[net.religion] Female Jewish Deities? Nonsense!

abs@rdin.UUCP (Andrew Siegel) (08/10/84)

> I will go home and look this up, but I beleive there were one or more
> female Jewish deities, but knowlege and discussion of these were
> supressed as time and patriarchal history went on...
> 
> Anyone else have info on this?
> 
> 		-Karen Pickens
> 		 UCSD

I can tell you definitively, Karen...

				NO!

One of THE most important aspects of Judaism is monotheism.  We believe in
a single God.  Period.  It has been this way since Abraham first recognized
God's existence.  Since Abraham's forebears (and most of his contemporaries)
were idol worshippers, they may have worshipped female gods.  But they were
not, nor were they ever considered, Jews.

					Andrew Siegel
					philabs!rdin!abs

steve@zinfandel.UUCP (08/17/84)

#R:rdin:-44900:zinfandel:20600010:000:895
zinfandel!steve    Aug 15 13:24:00 1984

Just hold on to your "Nonsense!" a second, Andrew.

I had a hunch that the Gnostic concept of Sophia might have 
cross-pollinated into Jewish Mysticism, so I dug into it a little
deeper (but not too deep--Encycl. Brit.), and found out that this is so.

In the "Sefer ha-bahir" (Book of Brightness) a ca. 12th century
Midrash of Jewish Mysticism, the universe comprises a hierarchy
of divine powers.  The deity at the bottom of this hierarchy
is in charge of the visible world.  A la the Gnostic's Sophia,
this deified Presence (Shekhina), is characterised as a feminine being,
and while being one aspect of the divinity, is a daughter or wife,
who owns nothing herself, and receives all from her father or husband.

So even if she is divine, she still gets the short end of the stick,
the bottom of the totem pole and (at least with the Gnostics) the
blame for the mess.

zinfandel!steve nelson