Since ancient times, god has been described in anthropomorphic, human, terms. Rabbi Donna Berman writes, “We all know that God is neither male nor female, King or Queen. God is defined as beyond human conception and understanding, and all words used to praise this Divine Mystery or to address It are merely a ‘pointing toward’ that which cannot be comprehended or named.
“The feminine aspect of the Oneness of God, according to tradition, is known as the Schechinah or the Divine Presence. This is one of the ten phrases for god used in both traditional and contemporary prayerbooks. Many of these designations like Hashem (the Divine Name) and Mekor Chayenu (the Source of our life) are understood to incorporate masculine as well as feminine dimensions of the divine, who is not less than both god and goddess. Any words and images we use, therefore, are limited as well as limiting. Utilizing only masculine pronouns and images in the English translations of our liturgy is especially limiting since it excludes and marginalizes women."
Drawing on Karl Barth’s analogy that doing theology is like trying to paint a bird in flight, Rabbi Berman maintains that "confining ourselves to the limited use of the metaphors and language with which we’ve named and described God is like painting with a limited palette of colors. God deserves nothing less than a full palette. To resist broadening the images we use to describe God is to...proclaim, ‘I’d rather continue painting with three shades of green than introduce blues and grays and azure and purple and gold’.”[1] Judith Plaskow wrote, “...the God who supposedly transcends sexuality, who is presumably one and whole, is known to us through language that is highly selective and partial. The images we use to describe God, the qualities we attribute to God, draw on male pronouns and male experience and convey a sense of power and authority that is clearly male in character” [2]
Female rabbis have helped us come to realize that the female dimension of god, along with the male, must be present for providing and offering Her power and goodness to us all. Not for the sake of balancing, equalizing, or setting aside matters of gender. But, to state the obvious, the masculine and the feminine dimension of god combined, more fully discloses our own best – most comprehensive and most complete - potential for mending the world.
Many women have echoed the Jewish feminist sentiment. Some have feminized the name of the Almighty by calling upon Elah instead of El while others lift their voices to the “Goddess.” Contemporary liturgist Marcia Falk wrote, “If God is not really male, why should it matter if we call God ‘she’? If we are all created in the image of Divinity, the images with which we point toward Divinity must reflect us all.”[3] God–language should therefore be gender neutral, expansive, all-embracing, all-inclusive: Parent, Sovereign, Eternal, Friend, the masculine He as well as the feminine She/Shechina (Presence).
Jewish feminists teach, in the words of Carol B. Balin,[4] that “authentic monotheism does not mean belief in a God who is ‘other than the world’ but rather One who, as the Source of the flow of all life, is partnered with that which was created.”
Bibliography:
1. Donna Berman, Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones But Words May Destroy My People (1993).
2. Judith Plaskow, “The Right Question is Theological,” On Bring a Jewish Feminist (1983).
3. Marcia Falk, “What About God?” Moment Magazine (1984).
4. Carol B. Balin, “Feminism and Messianism” Tikkun (Vol. 11, No. 6, November/December, 1996) p. 66.