Marc Gafni: The Cry of the Shekina; “Woe to me who has become powerless once again”

When man and woman come together in sacred union, God is a third partner in their union.

They participate not only in the potential creation of new life below in the visible world, but also create new life above, in the divine.

They not only fulfill themselves in Eros, but they fulfill God. “The Shechina dwells between them.” Akiva is suggesting no less than that the Shechina which dwells between the cherubs in the Temple, now dwells between man and woman in sexual union. Sexual Union in the Kabbalistic tradition is the great mystical act which heals all the worlds above and below. The Zohar in a typical passage writes:

They should prepare themselves to be of one desire and one intent so that when they join they become one in body and soul; they become one in soul by aligning their wills in cleaving; when they unite in sexual union they become one in body and soul … It is then that God dwells between them in unified oneness.

If however the partners in an erotic encounter later defile their encounter by de-storying it; by violating the parameters of it’s context, through re-membering and dis-membering, partial truth, lie and distortion -then the Shekina sits in ashes and cries.

“Woe to me whose has become powerless once again”. Woe to me who has been defiled, who has become powerless once again. The Shekinah waits for the powerful feminine to speak truth and raise her from her ashes.

marc gafni
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