(א) בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹקֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּ֒שָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה:
(ב) וְהַעֲרֶב נָא ה' אֱלֹקֵֽינוּ אֶת־דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָתְךָ בְּפִֽינוּ וּבְפִי עַמְּךָ בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל. וְנִהְיֶה אֲנַֽחְנוּ וְצֶאֱצָאֵֽינוּ וְצֶאֱצָאֵי עַמְּךָ בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל כֻּלָּֽנוּ יוֹדְעֵי שְׁמֶֽךָ וְלוֹמְדֵי תוֹרָתֶֽךָ. (י"א לִשְׁמָהּ). בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' הַמְלַמֵּד תּוֹרָה לְעַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל.
Blessed are You, Divine power, sovereign of the cosmos, who sanctifies us through practice, enjoining us to steep ourselves in words of Torah.
Please, God, make the words of your Torah pleasant in our mouths and in the mouths of your people Israel; and may we and our descendants and the descendants of our descendants and the descendants of your people the House of Israel all know your name and be students of your Torah for Her own sake. Blessed are You, Divinity, who teaches Torah to your people, Israel.
https://www.girlsintroublemusic.com/songs/rubies/ by Alicia Jo Rabins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNzrkKJGfqY
Rubies
Like a merchant ship, strong and wide, gold and oranges deep inside more than rubies, more than pearls, the one I love.
With purple silk and tapestry, she weaves a blanket to cover me more than rubies, more than pearls, the one I love.
The world is woven through us and I cannot forget how her fingers hold the thread.
She buys a field, she plants a vine come the autumn she makes her wine more than rubies, more than pearls, the one I love.
Let it rain, let it storm she keeps her babies safe and warm more than rubies, more than pearls, the one I love.
Grace can lie and beauty’s vain oh but she calls me by my name more than rubies, more than pearls, the one I love.
The world is woven through us I swear I won’t forget how her fingers hold the thread.
An ode to Eshet Chayil, “A Woman of Valor” (Proverbs 31)
An Explicitly Male God
(ב) עׇזִּ֤י וְזִמְרָת֙ יָ֔הּ וַֽיְהִי־לִ֖י לִֽישׁוּעָ֑ה זֶ֤ה אֵלִי֙ וְאַנְוֵ֔הוּ אֱלֹקֵ֥י אָבִ֖י וַאֲרֹמְמֶֽנְהוּ׃ (ג) ה' אִ֣ישׁ מִלְחָמָ֑ה ה' שְׁמֽוֹ׃
(2) ה'Yah is my strength and might; He is become my deliverance. This is my God [my El] and I will enshrine Him; The God of my father, and I will exalt Him.(3) ה', the Warrior-Man—ה' is His name!
From The Hebrew Goddess (1967), by Raphael Patai, pp.28-30
As for God, He is not merely the One and Only God, but also eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, aphysical (and therefore invisible), inscrutable, and incomprehensible, as well as just, good, compassionate, merciful and benevolent. Since, being pure spirit, he is without body, he possesses no physical attributes and hence no sexual traits. To say that God is either male or female is therefore completely impossible from the viewpoint of traditional Judaism. As Mainmonides, the greatest medieval Jewish philosopher, put it, "God is not a body, nor can bodily attributes be ascribed to him, and he has no likeness at all."
Yet one factor, a linguistic one, defied all theological repugnance to the attribution of bodily qualities to God. It is in the nature of the Hebrew language that every noun has either the masculine or the feminine gender (except a very few which can take either). The two Biblical names of God, Yahweh (pronounced, out of reverence for its great holiness, as "Adonai" and usually translated as "the Lord"); and Elohim (or briefly El, translated as "God"), are masculine. When a pronoun is used to refer to God, it is the masculine "He"; when a verb describes that he did something or when an adjective qualifies him, they appear in the masculine form. ... Thus, every verbal statement about God conveyed the idea that He was masculine. ... Every Hebrew-speaking individual from early childhood was imbued with the the idea that God was a masculine deity. No subsequent teaching about the aphysical, incomprehensible, or transcendental nature of the deity could eradicate this early mental image...
In fact, during Biblical and Talmudic times... both of these great source-books of Judaism contain innumerable references to God which reinforce belief in His masculinity. The[y]... constantly use unmitigated anthropomorphisms in referring to God. He is a "Man of War," a "Hero," "Lord of Hosts," "King," "Master of the Universe," and "Our Father in Heaven," to mention only a few... indelibly impress[ing] Jews not only with the Kingship and Fatherhood but also with the Manhood of God.
Theologians will point out that none of these expressions are indicative of an actual belief in, let alone a doctrine of, the masculinity of God. Human imagination, they will argue, needs symbols to fasten on. The fatherhood of God (which connotes His masculinity) is merely such a symbol. We do not mean, when we pray to Our Father in Heaven, that He actually is our male progenitor, but that we feel that we are dependent on Him, as we were on our father in childhood. We certainly have no quarrel with this argument. The God of Judaism is undoubtedly a father-symbol and father image.... Nor can there be any doubts as to the greatness of the psychological need answered by this image...
The Biblical God-concept... reflects the strictly patriarchal order of the society which produced it; this patriarchal society gave rise to a religion centered around a single, universal deity whose will was embodied in the Law, who was abstract, devoid of all physical attributes and yet pronouncedly male, a true projection of the patriarchal family-head.
Or More Complex?
(א) בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹקִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ (ב) וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹקִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃
(1) When God [Elohim] began to create (m) heaven and earth— (2) the earth (f) being unformed and void, with darkness upon the face of the deep [tehom] and God's spirit [ruach Elohim] fluttering (f) over the water;
(כז) וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹקִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹקִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃
(27) And God [Elohim] created (m) humankind in His image, creating it (m) in the image of God—male and female He created them.
The Mother of All Life
(כ) וַיִּקְרָ֧א הָֽאָדָ֛ם שֵׁ֥ם אִשְׁתּ֖וֹ חַוָּ֑ה כִּ֛י הִ֥וא הָֽיְתָ֖ה אֵ֥ם כׇּל־חָֽי׃
(20) The Human named his woman Eve, [ḥavvaḥ] because she was the mother of all life [ḥai].
(א) וְהָ֣אָדָ֔ם יָדַ֖ע אֶת־חַוָּ֣ה אִשְׁתּ֑וֹ וַתַּ֙הַר֙ וַתֵּ֣לֶד אֶת־קַ֔יִן וַתֹּ֕אמֶר קָנִ֥יתִי אִ֖ישׁ אֶת־ה'׃
(1) Now the Human knew his woman, Eve, and she conceived and bore Qain, saying, “I have created [wordplay: qanitti, clearly connected with Qain] a person together with YHVH."
Or: “I have created a person as did YHVH."
[precise force of Heb. ’et uncertain]
In Susan Niditch’s deconstructed reading of Eve, ‘the woman herself comes to have the most earthly and the most divine of roles, conceiving, containing and nurturing new life… It is she who first dares to eat of God’s tree, to consume the fruit of the divine, thereby becoming like the angel.' Niditch has attempted to reappropriate the perfection of matter, emphasizing the ability of the female to achieve a level of divinity without transcending her gender.
Extracts from T.M Rudavsky, “To Know What Is”, p.197-198 “Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy" ed. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2004.
The implications of Eve's act are enormous. In a bit, she has 'stolen' cultural knowledge, taking it from the sacred realm and bringing it to humankind...
Like Prometheus, Eve acts on her own initiative; like Prometheus, she transforms human existence; and like Prometheus, she suffers as a result of her gift to humanity. However --unlike Prometheus -- Eve, the Bible's first culture bearer, is human. And she is female. This depiction of Eve as culture hero has an inner coherence and logic to it, for Eve's role in this primeval scene is the woman's role in the life of human beings, and that of the goddesses of the ancient Sumerian pantheon. The goddesses are figures of culture and wisdom just as women are the first teachers of cultured existence, the transformers of raw into edible, grass into baskets, fleece and flax into yarn and linen and then into clothes, and babies into social beings. They are the mediators of nature and culture in daily life and Eve the first woman is the first transformer who begins the change from 'natural' simple human beings into cultural humanity.
From Tikva Frymer-Kensky's In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth (1993), p.110
God as Big Sister
(א) וַיֵּ֥לֶךְ אִ֖ישׁ מִבֵּ֣ית לֵוִ֑י וַיִּקַּ֖ח אֶת־בַּת־לֵוִֽי׃ (ב) וַתַּ֥הַר הָאִשָּׁ֖ה וַתֵּ֣לֶד בֵּ֑ן וַתֵּ֤רֶא אֹתוֹ֙ כִּי־ט֣וֹב ה֔וּא וַֽתִּצְפְּנֵ֖הוּ שְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה יְרָחִֽים׃ (ג) וְלֹא־יָכְלָ֣ה עוֹד֮ הַצְּפִינוֹ֒ וַתִּֽקַּֽח־לוֹ֙ תֵּ֣בַת גֹּ֔מֶא וַתַּחְמְרָ֥הֿ בַחֵמָ֖ר וּבַזָּ֑פֶת וַתָּ֤שֶׂם בָּהּ֙ אֶת־הַיֶּ֔לֶד וַתָּ֥שֶׂם בַּסּ֖וּף עַל־שְׂפַ֥ת הַיְאֹֽר׃ (ד) וַתֵּתַצַּ֥ב אֲחֹת֖וֹ מֵרָחֹ֑ק לְדֵעָ֕ה מַה־יֵּעָשֶׂ֖ה לֽוֹ׃ (ה) וַתֵּ֤רֶד בַּת־פַּרְעֹה֙ לִרְחֹ֣ץ עַל־הַיְאֹ֔ר וְנַעֲרֹתֶ֥יהָ הֹלְכֹ֖ת עַל־יַ֣ד הַיְאֹ֑ר וַתֵּ֤רֶא אֶת־הַתֵּבָה֙ בְּת֣וֹךְ הַסּ֔וּף וַתִּשְׁלַ֥ח אֶת־אֲמָתָ֖הּ וַתִּקָּחֶֽהָ׃
(1) A certain member of the house of Levi went and took [into his household as his wife] a woman of Levi. (2) The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw how beautiful he was, she hid him for three months. (3) When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and caulked it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. (4) And his sister stationed herself at a distance, to learn what would befall him. (5) The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it.
וְרַבָּנָן אָמְרִין כָּל הַפָּסוּק הַזֶּה עַל שֵׁם רוּחַ הַקֹּדֶשׁ נֶאֱמַר, וַתֵּתַצַּב, עַל שֵׁם (שמואל א ג, י): וַיָּבֹא ה' וַיִּתְיַצַּב. אֲחוֹתוֹ, עַל שֵׁם (משלי ז, ד): אֱמֹר לַחָכְמָה אֲחֹתִי אָתְּ. מֵרָחֹק, עַל שֵׁם (ירמיה לא, ב): מֵרָחוֹק ה' נִרְאָה לִי. לָדַעַת מַה יֵּעָשֶׂה לוֹ, עַל שֵׁם (שמואל א ב, ג): כִּי אֵל דֵּעוֹת ה' [וכל הענין].
(22) “His sister positioned herself at a distance to know what would happen to him” (Exodus 2:4).The Rabbis say: The entire verse is stated as an allusion to the Divine Spirit: “Positioned herself [vatetatzav],” alluding to: “The Lord came and stood [vayityatzev]” (I Samuel 3:10). “His sister,” alludes to: “Say to wisdom: You are my sister” (Proverbs 7:4). “At a distance,” alluding to: “From a distance the Lord appeared to me” (Jeremiah 31:2); “to know [lede’a] what would happen to him,” alluding to: “As the Lord is a God of knowledge [de’ot]” (I Samuel 2:3).
The In-Dwelling Presence (Shechinah)
שכנתי
שכינה
I may dwell shachanti
Indwelling Spirit Shechina
Mother - Midwife
(יד) וַתֹּ֥אמֶר צִיּ֖וֹן עֲזָבַ֣נִי יְהֹוָ֑ה וַאדֹנָ֖י שְׁכֵחָֽנִי׃ (טו) הֲתִשְׁכַּ֤ח אִשָּׁה֙ עוּלָ֔הּ מֵרַחֵ֖ם בֶּן־בִּטְנָ֑הּ גַּם־אֵ֣לֶּה תִשְׁכַּ֔חְנָה וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א אֶשְׁכָּחֵֽךְ׃ (טז) הֵ֥ן עַל־כַּפַּ֖יִם חַקֹּתִ֑יךְ חוֹמֹתַ֥יִךְ נֶגְדִּ֖י תָּמִֽיד׃
(14) Zion says,“ GOD has forsaken me, My Sovereign has forgotten me.”
(15) Can a woman forget her baby, Or disown the child of her womb? Though she might forget, I never could forget you. (16) See, I have engraved you On the palms of My hands, Your walls are ever before Me.
(ו) ק֤וֹל שָׁאוֹן֙ מֵעִ֔יר ק֖וֹל מֵהֵיכָ֑ל ק֣וֹל ה' מְשַׁלֵּ֥ם גְּמ֖וּל לְאֹיְבָֽיו׃ (ז) בְּטֶ֥רֶם תָּחִ֖יל יָלָ֑דָה בְּטֶ֨רֶם יָב֥וֹא חֵ֛בֶל לָ֖הּ וְהִמְלִ֥יטָה זָכָֽר׃ (ח) מִֽי־שָׁמַ֣ע כָּזֹ֗את מִ֤י רָאָה֙ כָּאֵ֔לֶּה הֲי֤וּחַל אֶ֙רֶץ֙ בְּי֣וֹם אֶחָ֔ד אִם־יִוָּ֥לֵֽד־גּ֖וֹי פַּ֣עַם אֶחָ֑ת כִּי־חָ֛לָה גַּם־יָלְדָ֥ה צִיּ֖וֹן אֶת־בָּנֶֽיהָ׃ (ט) הַאֲנִ֥י אַשְׁבִּ֛יר וְלֹ֥א אוֹלִ֖יד יֹאמַ֣ר ה' אִם־אֲנִ֧י הַמּוֹלִ֛יד וְעָצַ֖רְתִּי אָמַ֥ר אֱלֹקָֽיִךְ׃ {ס} (י) שִׂמְח֧וּ אֶת־יְרוּשָׁלַ֛͏ִם וְגִ֥ילוּ בָ֖הּ כׇּל־אֹהֲבֶ֑יהָ שִׂ֤ישׂוּ אִתָּהּ֙ מָשׂ֔וֹשׂ כׇּל־הַמִּֽתְאַבְּלִ֖ים עָלֶֽיהָ׃ (יא) לְמַ֤עַן תִּֽינְקוּ֙ וּשְׂבַעְתֶּ֔ם מִשֹּׁ֖ד תַּנְחֻמֶ֑יהָ לְמַ֧עַן תָּמֹ֛צּוּ וְהִתְעַנַּגְתֶּ֖ם מִזִּ֥יז כְּבוֹדָֽהּ׃ {ס} (יב) כִּי־כֹ֣ה ׀ אָמַ֣ר ה' הִנְנִ֣י נֹטֶֽה־אֵ֠לֶ֠יהָ כְּנָהָ֨ר שָׁל֜וֹם וּכְנַ֧חַל שׁוֹטֵ֛ף כְּב֥וֹד גּוֹיִ֖ם וִֽינַקְתֶּ֑ם עַל־צַד֙ תִּנָּשֵׂ֔אוּ וְעַל־בִּרְכַּ֖יִם תְּשׇׁעֳשָֽׁעוּ׃ (יג) כְּאִ֕ישׁ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אִמּ֖וֹ תְּנַחֲמֶ֑נּוּ כֵּ֤ן אָֽנֹכִי֙ אֲנַ֣חֶמְכֶ֔ם וּבִירֽוּשָׁלַ֖͏ִם תְּנֻחָֽמוּ׃ (יד) וּרְאִיתֶם֙ וְשָׂ֣שׂ לִבְּכֶ֔ם וְעַצְמוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם כַּדֶּ֣שֶׁא תִפְרַ֑חְנָה וְנוֹדְעָ֤ה יַד־ה' אֶת־עֲבָדָ֔יו וְזָעַ֖ם אֶת־אֹיְבָֽיו׃ {ס} (טו) כִּי־הִנֵּ֤ה ה' בָּאֵ֣שׁ יָב֔וֹא וְכַסּוּפָ֖ה מַרְכְּבֹתָ֑יו לְהָשִׁ֤יב בְּחֵמָה֙ אַפּ֔וֹ וְגַעֲרָת֖וֹ בְּלַהֲבֵי־אֵֽשׁ׃ (טז) כִּ֤י בָאֵשׁ֙ ה' נִשְׁפָּ֔ט וּבְחַרְבּ֖וֹ אֶת־כׇּל־בָּשָׂ֑ר וְרַבּ֖וּ חַֽלְלֵ֥י ה'׃
(6) Hark, tumult from the city, Thunder from the temple! It is GOD’s thunder As retribution is dealt to the foe.
(7) Before she labored, she was delivered; Before her pangs came, she bore a son.
(8) Who ever heard the like? Who ever witnessed such events? Can a land pass through travail In a single day? Or is a nation born All at once? Yet Zion travailed And at once bore her children!
(9) Shall I who bring on labor not bring about birth? —says GOD. Shall I who cause birth shut the womb? —said your God.
(10) Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, All you who love her! Join in her jubilation, All you who mourned over her— (11) That you may suck from her breast Consolation to the full, That you may draw from her bosom Glory to your delight. (12) For thus said GOD: I will extend to her Prosperity like a stream, The wealth of nations Like a wadi in flood; And you shall drink of it. You shall be carried on shoulders And dandled upon knees
(13) Like one whom a mother comforts. So I will comfort you: You shall find comfort in Jerusalem.
Lady Wisdom - Divine Playmate, Muse and Blueprint
Who is Lady Wisdom?
I am the deep grain of creation, the subtle current of life.
God fashioned me before all things:
I am the blueprint of creation.
I was there from the beginning,
from before there was a beginning.
I am independent of time and space, earth and sky.
I was there before depth was conceived,
before springs bubbled with water,
before the shaping of mountains and hills,
before God fashioned the earth and its bounty,
before the first dust settled on the land.
When God prepared the heavens, I was there.
When the circle of the earth was etched into the face of the deep, I was there.
When the stars and planets soared into their orbit, when the deepest oceans found their level and the dry land established the shores, I was there.
I stood beside God as firstborn and friend.
My nature is joy, and I gave God constant delight.
Now that the world is inhabited, I rejoice in it.
I will be your true delight if you will heed my teachings.
Follow me and be happy.
Practice my discipline and grow wise.
Proverbs 8:22-32
I grasp you to me,
and pull you into my mother's house,
into her bedchamber
and onto the very bed on which I was conceived. Song of Songs 3:4
"Wisdom leads you into her mother's house, indeed onto her mother's bed, deeper into the feminine mysteries, the dark interior where all opposites unite and where Wisdom and the seeker of Wisdom become one. Wisdom's Mother is YHVH (proverbs 8:22), the Unknown and Unknowable Is-ing that gives rise to all things."
Commentary and translations from Rabbi Rami Shapiro's (2014) book Embracing the Divine Feminine: Finding God through the Ecstasy of Physical Love -- the Song of Songs Annotated and Explained
(א) רַבִּי הוֹשַׁעְיָה רַבָּה פָּתַח (משלי ח, ל): וָאֶהְיֶה אֶצְלוֹ אָמוֹן וָאֶהְיֶה שַׁעֲשׁוּעִים יוֹם יוֹם וגו', אָמוֹן פַּדְּגוֹג, אָמוֹן מְכֻסֶּה, אָמוֹן מֻצְנָע, וְאִית דַּאֲמַר אָמוֹן רַבָּתָא. אָמוֹן פַּדְּגוֹג, הֵיךְ מָה דְאַתְּ אָמַר (במדבר יא, יב): כַּאֲשֶׁר יִשָּׂא הָאֹמֵן אֶת הַיֹּנֵק. אָמוֹן מְכֻסֶּה, הֵיאַךְ מָה דְאַתְּ אָמַר (איכה ד, ה): הָאֱמֻנִים עֲלֵי תוֹלָע וגו'. אָמוֹן מֻצְנָע, הֵיאַךְ מָה דְאַתְּ אָמַר (אסתר ב, ז): וַיְהִי אֹמֵן אֶת הֲדַסָּה. אָמוֹן רַבָּתָא, כְּמָא דְתֵימָא (נחום ג, ח): הֲתֵיטְבִי מִנֹּא אָמוֹן, וּמְתַרְגְּמִינַן הַאַתְּ טָבָא מֵאֲלֶכְּסַנְדְּרִיָא רַבָּתָא דְּיָתְבָא בֵּין נַהֲרוֹתָא. דָּבָר אַחֵר אָמוֹן, אֻמָּן. הַתּוֹרָה אוֹמֶרֶת אֲנִי הָיִיתִי כְּלִי אֻמְנוּתוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, בְּנֹהַג שֶׁבָּעוֹלָם מֶלֶךְ בָּשָׂר וָדָם בּוֹנֶה פָּלָטִין, אֵינוֹ בּוֹנֶה אוֹתָהּ מִדַּעַת עַצְמוֹ אֶלָּא מִדַּעַת אֻמָּן, וְהָאֻמָּן אֵינוֹ בּוֹנֶה אוֹתָהּ מִדַּעַת עַצְמוֹ אֶלָּא דִּפְתְּרָאוֹת וּפִנְקְסָאוֹת יֵשׁ לוֹ, לָדַעַת הֵיאךְ הוּא עוֹשֶׂה חֲדָרִים, הֵיאךְ הוּא עוֹשֶׂה פִּשְׁפְּשִׁין. כָּךְ הָיָה הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַבִּיט בַּתּוֹרָה וּבוֹרֵא אֶת הָעוֹלָם, וְהַתּוֹרָה אָמְרָה בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹקִים. וְאֵין רֵאשִׁית אֶלָּא תּוֹרָה, הֵיאַךְ מָה דְּאַתְּ אָמַר (משלי ח, כב): ה' קָנָנִי רֵאשִׁית דַּרְכּוֹ.
(1) Rabbi Hoshaya the Great began: “IThe speaker is Wisdom (the Torah) personified was with Him as an amon, a delight day after day…” (Proverbs 8:30) – amon means a child’s nanny; amon means covered; amon means hidden; and some say amon means greatness.
Amon means a child’s nanny, as it says: “As a nanny [omen] carries a nursing child” (Numbers 11:12).
.... Another matter, amon means artisan [uman]. The Torah is saying: ‘I was the tool of craft of the Holy One blessed be He.’
The way of the world is that when a flesh-and-blood king builds a palace he does not build it based on his own knowledge, but rather based on the knowledge of an artisan. A professional architect. And the artisan does not build it based on his own knowledge, but rather, he has [plans on] sheets and tablets by which to ascertain how he should build its rooms, how he should build its doors. So too, the Holy One blessed be He looked in the Torah and created the world. The Torah says: “Bereshit God created” (Genesis 1:1), and reshit is nothing other than the Torah, as it says: “The Lord made me [qanani] at the beginning of [reshit] His way” (Proverbs 8:22).
Be-reshit is interpreted as ‘by means of the Torah.’
Julia Watts-Belser, "Transing God/dess: Notes from the Borderlands"
I'm not interested in replacing God with Goddess. Jewish theaologies of Goddess need not reject Jewish theologies of God. We need not pit Goddess language against God language, setting the feminine in competition with the masculine. The feminine complements and complicates experiences mediated through masculine symbols - as well as those expressed in neutral or nongendered forms.
... In contemporary Jewish contexts, it has become commonplace to assert that God is beyond gender. Ultimately, I suspect, in a realm that is far removed from our own, gender is actually insignificant. Ehiyeh Asher Ehiyeh [I shall be as I shall be] - the ultimate divine force that will be whatever it will be - has neither a womb nor a penis to tangle our thoughts. But we live in a world in which gender matters. We live in a world scarred by the denial of of the feminine sacred, wounded by the loss of Goddess. Reclaiming symbols and metaphors of the divine feminine offers a powerful way to counter androcentric religious tendencies that affirm men as the sacred center and relegate women to the periphery. Opening ourselves and our communities to to Goddess experience can bring powerful spiritual transformation to contemporary Jewish life.
This transformation also pushes us beyond the binary dichotomy of Goddess and God, to an awareness of the Holy that turns gender inside out and sets it awhirl. Opening ourselves and our communities to the transness of God/dess offers vital, imperative thealogical insights for the present day. First, connection with the transness of God/dess acknowledges the way in which our efforts to 'gender' the divine are both profoundly meaningful and inherently incomplete. The transgender community offers witness to the significance of gender in terms of expressing identity and mediating relationships - the fact that gender matters. At the same time the trans community also testifies to the reality that the binary gender system fails to capture the full range of human expression, and that our cultural investment in having people play by the rules of socially constructed 'normative' genders does a profound violence to the human spirit. I suspect it does the same to God.
Transing God/dess also offers profound resources for resisting the idolatry of grasping too tightly to any single image or idea of the Divine. A trans God/dess is characterized by fluidity, a shifting nature that refuses to resolve itself into a single manifestation or gender expression. Feminist theologians commonly point to a vitality of shifting images and multiple metaphors as a way of guarding against the idolatrous tendency to cling too firmly to any single mode of speaking about God.
But transness, by its very nature, rejects the static single imagery characteristic of idolatry. Transness suggests that a fundamental characteristic of the Divine is an unwillingness to be pinned down to a single manifestation, to a single form, to a single image. The Divine draws us into an encounter with mystery, toward a presence who will never be the same twice. God/dess refuses to ever be fully and finally known. Divine vitality is manifest in His unfolding, in Hir boundary-breaking, in Her transformative Presence. May that transspirit bless you, as it has blessed me. May it bless us all.