Shechina
The Shekhina ( Hebrew שְׁכִינָה šəchīnāh ) is the “dwelling” or “abode” of God in Israel in the Jewish religion, which can be understood as the epitome of God's presence among his people. The secondary meanings of the term include “rest”, “happiness”, “holiness” or “peace”, always as features that characterize the sphere of activity of God's presence and make it tangible for people.
Origin and meaning
The prehistory of this term and the related theological conception of “God's home on earth”, which only later became a central topos of Judaism in rabbinical literature , goes back to the Persian - Hellenistic period.
Although the noun schechina itself does not appear in the Tanach , the root is often found, especially in the verb schachan (שכן, “live, zelten”) and the noun mischkan (משכן, “residence, Stiftszelt ”). In terms of its origin and its basic meaning, the term refers back to the meeting of the people of Israel with their God in the desert. God's presence manifests itself in his “camping” in the midst of the people (cf. Ex 25,8-9 EU ). Accordingly, the first Israelite shrine consisted of a movable tent and the ark of the covenant set up in it . The Shekhina as the epitome of the closeness and presence of God later passed over to the Jerusalem temple and the holy district of the city.
The root is also contained in the proper names Schechanjahu or Schechanja (for example, the grandfather Elams ) or Schekanja, which are mentioned numerous times in the Tanach , which also refer to the meaning of "indwelling of God" ( Ezra 8.3–5; 10.2 EU ; Neh 3.29 EU ; Neh 6.18 EU ; Neh 12.3 EU ; 2 Chr 31.15 EU ).
In some texts of the Septuagint the term kataskḗnosis (κατασκήνοσις) is used as the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew root shin-kaf-nun (שכנ), a term that was later used in Latin translation as a tabernacle ( tabernaculum ) based on the literature of the desert fathers Found its way into Christian architecture and spirituality. In connection with the terminology, there is also the Hebrew kavod , which is rendered in the ancient Greek translation of the Bible ( Septuagint ) with Doxa and in the Latin Vulgate with Gloria (both about "Glory, glory [of God]").
Rabbinical tradition
In rabbinical literature the term Shekhina appears alongside the expressions ha-qadosh baruch hu (“the holy one, blessed be he”), shamayim (“heaven”) and ha-shem (“the name”) as a designation of YHWH , where im In the case of Shekhina, special emphasis is placed on the abode of divine power in Jerusalem, in the midst of the people of Israel.
This view changed in the Middle Ages when Saadia Gaon used the term Shechina in his work Ha-emunot we-ha-deot ( Eng . "Beliefs and Ideas") to solve the problem of the anthropomorphic depictions of God in the Bible. He thinks that all these references refer to an angel created by God, who was sometimes called kavod ("splendor, honor") and sometimes shekhina .
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, this concept is again expanded. B. Abraham ibn Esra conceives it as divine power emanated directly from God . A special emphasis on the femininity of this concept does not yet exist in any of these rabbinical concepts.
Kabbalah and Hasidism
Bahir
The Sefer ha-Bahir (first published in southern France in the 12th century) is the first work to mention the Shekhina in a female context, describing her as a woman, bride and daughter of male power.
This picture is adopted by Abraham Abulafia and other Kabbalists from Gerona and Castile.
Gershom Scholem interpreted the idea of a female Shechina as a manifestation of a gnostic - dualistic concept in early Kabbalah, which had been hidden since ancient times and only came to the surface in the Middle Ages. More recent research regards this turn as a adoption of Christianity's adoration of the Madonna , which reached its climax in the 12th century, but neither this derivation nor Scholem's Gnosis thesis can be proven on the basis of text finds. A third hypothesis assumes that this is an own creation of the author of the Bahir is what also text immanent - hermeneutical arguments can be cited.
Zohar
Finally, in the Zohar , the functions of the Shekhina are described in great detail, and the endeavor to come into spiritual contact with her is a major part of Kabbalistic rituals. As the lowest Sefira, it is closest to the sufferings of the people of Israel, is like them in exile and is most exposed to the forces of evil , which use their feminine weakness to gain power over them and take them from the Sefira Tif'eret want to move away. The reunification with her husband is to be achieved through the kabbalistic ritual.
Lurian Kabbalah
In the imagination of the circle around Isaac Luria , creation arises from divine contractions and currents. In the Lurian representation of an archetype of man consisting of Sefirot ( Adam Qadmon ), the lower world emerges from the last Sefira. This Sefira is called Shechina (also Malchut , which means 'kingdom' or 'glory'). Sparks of the Shechina , that is, divine sparks, fell into the world at creation. The Shechina is assigned to the female sphere and understood as a complementary, female dimension of God, which is expressed, for example, in the image of the bride. The bridal motif metaphorically represents the “community” between the Shekhina and God, that is, the unity between God in heaven, which is incomprehensible for human terms, and his visualization in the world.
Lecha Dodi
The acrostic prayer Lecha Dodi , the first letters of which refer to the author Shlomo Alkabez , a student from the Kabbalistic circle of Isaac Luria , is still part of the liturgy on the eve of Shabbat . The prayer with the beginning line “Go, my beloved, to meet the bride…” is conceived as a jubilation over the return of the bride (identified with the Shabbat or the Shekhina ) in messianic times.
Hasidic tradition
In Hasidism , people can play an active role in salvation by collecting the sparks of the Shekhina. The Hasidim assume divine immanence in the world.
Christian mysticism
In Christian interpretations of the kabbalistic tree of life ( Sephiroth ), the tradition of wisdom is used to equate not only Malchut ( kingdom of God ) and Shekhina , but also of Chokhma (Hebrew) or Sophia (Greek ' wisdom ') and Shekhina . In his mystical treatises Jakob Böhme describes the personified wisdom of Jesus Christ and describes the community between wisdom and man as an experience of enlightenment. Redemption through Jesus Christ is made present in the encounter of man with this wisdom in the here and now. Shechina and Sophia cannot be equated per se , but both personify the feminine dimension of God, which is inherent in both creation and redemption. Both ideas are also connected with messianic expectations that Christians see fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Friedrich Christoph Oetinger was particularly attracted to the messianic tendencies of Kabbalah.
Islamic use of the term
With Sakina , Islam also knows a term that is closely related in terms of language and content, which also denotes the presence of Allah and the blissful and peaceful state of mind associated with it.
Summary outlook
The Shechina denotes the presence of God in the world, i.e. his immanence . The Shekhina has various names (e.g. the Malchut and Shabbath mentioned here ). It offers starting points for interreligious ecumenical dialogue . Her conception as a feminine divine dimension also offers points of contact for feminist theology . Due to some traditional negative descriptions of female aspects, this also gives rise to approaches to criticism: Examples of criticizing the Kabbalistic tradition are the notion of the passivity of the feminine or the idea that all evil arises from the feminine. The overall concept aims at cosmic equilibrium. The idea of the unity of origin and goal is already platonic and can also be found in Gnosis and Gnosticism.
Selected literature
- J. Abelson: The Immanence of God in Rabbinical Literature. Macmillan, London 1912 (Reprint. Hermon Press, New York NY 1969).
- Ariel Bension : The Zohar in Moslem and Christian Spain. George Routledge and Sons, London 1932 (Reprint. Hermon Press, New York NY 1974, ISBN 0-87203-046-6 ).
- Ernst Benz : The Christian Kabbalah. A stepchild of theology (= Albae vigiliae. NF vol. 18). Rhein-Verlag, Zurich 1958.
- Moses Cordovero : The Palm Tree of Deborah. Translated from the Hebrew with an introduction and notes by Louis Jacobs. Vallentine, Mitchell, London 1960.
- Joseph Dan: The Kabbalah. A short introduction (= Reclams Universal Library 18451). Reclam, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-15-018451-6 .
- Arnold M. Goldberg: Investigations into the conception of the Shekhinah in early rabbinical literature. Talmud and Midrash (= Studia Judaica. Vol. 5, ISSN 0585-5306 ). de Gruyter, Berlin 1969 (At the same time: Freiburg (Breisgau), Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1965).
- Jürgen Moltmann : God in creation. Ecological doctrine of creation (= systematic contributions to theology. Vol. 2). Kaiser, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-459-01590-X .
- Ernst Müller (Ed.): The Sohar. The holy book of Kabbalah (= Diederichs' yellow row. Judaica. Vol. 35). 5th edition. Diederichs, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-424-00695-5 .
- Pnina Navè-Levinson : Introduction to Rabbinical Theology. 2nd, unchanged edition. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1987, ISBN 3-534-08558-2 .
- Judith Plaskow : Feminist anti-Judaism and the Christian God. In: Church and Israel. Vol. 5, No. 1, 1990, ISSN 0179-7239 , pp. 9-25.
- Peter Porzig: Shechina. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (eds.): The scientific Bible lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex). Stuttgart 2006 ff.
- Gershom Scholem : On the history of the development of the Kabbalistic conception of the Shekinah . In: Eranos Jahrbuch , vol. 21 (1952), pp. 45-107.
- Gershom Scholem: Shekinah. The passive feminine moment in the deity. In: Ders .: On the mystical figure of the deity. Studies on basic terms of Kabbalah (= Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 209). Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-518-07809-7 .
- Clemens Thoma : The Sekina and the Christ. In: Judaica . Vol. 40, 1984, pp. 237-247.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joseph Dan: The Kabbalah . Reclam, Stuttgart 2007, pp. 65f.