Radical Judaism_ Rethinking God and Tradition - Arthur Green [90]
This is the essential teaching of a mystical Judaism for our day. Placed upon the grid of Kabbalistic symbolism, it would read something like this. Unspeakable Mystery (’atiqa) manifests itself in tif'eret, “glory,” the center of the Kabbalistic tree. Tif'eret is “the blessed Holy One,” the symbolic realm most identified with the personified God of Scripture. But tif'eret is also the Written Torah, the verbalized form into which that God has “written Himself,” as we have said. And tif'eret is Israel, here in the form of yisra'el sabba, the elder Israel, the source of blessing to all who come in his wake. This is indeed a Jewish trinity, in that the three not only stand in relation to one another but are ultimately to be fully identified. “God,” “Torah,” and “Israel” are one.
Tif'eret is a “male” principle, which means that it is a font of energy, a source that radiates forth blessing. But each of these three dimensions of tif'eret also has a “female” counterpart, one that receives and takes in blessing. Parallel to God as “blessed Holy One” is shekhinah, the indwelling presence of God, the one that plays “Queen” to His “King” in the medieval landscape where Kabbalah was first articulated. Written Torah is linked to Oral Torah, the “female” side of the “male” Law; she is the act of endless reinterpretation, constantly reshaping the contours of received Torah, based on the ongoing input from each unique generation of her devotees. And Israel is also kenesset yisra'el, the Ingathering or Community of Israel, receiving into herself lost souls from the most remote corners of earth and the most pained human wanderings, making them realize they are part of the One. All of these (shekhinah, Oral Torah, kenesset yisra'el) are names of the tenth sefirah, positioned at the border of the divine realm; it is she who actually rules over the lower worlds. Once again, “God (indwelling shekhinah),” “Torah (oral tradition, interpretative freedom),” and “Israel (the embraced seeker)” are one.55
These categories of “male” and “female” are perhaps better understood as “giver” and “receiver.” Each of us contains both tif'eret yisra'el and kenesset yisra'el within himself or herself. As psychologists have long understood, all of us contain elements of man and woman within our personalities. The Kabbalist and the Jungian are of one voice in telling us to accept and make creative use of our complex gender identity. Learning to be both givers and receivers of love, of energy, and of blessing is central to our growth and maturation as human beings. Our task is to take the energy of renewed life that we receive in each moment and offer it back in acts of giving, so that we humans, this broadly reconceived camp of Israel, do indeed “add power and strength ‘above.’ ”
Learning to live with awe and wonder in the presence of Y-H-W-H,56 hearing the voice from within the silence, understanding and responding to the call and the demand being made upon us—these are the essential way stations of the religious life. This is an entirely Hasidic, as well as an entirely contemporary, point of view. In the classical language of theology, I am offering a reconceptualization of both “Creation” and “revelation.” I do so by affirming the mystical tradition's understanding that both of these are self-manifestations of the hidden God. Neither “world,” the object of Creation, nor Torah, the object of revelation, is truly separate from its Source. Nor are we. This is the great truth we are here to discover and proclaim. This discovery, when allowed to spread throughout our lives, liberates and transforms us. It is a discovery of exultation and joy, a cause for celebration. It should uplift Yom Kippur as well as Pesah, the moment of inner stillness as well as the shout of freedom. But it brings us along onto the road of responsibility as well, now more than ever. When we set out on that journey, in deed as well as in