The Messianic Vision of Equality and Beyond Part 1

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This essay has been extracted from Sarah Yehudit’s larger study on the nature of gender in Kabbala. Please visit Kabbalistic Writings on the Nature of Masculine and Feminine to read a summary and browse through this book or buy it directly.

The Voice of the Bride[1]

by Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Presented and Elucidated by Sarah Yehudit Schneider

Bare Bones Literacy

Summary:

Voice of the Bride by R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi takes the Ari’s model a step beyond and shows how the polarities of masculine and feminine will eventually invert.  There will come a time, blessed and welcomed by all, when the feminine will have greater access to transcendent consciousness, and when that happens she will bestow and man will receive from her.

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Vocabulary:

Amida – (literally, standing). Another term for the shemona essrei (or prayer of eighteen blessings).  See entry above.

Arik Anpin – The second (lower) root of soul, also in the sefira called crown.  It faces downward toward creation and generates a constant will-toward-good in the personality.

Atik Yomin (Atika) – The highest root of the soul.  The innermost point of the sefira called crown, that actually touches the Infinite Light and dwells in the pleasure of that union.

Halacha – (literally, walking). The vast system of Jewish law derived from the Torah as received by Moses and explicated by the sages, which defines the entirety of Jewish life.  There is no area of experience that is outside the jurisdiction of halacha.

Integrated lights – truths and understandings that have been apprehended by mind or heart.

Katnut – (literally, smallness).  A term referring to an immature or constricted state of consciousness.

Lights – Lights are always equivalent to consciousness in kabbalistic writings.  Each sefira or spark is a light that transmits a particular insight or capacity for awareness.

Malchut – The lowest of the ten sefirot is called malchut which means literally royalty and kingship.  It corresponds to the physical plane and represents the final stage of light’s congealing into matter.

Man and Woman – Kabbalistic archetypes of male and female in their prime, as opposed to father and mother which signify their later stages of life.

Messianic Era – The messianic era is a transitional time between this world and the next.  It begins somewhere towards the end of the sixth millennium (we are now within the period of its likely beginnings) and will take us to the threshold of the world-to-come.  It is the joyous stage of actualized perfection. Love of G‑d, love of neighbor, and love of Torah reign.

Mother – The higher (or elder) feminine archetype associated with the sefira of understanding (binah)

Partzuf / partzufim – The set of six kabbalistic archetypes that coalesce into a family system with each filling a unique role, for example: father, mother, man, woman.  Equally frequently, these partzufim function as different “voices” or sub-personalities within a single individual.

Sefira / Sefirot – The ten channels of Divine flow and emanation which link the Transcendent Light with Its evolving and apparently finite creation.

Shemona Essrei (literally, eighteen) – the group of originally eighteen, but now nineteen blessings which form the core and backbone of Jewish worship.  Under most circumstances the obligation to pray three times a day is only fulfilled by reciting the Shemona Essrei.  This prayer is recited silently, while standing, feet together, facing Jerusalem.

Surrounding Lights – truths and understandings that are too deep or great for the mind (or vessel) to grasp.

Mishna – First recording of the oral law compiled by Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi in 180 C.E.  Primarily legalistic in content, the Mishna consolidates the oral tradition as it had evolved from Sinai through the Second Temple period.  It forms the basis of the Gemara.

Synopsis

When a Jewish man and woman wed, seven marriage blessings are recited for them beneath the bridal canopy.  R. Schneur Zalman comments on the last of these special prayers which heralds an idyllic time when “the jubilant voices of both groom and bride will be heard on the streets of Jerusalem…and the groom will rejoice with his bride.”[2] R. Schneur Zalman reads these lines in the context of his encyclopedic knowledge of Jewish teachings where even the most subtle hint reverberates in ever-widening circles of association. 

He interprets this prayer as depicting a profound transformation of gender relations that will culminate in messianic times.

R. Schneur Zalman identifies two shifts in status quo anticipated by the prayer’s carefully selected words.  First is the emergence of woman’s voice from passive silence to full expression (as indicated by the blessing’s unnecessary repetition of the word voice both in relation to groom and in relation to bride).  Second is a reversal of polarities between man and woman. Now when consciousness (and its associated joys) descends from above to below it passes first to man and from him to woman. In this sequence, he gives and she receives.  In messianic times the polarity will invert and consciousness will move in the opposite direction; it will pass first to woman, and from her to man (as derived by comparing this prayer’s closing words to a nearly identical line in the sixth blessing that precedes it).  R. Schneur Zalman elaborates on these remarkable teachings and explores their implications both for Israel’s relationship to G‑d, and woman’s relationship to man.

He compares this messianic progression to Judaism’s two-stage process of marital relationship which defines a stepwise sequence of deepening intimacy, called betrothal and marriage.  These are precisely defined terms in Jewish law.  Betrothal is a legally binding commitment to marry.  Though the couple is not permitted to relate sexually, in most other respects they are as if legally married and the dissolution of their engagement requires a divorce.  The second level of matrimonial commitment occurs when the bride formally enters her husband’s home.  The wedding canopy symbolizes their coming together under one-roof and so effects this change of status.  The marriage is finalized by its physical consummation.  These legal categories have metaphysical correlations as well.  In betrothal the couple’s outer layers of soul engage; in marriage their core selves touch and bond.

Betrothal requires one of several specific deeds to activate the obligations associated with that commitment.  The Mishna states, “A woman is [betrothed] in three ways: When she receives a sum of money [or a gift of equivalent monetary value…]”[3] Nowadays this is fulfilled by the exchange of a ring,[4] a gold band that encircles her finger.

This model also applies to the relationship between HaShem and Israel, where He is the groom and they are the bride.  Their commitment evolves through a similar progression of intimacy.  R. Schneur Zalman proves that the Torah’s revelation effected HaShem’s betrothal to Israel, the first stage of intimacy where externalities engage.  Their relationship will consummate in messianic times.

Just as a man effects betrothal with a ring, so did HaShem, for the ring’s circular form parallel’s the metaphysical concept of surrounding lights. In kaballah, lights that can be grasped and integrated are called inner and internalizable (אור פנימי), lights that are present but too “high” or “deep” or “vast” to be contained within their vessel of consciousness are described as surrounding or hovering (אור מקיף).  Both types descended at Sinai.

According to Jewish tradition, the Torah’s revelation was the most profound manifestation of G‑d that ever transpired on the planet.  An estimated four million people experienced that historic event.  A searing revelation of Presence engraved the souls of an entire nation with the-truth-of-the-universe compressed into a single burst of light.  Its impact continues to impel their generations to be seekers and servants of G‑d, and will do so till the end of time.

Sinai is different from all other prophetic encounters not only in its amount of light but also in its quality. Other Biblical prophesies only accessed the aura of Divinity, the glow that surrounds the Blessed Luminary.  At Sinai the Infinite Light itself, the actual source of illumination, was manifestly present.  And yet, the people could not contain that intensity of revelation.  Its bolt of insight impacted their souls, but only a fraction integrated as conscious awareness.  The rest overflowed into a ring of surrounding light that holds all the possibilities of future consciousness within its glow.  With each passing moment the vessel of awareness expands and a drop of surrounding radiance slips inside and integrates there.  Eventually all the encircling lights will be internalized by our infinitely expanded capacity to know G‑d.

R. Schneur Zalman defines both integrated and surrounding lights by their relationship to Torah. Integrated lights are truths and teachings that are accessible to us now, at this point in our development.  All the accumulated wisdom of the Jewish people, its Torah commentaries, legal rulings, moral lessons and mysticism are all integrated lights to the extent that they are known and incorporated into life.

Conversely, the inner dimension of Torah, the repository of secrets hidden within the text elucidating the deeper reasons behind its laws, stories, and textual structure, this came down at Sinai but was not actually revealed at that time.  Embedded within each letter, word, and story are all the unrealized possibilities of interpretation daily elucidated.  These ungraspable lights (along with the higher states of consciousness that accompany them), form a shimmering halo around the integrated lights of the revealed Torah, enclosing them as if in a sphere of radiant consciousness. With this encircling band as His engagement offering, HaShem betrothed the Jewish people at Sinai and secured their commitment to marry at the end of days.

Throughout their engagement period Israel’s relationship to HaShem daily ripens.  It is not a time of passive waiting; only active preparation will do.  Our task is to labor in Torah, to release its hidden teachings and allow ourselves to be transformed by its truths.  Each day Israel exposes another layer of concealed lights and soon there will be no secrets left. The Torah’s soul-satisfying wisdoms will illuminate every question, resolve every doubt, and explain every suffering.

The fullness of Divine light will shine through the Torah and fill Israel’s collective heart, bones, cells and spaces with Holy Presence.  There will be no place inside them that is not permeated with G‑d and nothing of G‑d that does not fit inside them.  A perfect marriage, a consummate union of glory and awe.

This transition from betrothal to marriage happens through the gradual integration of surrounding lights.  The transfer of consciousness from above to below, from its infinite source on high to its final expression as expanded awareness in the minds of mankind, follows one path of descent now, in the engagement period, and will follow an alternative route in messianic times.  Now, this stepwise relay of consciousness begins with mother who passes it on to man.  He internalizes what he can and the rest spills over as surrounding light. Man then separates out a portion of his newly integrated lights and passes them on to woman.

The rule is stated thus: The higher the partzuf, the greater its capacity to hold light.  Consequently at each transfer only some illumination actually fits into the vessel below.  The rest gets displaced into a ring of transcendent awareness that holds all the possibilities of future apprehension, and that encircles the head of the lower partzuf. In this way each upper level becomes a crown to the level below.

This is the order of descent in pre-messianic times, while the moon is diminished and woman’s stature is less than man’s.  In this configuration woman cannot access her own transcendent lights, for she cannot reach them on her own.  She needs man to draw them from mother and pass them to her.

Woman’s preparation for marriage requires that she heal all traces of diminishment and reattain her full stature. Consummation can only happen when man and woman match from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet, and this is only possible when they meet as equal statures.  As long as woman remains diminished, their union can never consummate and “marriage” cannot happen.

Then, explains the Rav, their relationship evolves to a higher level still. Woman recovers her full stature and then supercedes man.  When this happens their polarity inverts.  Now she becomes “the crown to her husband,” holding the superconscious lights that are destined for him, but which he cannot reach on his own.  Like a rubber band stretched and released, she springs beyond man and becomes the intermediary in their relationship, a service he will have provided for six thousand years.  Since she can now access levels that he cannot, she transfers their illuminations to him, some of which he integrates and some of which he cannot, for his vessel of consciousness is too small to contain them.  Instead they encircle his head as a crown, fulfilling the verse which states “the woman of valor will become a crown to her husband.”

The seventh marriage blessing depicts this shift in the polarity of man and woman with its closing words, “…Blessed is HaShem who rejoices the groom with the bride.”  Its use of the word with (as opposed to the word and in the sixth blessing) indicates that woman is now the primary source of joy and man comes along with her.  In the first six milleniums of history consciousness (and its joys) flows from man to woman, but this dynamic will change in messianic times. The supersconscious lights of G‑d awareness will pass first to woman, and then, afterwards, to man.

Rav Schneur Zalman depicts this gender transformation as a two-step process.  First woman comes into her voice.  Her current lack of voice manifests in two ways.  Now her betrothal happens through a one way flow of speech.  The groom talks while the bride stays silent.  He pronounces his intention, “Behold you are sanctified [betrothed] to me…” and she does not respond.  Her silence expresses her lack of protest which establishes the criteria of mutual consent.  Their engagement, with all its contractual responsibilities, activates by her muteness. Second the Shemona Essrei,[5] the epitome of prayer and woman’s essential expression of Divine service, (as opposed to Torah study, which is man’s) is a silently offered prayer.

The seventh marriage blessing reads, “Let there soon be heard …the voice of the bride.”  R. Schneur Zalman reads this as an invocation: Let the bride come into her voice.  Let her express herself and project herself in fully audible speech, the very opposite of the whispered prayers we now employ in our Shemona Essrei

In the future woman will return to her root and receive her lights straight from the very source of consciousness itself, the inwardness of the Infinite light.  The relationship between groom and bride, God and Israel will then be fully consummated, as woman attains her full stature and they now meet at every level of their beings. Woman will recover her voice, and the roles of man and woman will invert.  Man will receive his light and bounty from the transcendent levels of HaShem via the agency of woman as his intermediary, a state described by the seventh marriage blessing, “Blessed are You, HaShem who rejoices the groom with the bride.”  All the promised pleasures of the messianic times are merely effects of this profound shift in gender relations.

Full Text

Voice of the Bride

R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi

 Blessed are You, HaShem, our G‑d, King of the universe, Who created joy and gladness, groom and bride, mirth, glad song, pleasure, delight, love, brotherhood, peace, and companionship. HaShem, our G‑d, let there soon be heard in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the grooms’ jubilance from their canopies and of youths from their song-filled feasts.  Blessed are You, HaShem Who gladdens the groom with the bride.

This is, the last of the seven marriage blessings (sheva brochot), the special prayers recited under the wedding canopy and at each of the seven celebratory meals in the week following.  The language of its bolded lines is curious for several reasons:1. Why is the closing line[6] of this blessing only subtly different from the one that precedes it?[7] The sixth6,[8] sheva brocha ends with the prayer, “Blessed are You…who gladdens the groom and bride,” while the seventh6 ends with, “…who gladdens the groom with the bride?”

The difference between them must be significant enough to warrant both blessings.  Otherwise, one of the prayers would be redundant and its recitation would violate the prohibition of taking G‑d’s name in vain.

2. Why is the blessing stated with such urgency:  “…let there soon be heard…the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride?”

3. What is the connection between the raised voices of groom and bride and their joy at coming together?

4. Why is the blessing stated in the future tense, as if only then will their voices be heard, but not now in the present?

5. Why is the prayer careful to explicitly mention the word voice both in relation to the groom and in relation to the bride:  “Let there soon be heard…the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride,” when it could more simply have said, “…the voice of the groom and bride.”

The answer to these questions draws its illumination from the body of kabbalistic teachings called the Diminishment of the Moon, a collection of mystical writings that elucidate the mystery of gender.The sixth sheva brocha, which ends with the phrase, “…who rejoices the groom and the bride” describes the relationship of male and female in our present, fallen and exiled state.  The seventh blessing which reads, “…who rejoices the groom with the bride” applies to the future and presents the ideal and perfected endpoint of the collective marriage between men and women as cosmic archetypes evolving through time. 

  The blessing describes a two step process of realizing its vision.[9] The first shifting of relationship is described by the phrase, “then will be heard…the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.” Only once both voices are heard can the last phase of history begin where “the groom now rejoices with the bride.” Since at present the voices of bride and groom are not both heard, the reality of the sixth blessing applies instead, and a lower state of joy binds the groom and the bride.”The difference between these two blessings and the three-step sequence of relationship they describe is known to all versed in kaballa.  In the future era described by the seventh blessing when “the groom rejoices with the bride,” their polarity of giving and receiving will invert.  While generally the male bestows and the female receives, then the awakening of joy will originate with the bride and only afterwards spread to the groom.

Conversely, in the sixth blessing, which describes our present, fallen state by the phrase, “…who rejoices the groom and the bride,” the situation is reversed, and the arousal moves from groom to bride. Since the kindling of joy starts with him, the verse describes the sequence of joy as starting with the groom and afterwards the bride.To understand the reason behind this shifting of the polarity of joy’s flow, that now it passes from groom to bride yet soon it will emanate from bride to groom, one must first understand the difference between betrothal and marriage as sequential stages of connubial commitment. 

Besides their literal application in every wedding ceremony, they also mark the path of Israel’s evolving relationship with G‑d and Torah.

Betrothal and marriage are precisely defined terms in Jewish law.  Betrothal is a legally binding commitment to marry.  Though the couple is not permitted to relate sexually,  in most other respects they are as if legally married and the dissolution of their engagement requires a divorce.  The second level of marital commitment occurs when the bride formally enters her husband’s home.  The wedding canopy symbolizes their coming together under one-roof and so effects this change of status.  The marriage is finalized by its physical consummation.Several Midrashim employ the metaphor of engagement and marriage to describe Israel’s evolving relationship with HaShem through history:

“Moshe commanded us the Torah, a morasha (inheritance) to the congregation of Jacob.”[10] The Gemara derives a homiletical teaching based on the similarity between two words, one of which appears in this verse. Don’t read morasha (inheritance), rather substitute a different but similar sounding word, me’orasah (act of betrothal). With this substitution the verse now reads, “Moshe commanded us the Torah as an engagement token to the congregation of Jacob.”[11]

Two teachings emerge from this Gemara.

1. The relationship between Israel and HaShem parallels the relationship between groom and bride.

2. The Torah’s revelation at Sinai bound Israel to HaShem through the first stage of matrimonial coupling, called betrothal (airusin).

   
   
   
   

And similarly another midrash teaches:[12]

“Go forth, O you daughters of Zion and gaze upon King Solomon, even upon the crown wherewith his mother crowned him on the day of his espousals…”[13] The midrash reads this verse as metaphorically referring to the union of HaShem with the Jewish people and identifies the Torah’s revelation at Sinai as the historic event corresponding to “the day of His espousals.” It further proves that this dramatic encounter effected betrothal (and not revelation: “And you shall sanctify yourselves today and the day following.”[14] Since the word here for sanctify (kidashtem / קידשתם) shares the same root as the word for engagement (kidushin / קידושין) this proves that the Sinaic bond was betrothal and not marriage.The final consummation of Israel’s relationship with HaShem as marital union will only happen in the future, when the messianic redeemer comes to lead the world through its final stages of transformation. Then will Isaiah’s prophesy be fulfilled, “Your husband is your maker.”[15] The term for husband in this verse emphasizes the physically consummated union of man and wife.

Rambam depicts this joyful era of redemption with the following words:

In that time there will be neither famine nor war, envy or competition.  Good will flow in abundance and all delights will be [as common] as dust.  The occupation of the entire world will be solely to know G‑d.  Therefore the Jews will be great sages and know hidden matters, attaining knowledge of their Creator to [the full extent] of human potential as Isaiah states, “The world will be filled with the knowledge of G‑d as the sea fills the ocean bed.”[16]

In addition to these more familiar features of that yearned-for time, Kaballa adds another blessing to the list.  The messianic era will bring a profound transformation of gender relations which it explicitly depicts as an equalizing of stature between man and woman, groom and bride.  This is the subject of Rabbi Shneur Zalman’s essay, The Voice of the Bride, translated here.

During this interim period until the messianic time, Israel’s spousal relationship with HaShem is daily ripening.  Yet, since it remains unconsummated, the term that most accurately describes their level of intimacy is betrothal, a preparatory period wherein the couple readies for wedlock.Kabbalah is the body of Jewish teachings that elucidates the esoteric layers of implication in every story, sentence, word, and law of the Torah as well as its customs and rituals.  The sequence of betrothal and marriage as a stepwise progression of relationship has mystical significance that is likewise explicated by kabbala.

In betrothal, the external layers of the couple engage, but their ‘insides” do not yet touch.  As above so below.  When they marry and begin their physical relationship a core-level bonding of soul simultaneously occurs.

Although the inner essence of Divinity called the Infinite Light revealed Itself at Sinai as the radiant wisdom of the Torah, and condensed Itself into ten infinitely compact seeds of teaching called the Ten Precepts, nevertheless, only the more external layers of the Infinite Light were actually manifest in that encounter.  Consequently the relationship between HaShem and Israel created by that revelation of Torah was an external bonding. Though their attachment was profound, their insides were not yet engaged.

The Torah has infinite layers of teachings, some of which are visible while other lie deeply concealed beyond the grasp of human comprehension. At Sinai only its more accessible layers actually shone forth as explicit teachings and visible lights.  HaShem limited Himself to what would be apprehensible to that generation, at that point of history.Conversely, the inner dimension of Torah, the repository of secrets hidden within the text elucidating the deeper reasons behind its laws, stories, and textual structure; this was not revealed at Sinai. Yet it initiated a process of unfolding that assures its eventual release, for each generation from that point hence peers into the Torah and exposes another layer of its hidden light.  By the end-of-days there will be no secrets left. 

The Torah’s inner recesses will blaze forth, and all will behold the glory of its every detail.  The most inward and abstract beauty of the Infinite Light will shine through the Torah like a holograph, rendered visible by the perfectly ground lens of its Oral Teachings embodied as the living community of Israel.As explained, each of the ten sefirot and six partzufim have a distinguishing trait that is their contribution to the soul.  A person’s nature and level of spiritual development determines which of those traits are integrated in strong and healthy ways, and which are under- or overdeveloped. 

The tree of life marks a ten-step path from below to above that each soul follows in its journey toward perfection and reunion with its Creator.

The last stop in its trek is the sefira called Crown (Keter) which contains two partzufim: an upper one called Atik Yomin (Ancient of Days) and a lower one called Arik Anpin (Long Countenance).  The trait associated with Atik is spiritual bliss (תענוג), and the trait associated with Arik is will (רצון) for it is the source of all motivating impulses within the personality.  For various reasons, sometimes these two partzufim are considered a single level, in which case Arik Anpin (Long Countenance) is absorbed by Atik, which now comprises two layers, one outer and one inner.  In this essay, Rav Shneur Zalman employs this latter model.