"What is the shechinah, anyway?" I'm often asked this question and it's actually not so difficult to answer. Very simply put, the shechinah is the feminine energy of God. It is in this form that God enters the physical world, although the schechinah herself is almost never actually visible. Occasionally she appears in one disguise or another. The burning bush might be an example. Or the pillar of fire. Or the cloud of smoke. (The donkey in the "binding of Isaac" story is also symbolic of something, but not of the shechinah.)
Everything goes better when the shechinah is in your life, especially when you're traveling. But it's easy to scare the shechinah away. Anger will do that very quickly. Raising your voice will do it immediately. And once the shechinah is gone, you're much more vulnerable to negative influences.
When a married couple has sex on a Friday night -- provided they're not thinking about the wrong things and provided the wife is on the bottom when the husband ejaculates -- God gets turned on and has sex with the feminine aspect of himself, i.e. the shechinah. When that happens there's a tremendous infusion of positive energy into the world, which benefits everybody.
Of course, there's also The Bad Girl. We can't speak her name or write it either. Remember: she got kicked out of the Garden and banished to the bottom of the ocean for wanting to be on top when she and Adam fucked. What is the relationship of these two primordial females, the Shechinah and The Bad Girl? That's complicated. For the time being, the Betty/Veronica comparision is probably as good as anything. (I'm still trying to find a biblical analogue for Jughead! Yuk yuk!)
Basta por hoy!
This is the most brilliant commentary on shechinah that I have encountered in all my days.
Posted by: DL | September 21, 2008 at 12:42 PM