MIND, HEALTH & SPIRITUALITY IN ASIAN

CULTURES 120

The Power Within

The Feminine Principle in Chinese and Jewish Mystical
Traditions

Name: Moshe Y Bernstein

ID: 13973849
Tel: 0437-208-892
Date of submission: October 27, 2008
Word count: 2668
Workshop: Mondays, 12:00- 1:00 PM
Introduction

A perfunctory examination of Chinese and Jewish cultures reveals many

features that are patriarchal. In the Confucian order a wife must abidingly obey her
husband (Jinfen 2002, 4); Jewish law adopts a similar demand and further excludes a
woman from acting as a legal witness and the performance of certain religious
precepts. Both cultures display a significant bias towards the procreation of male
progeny (Kaup 2007, 330; Rosner 2001, 168), while the Chinese veneration of
ancestors and the lineage of Jewish rabbinic and priestly traditions are reserved
exclusively for males. However, when one delves beneath the surface into the
ancient, mystical traditions of China and Israel-- Daoism and kabbalah-- a different
picture emerges. In both of these traditions, the feminine aspect plays a vital role not
only in the celestial realm but also in the earthly relationships between men and
women. Furthermore, in both of these traditions a surprising yet paradoxical
element of feminine superiority comes to the fore.

The focus of this study will be of principles manifest in the earlier conventions
of philosophical Daoism, dao jia (道家), and theoretical kabbalah, kabbalah ha-iyunit
(‫)קבלה העיונית‬. The former begins with Lao Zi in the 6th century BCE and extends
roughly 500 years until the development of a more ritualised Daoist church,
including ideas from this time period antedated to the legendary Yellow Emperor,
Huang Di (黄帝) (Fowler 2005, 29-33). Theoretical kabbalah begins at a much later
date with the appearance of Sefer Ha-Bahir, (The Book of Illumination) in the 12th
century and stretches to its apex in the 16th century, the period of the renowned
kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed in the Upper Galilee (Kaplan 1991, 5). Many of
these kabbalistic views on the feminine principle were embellishments of earlier
references in the Torah (i.e. the Pentateuch) and Talmud. Although subsequent
religious Daoism, dao jiao (道教), and practical kabbalah, kabbalah ma-asit ( ‫קבלה‬
‫)המעשית‬, both exhibit certain feminine elements-- the former in its pantheon of
deities (e.g. the goddess Dou-Mu, 斗母, the “Mother of Light”) and the latter in its

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demonology (e.g. Lilith, Queen of the Night)—these expressions had already
degenerated into superstitions as opposed to purely philosophical doctrine.

The Supernal Feminine

Unlike Western religions, philosophical Daoism lacks the concept of a

personal God. The Dao, the source of all creation, is ineffable. As described
succinctly in the first chapter of the Dao De Jing (道德经):

“The way that can be spoken is not the real Way

The name that can be named is not the real name.”

A euphemism for the Dao is wu-ji (無極), a primordial state of Nothingness

that is “without bounds and limits”. It is from this Nothingness that Taiji (太極), the
Supreme Ultimate Source, manifesting as absolute Oneness, comes forth. From Taiji
then proceed the dual, yet entwined forces of yin (阴) and yang (阳), which in turn
become the components of the myriad forms that characterize creation:

“Dao gave birth to the One;

The One gave birth to two things,
Then to three things, then to ten thousand…” (ibid, 42)

Whereas the Dao is the ineffable and nameless void, its manifestation as Taiji
represents its latent immanence in all existence. It has also been referred to as the
“supreme mother of all things” (Fowler 2005, 108); as such, it may be conceived of as
a womb of complete potentiality. From this womb the generation of masculine yang,
literally “the sunny place” or “south slope”, and feminine yin, “the shady place” or
“north slope”, encompasses a tripod of Heaven (the transcendent), Earth (the
immanent) with Humanity poised between them. Through descent into the Four
Realms and substantiation into the Wu Xing (五行), the five elements of Fire, Earth,
Metal, Water and Wood, the physical world with all of its possibilities materialises. It
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should be emphasized that Daoism’s worldview is holistic rather than dualistic: its
masculine and feminine elements are interdependent and dynamic. Moreover, as
every quality is defined by the gradient of its opposite, the feminine yin is contained
as potential within the masculine yang, and vice-versa (Fowler 2005, 81-84).

Readers of the Old Testament are familiar with the anthropomorphic imagery
of the patriarchal “Jehovah”. In Jewish tradition this name, better known as the
Tetragrammaton, or “four-lettered name” represented as Y-H-V-H (‫ה‬-‫ו‬-‫ה‬-‫ )י‬is never
pronounced but replaced with the euphemistic adonai (‫י‬-‫נ‬-‫ד‬-‫)א‬, meaning “my Lord”.
According to Jewish mysticism, however, neither of these names, nor the
personalised, masculine deity they signify, is indicative of the intrinsic nature of God.
Not unlike the Dao, the absolute nature of the Supreme Being is ineffable and
completely unknowable; the kabbalists gave it the appellation Ayn Sof (‫)אין םוף‬,
literally “without bounds” or “Nothingness without limits” (Kaplan 1991, 23-24).
In order for this Nothingness to manifest as
creation, a process of Divine Emanation occurs. This
results in the model of the Ten Emanations, or
Sefirot. The arrangement of these Divine
Emanations in a tripartite alignment, with the right
column representing masculine forces, the left side
feminine and the centre their line of mutual
confluence, is known as tikun, or rectification.
Furthermore, the Sefirot combine in such a way to
reflect the quality of the Four Worlds through
which they descend in order to become manifest.
These are: the World of Emanation (Atziltuh), the
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World of Creation (Beriyah), the World of Formation (Yetzirah) and the World of
Action (Assiyah). A further ethereal quasi-realm of “Primordial Man”, Adam Kadmon,
signifying the Divine Will to emerge from Nothingness, precedes these four (Kaplan
1991, 15-16). These five sefirotic combinations are known in kabbalah as Partzufim, or
Divine Expressions, and from the sublime to the more mundane, are known as Arich
Anpin, “the Extended Face” (but also referred to as Ayin or Nothingness), Aba, Father,
Ima, Mother, Zeir Anpin, “the Reduced Face” and, finally Nukva, the Female,
comprised solely of the final Sefirah of Malchut, Kingdom (Kaplan 1991, 95-96).
The feminine aspects of Ima and Nukva are also referred to respectively as the
Upper and Lower Shekhina. The term Shekhina, literally meaning “dwelling place”, is
mentioned frequently in the Talmud as a referent to “the Divine Presence”. In this
earlier usage, however, despite its grammatical feminine gender, the term had not
yet developed into the female hypostases within the Godhead that later kabbalistic
works like Sefer Ha-Bahir and, in particular, Sefer Ha-Zohar (The Book of Radiance)
would boldly articulate (Scholem 1991, 150).
The Upper Shekhina, which is designated in Sefer Ha-Zohar as “the Palace” or
“Celestial Womb “and reminiscent of Taiji, exemplifies the process whereby
Nothingness transforms into infinite potentiality. The Upper Shekhina, while serving
as a receptor of the supernal flow of Divine Life, simultaneously functions as a
dynamic agent in which the ineffable becomes revealed through the emanations (i.e.
the seven lower Sefirot) that it emits. Borrowing Indian terminology, Gershom
Scholem describes the Upper Shekhina as “the Shakti of the latent God: it is entirely
active energy, in which what is concealed within God is externalized.”
By contrast, the Lower Shekhina of Malchut (Kingdom) receives the influx of all
the supernal emanations but what it transmits is no longer within the realm of the
Godhead but rather Creation itself. Allegorized in Sefer Ha-Zohar as “the Moon” and
“the Earth”, the Lower Shekhina possesses no light of its own. (This attribute
resulted in its later development as the potential to at times infuse “darkness” and
“evil” into the world.) Apart from the influx of the nine Sefirot preceding it, more
significantly, the Lower Shekhina receives a reflux from below through human

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actions, which it then transmits upwards to the transcendent realms of being.
Significantly, the kabbalists held that the sin of Adam and Eve and their expulsion
from Eden had caused the Shekhina to likewise become exiled from her earthly
domain and separated from her male counterpart Zeir Anpin, also known as “The
Higher Man” from Ezekiel’s vision. The Zohar repeatedly emphasizes the
fundamental role of human endeavour in restoring the immanent Shekhina in union
with her transcendent partner, Zeir Anpin. In the kabbalah of R. Isaac Luria many
meditative prayers known as yichudim (unities) were established to precede the
performance of certain Torah precepts, expressing the conscious intent to restore the
harmonious balance within the Divine (Scholem 1991, 186-187).

The Mundane Feminine

Daoism maintains that sexual relations between male and female are a
microcosmic paradigm of the macrocosmic Yin and Yang. Works ascribed to the
legendary Yellow Emperor, such as The Classic of the Plain Girl, viewed heterosexual
relations as a natural function and discuss its various aspects with candour. Since the
hormonal secretions of both male (yang) and female (yin) were considered
storehouses of “life essences”, or jing (精), the goal of sexual relations was to achieve
a healthy absorption of these essences. There was, however, a fundamental
difference in the sexual nature of men and women. As expressed by the Daoist adept
Wu Xian of the Han Dynasty (Reid 1989, 258):

“The male belongs to Yang. Yang’s nature is such that the male is
easily aroused but also quick to retreat. The female belongs to Yin.
Yin’s nature is such that the female is slow to be aroused and also slow
to be satiated.”

Furthermore, male orgasm involved a depletion of jing, whereas female

climax entailed its retention. In order to balance the inequity of nature in this arena,

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Daoists advocated a regimen of semen retention during coitus. This type of sexual
practice was meant to enable the female to have more time to reach her climax, at
which time her partner would reap the dual benefits of retaining his own jing, while
simultaneously absorbing hers (Reid 1989, 263-264). Although younger adepts were
allowed occasional ejaculations, these were viewed as progressively detrimental
with age (Reid 1989, 261). According to Daoist principles, sexuality was not about
satisfaction of desires but rather a means to nurture vital essence. As stated by the
renowned Tang dynasty Daoist Dr. Sun Ssu-Mo, “a man must think of how this act
will benefit his health and thus keep himself free from disease. This is a subtle secret
of the art of the bed-chamber.”
A hedonistic stream of Daoism subsequently developed by the 3rd century,
and its utilization of these sexual techniques in Daoist temples without regard to
moral ramifications, at various junctures in Chinese history evoked a strong public
reaction by the authorities against these practices (Reid 1989, 13).

Like the Daoists, kabbalists also saw the sexual act as the primary earthly
paradigm of the Union between the Bride (Shekhina) and her Spouse, the Higher Man
(Zeir Anpin). Kabbalah, however, imbued the sexual act with a sanctity and moral
quality which naturalistic Daoism did not. This meant that the sexual act could only
be performed within the sanctity of marriage and after the woman’s ritual
purification following her menses.
Though both the Talmud and the medieval Jewish physician Maimonides call
attention to the deleterious mental and physical effects of excess depletion of semen,
Judaism still championed the procreative effects of sexuality as fulfilment of the first
Torah precept “Be fruitful and multiply…” The Talmud, however, recommends that
during intercourse a husband delay his ejaculation in order that his wife may climax
first. (Ironically, the stated purpose of this practice is to engender male offspring!).
Furthermore, according to the laws of onah (Exodus 21:11), in which a husband is
obliged to provide his spouse with food, clothing and sexual relations, it is not

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merely the frequency of the latter for which the male is responsible but also its
qualitative aspect.
The unio mystica advocated by the kabbalists was reinforced with the Zohar’s
interpretation of the creation myth. Mentioned several centuries years earlier in both
Midrash and Rashi commentaries, Adam was said to have been created du-partzufim
(‫פרצופים‬-‫)דו‬, or androgynous. The taking of Adam’s rib (Genesis 2:21) in order to
create Eve was the forceful Divine act of separating this heretofore unified
androgynous being. The human process of finding a mate and binding that
relationship within the sanctity of marriage was deemed a restoration of the pristine
unity that had existed prior to this rupture. This restoration was in itself
paradigmatic of the rectification inside the Godhead which occurred during
performance of the sexual act within the parameters of sanctity and morality set by
the Torah (Green 2006, 39).
As with the licentious tendencies that developed in the Daoist tradition, the
Sabbatian and Frankist heresies which emerged in Europe during the 17 th and 18th
centuries respectively were perversions of this kabbalistic notion that human
coupling could affect the restitution of unity within the Godhead. These heresies
similarly affected a reactionary backlash against the promulgation of kabbalah.

Conclusion

Excepting the enhanced stamina of the female in sexual matters, Lao Zi makes
several references in the Dao De Jing to an intrinsic superiority of the Yin aspect:

“The female by quiescence conquers the male;

By quiescence she gets underneath.” (61)

“Truly, the hard and strong are cast down,

While the soft and weak rise to the top.” (76)

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 “When you know the male, yet hold on to the female,
You’ll be the ravine of the country.” (28)

In the psychological, political and spiritual matters referred to in these verses, the
Dao De Jing regarded the yielding Yin as more capable of attaining results than the
more abrasive Yang. Likewise, the practice of Wu-Wei, or effortless achievement,
involved a passive Yin approach that enabled all human artifice to acquiesce to the
greater flow of Dao.
It is in the eschatological teleology of kabbalah, where aspects of feminine
superiority become visible. In the world of time and space, the six masculine
emanations of Zeir Anpin symbolized by the 6th masculine letter vav, “‫”ו‬,
representing the phallus, encapsulate the six directions of space (N, S, E, W, up,
down) and the six days of the week. By contrast, the feminine letter heh “‫”ה‬
corresponding to the (Lower) Shekhina represents a singular, internal spatial point
and the temporal Sabbath day (Kaplan 1991, 11). Though the Sabbath is the seventh
and final day of the week, the Talmudic sages classified it as “the last in Creation;
the first in Thought.” In this context, in the same way that in the Jewish religious
tradition the Sabbath day has a greater sanctity than weekdays, likewise the
revelation of Divinity in the immanent natural order of the Shekhina appears as the
primary motif of Creation itself (Green 2006, 8-9).
Furthermore, according to Jewish tradition, with the dawn of the Messianic
era, predicted to occur after 6000 years of the Jewish calendar (currently at 5769) at
the threshold of the Sabbatical millennium, Adam’s sin will be removed. This will
have a profound effect on the status of women. Isaiah’s prophecy that “…the light of
the Moon will be like the light of the Sun” (Isaiah 30:26) is said to reflect this
transformation in the eminence of women. So too, according to the Zohar, does the
prophecy of Jeremiah: “For God will create a new thing, a woman shall court a man”
(Kaplan 1993, 62).
With the socio-cultural advancement of women in the postmodern era, more
people are questioning the mythology of the masculine God portrayed in exoteric

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Jewish scriptures and other religious narratives. Furthermore, men and women
alike are rejecting patriarchal structures as enshrined in Confucian thought and still
operative in numerous societies around the world. The exploration of mystical
traditions such as Daoism and kabbalah reveal a worldview where the feminine
principle plays a dominant role both in the supernal and earthly domains. A greater
understanding and implementation of these ideas could ultimately facilitate a more
sophisticated notion of the Divine. More importantly, the respective practices
associated with each of these traditions radically transform our view of Ultimate
Reality from a transcendent concept beyond our grasp to a simple experience which,
if we can only surrender to the power within, we all have the capacity to access in
every moment of our lives.

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REFERENCE LIST:

Fowler, Jeaneane D. An Introduction to the Philosophy and Religion of Taoism: Pathways

to Immortality. 2005. Sussex: Sussex Academic Press. Google Books. http://
books.google.com (accessed September 22, 2008).

Green, Arthur. A Guide to the Zohar. 2004. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Green, Arthur. Seek My Face: A Jewish Mystical Theology. 2006. Woodstock: Jewish
Lights Publishing.

Jinfen, Yan. 2002. A feminine expression of mysticism, romanticism and syncretism

in A Plaint of Lady Wang. Inter-Religio 42: 3- 18. Nanzan University. http://
www.nanzan-u.ac.jp (accessed September 29, 2008)

Kaplan, Arye. Immortality, Resurrection and the Age of the Universe: A Kabbalistic View.
1993. Hoboken: Ktav Publishing House.

Kaplan, Arye. Innerspace. 1991. Brooklyn: Moznaim Publishing Company.

Kaup, Katherine P., ed. 2007. Understanding Contemporary Asia Pacific. London: Lynne
Rienner Publishers,

Lao-Tzu. Te Tao Ching. 1993. New York: Random House Inc.

Reid, Daniel P. The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity: A Modern Practical Guide to the
Ancient Way. 1989. New York. Simon and Schuster.

Rosner, Fred. Biomedical Ethics and Jewish Law. 2001. Hoboken Ktav Publishing House.
Google Books. http://books.google.com (accessed October 4, 2008).

Scholem, Gershom. On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic Concepts in the Kabbalah.
1991. New York: Schocken Books.

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