associates to Sophia and many contemporary theologians believe that Jesus drew on the deep theology of wisdom in his teachings. Some believe that he saw himself as a professor of philosophy and how the child or the messenger of Sophia. By the end of the first century AD, Christ was seen by the early church as if it were the embodiment of Sophia. Recapturing the spirit of Sophia led to some new reinterpretations of life, death and ministry of Christ. According to Fiorenza, Sophia-Eternal Jesus did not require sacrifice or atonement. The death of Jesus was not required by the Eternal, but was the result of his experience outside of Sophia. Jesus was not crucified to atone for the sins of the people, instead, the crucifixion was the result of fear violent created by powerful, Jesus preaching the good news of eternal goodness and equality of all people. For many feminists and liberation theologians, this is the identification of Christ with Sophia and the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, that is the important message of the Gospel. Elizabeth Johnson echoes this in, She Who Is, when she writes: "Christ crucified, the Sophia of Eternal. Here is the transvaluation of values ​​so connected with the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, the divine Sophia is here manifested not in praises or esoteric doctrine, but in the eternal solidarity with those who suffer. Although seemingly weak and defeated, the wisdom of the Eternal is personal, and the true source of life. Many passages of the Gospel refer to theology, Wisdom / Sophia, in relation to the person and nature of Jesus. However, a mystery emerges when we turn to the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John Instead of the feminine Sophia, St. John uses the masculine Logos to refer to the second person of the Trinity. Why is that? Before the gospel of John to be written, Christians have had no problem connecting Christ to Sophia. Gender may have been partially due to the change, at the time John was writing, the patriarchal structure were re-emerging within the Christian sect and the role of women in church ministry was once again being deleted. Karen Armstrong, in "A History of God," brings a possible explanation for the change of Sophia to Logos in the Gospel of John An Aramaic term Memra (Word) may have been the term used by St. John This term indicated activity Eternal in the world and may have been used by St. John, in the same way. If so, is confirmed in the same sense the term Sophia, Shekinah and the Holy Spirit. Unlike other names for the Eternal Son of Man, Son of God, Logos, etc ... Sophia was fully representative of the full gestalt of the Eternal. Sophia was the "closeness of the Eternal gracious and active in the world" and showed a special relationship with Himself. This relationship led to the development of the doctrine of the incarnation, which in turn led to the doctrine of the Trinity. Johnson writes: "What does it mean that one of the main origins of the doctrine of the Incarnation and the Trinity lies in identifying the crucified and risen Jesus with a female gestalt of the Eternal? Since Jesus Christ is described as divine Sophia, then it is not unthinkable, and even anti-biblical, confess Jesus Christ as the incarnation of the eternal feminine symbol represented the Shekinah. Who defends a Christology in Wisdom is saying that Jesus is the human being who has become Sophia, Sophia who in the fullness of it was him, that he was manifested in the depth of the divine mystery, the creative involvement and graciously saved for the world . The fluidity of gender symbolism evidenced in the biblical Christology, breaks the stranglehold of thought androcentric, which revolves around the manhood of Jesus. Wisdom Christology reflects the depths of the mystery of the Eternal and points in a very inclusive of the feminine symbolism. The Shekinah is the feminine presence of the Eternal, in a central metaphor of divinity in Jewish texts, mystics and midrashic the first century aD onwards. Shekinah is an abstract noun of the feminine gender, first appearing in the Mishnah and Talmud around 200 aD where it is used as a synonym for YHWH, Elohim being both masculine names of the Eternal. The word evolved from the Mishkan, a word that refers to the tent of the desert, to keep the Torah. This was built at the request of the Eternal "that I may dwell among you." Shekinah, also represented by the Holy Spirit is described as the presence of "divine compassionate involvement in a conflicted world, source of strength and comfort in time of desperate struggle and suffering among humans. She is the Eternal manifested in passion and compassion, able to feel the weight of our joys and passions as a person. In theological terms the modern feminist movement, she represents the "erotic power" of the Eternal. When people are humiliated, Shekinah is in the dust, anguished human suffering. At first, the Shekinah, as the Divine Sophia, was a way of dealing with the problems of an anthropomorphic theology in light of the need for a theology more culturally sensitive. Over time, this "presence" of the Eternal, took form and substance and became closely related to embodiment of the "Community of Israel". In late Midrash literature, Shekinah was described as a divine feminine and independent entity, who argued with the Eternal in man defense. This aspect of the Eternal contained both in love and divine power of punishment, in parallel with the Hindu Goddess Kali which manifests itself in cruelty. A Talmudic legend says that the Shekinah has the power to bring the righteous souls of men and women with just a kiss. The six who she did this are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron and Miriam. The Shekinah was said to live in the Mishkan, as the active presence of the Eternal in the life of an exile and pod people in this world. During times of inactivity, Shekinah resided in the Temple of Jerusalem. When the Temple was destroyed the Shekinah presence became a spiritual home for the people of Israel. She became known as "She who dwells within", a fitting image for a nomadic people. Many symbols of contemporary Judaism carry within themselves a meaning related to the active presence of the Shekinah. Among these are the wedding procession, the cabins of the fall harvest, and the prayer shawl. In 1000 BC, Shekinah had become the wife of YHWH, lover and daughter, in many respects, incorporating projections of male and female emotional ground, and sexually dangerous. In many Jewish texts Shekinah is the "exile of the divine element a pariah, the woman degraded, raped or abused, abandoned in their marriage, homeless on the streets, bereft of their children, and with no one to comfort her. Shekinah is the female victim finished. " The full development of the Shekinah came through the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah during the Middle Ages. In the famous 12th-century mystical texts, the Zohar, Rabbi Isaac argues that Shekinah is exempt second commandment against other gods besides YHWH. The Shekinah is also represented in the Islamic tradition, where it is the spirit of Allah sakina or resident within the human and the tent of the Kaaba. This black stone once venerated as a goddess in Arabia, believed to be the place where Hagar bore Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arab people. This is targeted at Muslim shrine pilgrimage and which all Muslims bow in prayer. Believed to be the world center of Alma, it symbolizes the meeting of heaven and earth. This meeting of heaven and earth, the spiritual and the material, has been a part of the tradition of Sophia and Shekinah. Legends tell that the two, or are just an entity in different ways?, Were exiled to the material world and seek to reunite with the eternal transcendent. The believe that the male manifestation of God into the Temple of Jerusalem at regular intervals to copulate with Shekinah and send their energy to the world. The task of the Jewish mystic, male, is to awaken the passion of the Eternal that He may copulate with Shekinah and so send your Seed / energy to the world. This legend sheds new light on the Christian tradition of the impregnation of Mary by the Holy Spirit. No discussion of the divine feminine would be complete without a look at Christian theology distinctly around Mary. As the Shekinah and Sophia, Mary is described by many metaphors, including the Temple of the Holy Spirit, Shekinah and Wisdom, Sophia. In 431, a few years after the dismantling of the worship of the Shekinah, the Council of Ephesus declared its Theotokos, bearer of the Eternal, which echoes the titles even before the Shekinah, the pagan. Another image of the Black Virgin of Europe, is our response to Western Kali. She simultaneously nourish and destroy, he who hears, answers nourishes and heals. And when all else fails, get our soul in death. Why the paradoxical figure of Shekinah continues to persist in the monotheistic religions? Why contemporary Christians, Jews and Muslims, seek divine feminine? Why, despite centuries of repression, persecution and abuse the image of the female refuses to stay buried? Patai, in his book, The Hebrew Goddess, says that the divine feminine is a projection of what a man needs a woman for his own survival. Man wants a virgin, a prostitute, a daughter and a mother. He wants promiscuity, chastity, piety and violence. To Patai, as seen in Goddess Sophia and Shekinah, is a bit ambivalent of men by women. But why on women? Why do women continue to seek the divine feminine? Part of the answer lies in Gottlieb's quote at the beginning of this article. If we use language as a way to approach the ineffable Eternal, then women have traditionally been denied access to this portal. We need to see ourselves in the holy and the holy in ourselves and our sisters. We need to know specifically that we are created in the image of the Goddess / God, not in some abstract form and indefinable, but very real to be reached and touched as a person and human being. We need to hear our concerns as mothers, partners, daughters, sisters, friends and lovers, bringing before the congregation of the saints to be validated and confirmed. Men need the Goddess, for their own reasons. I believe that we all, men and women need the Goddess represented in the divine Sophia, Shekinah, for reasons of extreme importance is our own healing and the healing of the universe, and a strong reason for the reunification of the Divine Masculine and Feminine in unity of God / Goddess, who made us all.