The Privileged Status of the Divine Feminine in Theosophical-theurgical Kabbalah: Examining Keter Malkhut

This volume addresses the complex topic of the preeminent status of the divine feminine power, to be referred also as Female, within the theosophical structures of many important Kabbalists, Sabbatean believers, and Hasidic masters. This privileged status is part of a much broader vision of the Female as stemming from a very high root within the divine world, then She was emanated and constitutes the tenth, lower divine power, and even in this lower state She is sometime conceived of governing this world and as equal to the divine Male. Finally, She is conceived of as returning to Her original place in special moments, the days of Sabbath, the Jewish Holidays or in the eschatological era. Her special dignity is sometime related to Her being the telos of creation, and as the first entity that emerged in the divine thought, which has been later on generated. In some cases, an uroboric theosophy links the Female Malkhut, directly to the first divine power, Keter. The author points to the possible impact of some of the Kabbalistic discussions on conceptualizations of the feminine in the Renaissance period. Preface 7 Contents 9 1. Introduction – Theosophical Kabbalah: Complexity and Dynamism 11 2. Reification and the Ontological Status of Thought and Action in Early Kabbalah 38 3. The Gender Addition to “Action” 45 4. On the Elevated Status of the Divine Feminine in Theosophical Kabbalah 51 5. The Father, the Head, and the Daughter 57 6. Sefer Ma‘arekhet ha-’Elohut and its Reverberations 77 7. R. Moshe Cordovero and R. Shlomo ha-Levi Alqabetz 87 8. R. Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, His Kabbalist and Sabbatean Followers 113 9. R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto: 1707–1746 145 10. The Privileged Female in Some Later Kabbalists in Ashkenaz 158 11. Some Hasidic Examples of the Three-Phases Gender Theory 169 12. Some Wider Terminological Considerations 182 13. Concluding Remarks 195 Primary Sources 231 Bibliography 235 Name Index 255 Subject Index 258 This volume addresses the complex topic of the preeminent status of the divine feminine power, to be referred also as Female, within the theosophical structures of many important Kabbalists, Sabbatean believers, and Hasidic masters. This privileged status is part of a much broader vision of the Female as stemming from a very high root within the divine world, then She was emanated and constitutes the tenth, lower divine power, and even in this lower state She is sometime conceived of governing this world and as equal to the divine Male. In some cases, an uroboric theosophy links the Female Malkhut directly to the first divine power, Keter. The author further points to the possible impact of some of the Kabbalistic discussions on conceptualizations of the feminine in the Renaissance period--back cover This series focuses on the Jewish textual tradition as well as the ways it evolves in response to new intellectual, historical, social and political contexts. Fostering dialogue between literary, philosophical, political and religious perspectives, this series, which consists of original scholarship and proceedings of international conferences, reflects contemporary concerns of Jewish Studies in the broadest sense