In response to a recent piece by Rabbi Ysoscher Katz about how the Orthodox community should respond and relate to the growing numbers of Orthodox LGBTQ, I mentioned that I thought it was important to have a perspective on how this phenomenon fits into God's plan for existence. Only once we understand that, can we truly know how to respond.
I would like to add that the thoughts I am about to share are not meant in anyway to condone, excuse or permit behaviors prohibited by the Torah. They are merely descriptive of society at the present time and how I view them as fitting in with the spiritual history of existence.
Kabbala is the study of relationships, hence it is focused on the male/female dichotomy and is replete with sexual metaphors. In the Kabbalistic mindset male and female are the archetypes for giver and receiver and are by no means defined by biological gender. The reality is that all people, biologically male or female, are both givers and receivers. In one relationship a woman may be a receiver, while in another she may be the giver. Even within the same relationship the roles can be fluid. From a Kabbalistic perspective we would define her role in the first relationship as male and in the second as female.
Kabbala also understands that a person can have a soul whose gender is not the same as her biology. שרי whose name ended with the letter י which indicates the masculine, with a masculine soul she was unable to have children (she was an איילונית a דוכרניתא). Subsequently her name, and therefore her spiritual essence, was changed to שרה, a feminine ending, and she was now able to have children. Similarly, her son Yitzchok had a feminine soul until the Akeidah, which is why he did not marry until then. It was only at the Akeidah that he received a masculine soul that enabled him to marry and father the Jewish nation.
The masculine/feminine dualism of existence was a product of the process of Gevura which marked Creation. God's manifest goodness is too powerful and all encompassing to be experienced and received by any of His creations. He constricted Himself so we could have the ability to relate to Him. The constriction, a product of Gevura, requires that we, too, in order to receive him, must constrict ourselves and co-create vessels which contain His light and allow us to experience it. In the "lowest" of the spiritual worlds, the ones in which we exist and operate, any growth can only occur through the male/female dynamic. It is only through the process of two entities sharing with each other that growth and new creation have the ability to occur.
On the next highest spiritual level, we still find the male/female dynamic, but instead of being found in two bodies, it is found in one. This is what our Sages teach us that Adam and Eve were originally created as one male/female entity. Reproduction is still possible, but it all occurs within one entity, without the need of an external participant.
Finally, at the highest levels, the level of the World to Come, the male/female dynamic no longer exists. Any reproduction, such as it is, is asexual. Ultimately, this is the point to which we aspire.
HaChalban in Talilei Chaim on Parshas Noach, explains at length that the rebellion of the Generation of the Flood was against the reality of world marked by lines and distinctions, the wanted to return to the primordial state on תהו in which there were no such distinctions. God gave them what they wanted. He flooded them with water, a metaphor for goodness, He removed all the barriers and distinction in the world for those who did not want them, and only those who remained in the vessel survived.
The state of תהו as described Kabbalistically, is a state in which entities are all the same gender. Meaning, nothing knows how to give, nothing knows how to receive. Consequently, there are no relationships and no building of any sort. It is an existence in which everything remains as it always has been. It is a pre-male/female state.
The Talmud teaches us that history can be divided into three parts, two thousand years of תהו, two thousand years of תורה and two thousand Messianic years. The years of תהו are years in which there is no real ability to grow and develop as the male/female dynamic is not yet fully established. The years of Torah are defined by the dual nature of Halacha, permitted forbidden, pure impure, innocent guilty, which reflect the essence of the male/female duality. Finally, there are the Messianc years in which existence rises above and beyond our conventional understanding of male/female. This is our current era, although one that has not been fully actualized.
I would like to suggest that the changing mores about gender and relationships are a reflection of the forces within existence that are pushing the world to a higher spiritual plane. Sensing these forces, though lacking the means by which to harness them now, we find that there are people whose spiritual gender does not reflect their biological destiny, and those whose biological tendencies are challenged by the realities of the God-mandated lines that mark the world as we know it.
I hope that these ideas give some perspective on a very challenging topic and open the way to greater understanding on all sides.
I would like to add that the thoughts I am about to share are not meant in anyway to condone, excuse or permit behaviors prohibited by the Torah. They are merely descriptive of society at the present time and how I view them as fitting in with the spiritual history of existence.
Kabbala is the study of relationships, hence it is focused on the male/female dichotomy and is replete with sexual metaphors. In the Kabbalistic mindset male and female are the archetypes for giver and receiver and are by no means defined by biological gender. The reality is that all people, biologically male or female, are both givers and receivers. In one relationship a woman may be a receiver, while in another she may be the giver. Even within the same relationship the roles can be fluid. From a Kabbalistic perspective we would define her role in the first relationship as male and in the second as female.
Kabbala also understands that a person can have a soul whose gender is not the same as her biology. שרי whose name ended with the letter י which indicates the masculine, with a masculine soul she was unable to have children (she was an איילונית a דוכרניתא). Subsequently her name, and therefore her spiritual essence, was changed to שרה, a feminine ending, and she was now able to have children. Similarly, her son Yitzchok had a feminine soul until the Akeidah, which is why he did not marry until then. It was only at the Akeidah that he received a masculine soul that enabled him to marry and father the Jewish nation.
The masculine/feminine dualism of existence was a product of the process of Gevura which marked Creation. God's manifest goodness is too powerful and all encompassing to be experienced and received by any of His creations. He constricted Himself so we could have the ability to relate to Him. The constriction, a product of Gevura, requires that we, too, in order to receive him, must constrict ourselves and co-create vessels which contain His light and allow us to experience it. In the "lowest" of the spiritual worlds, the ones in which we exist and operate, any growth can only occur through the male/female dynamic. It is only through the process of two entities sharing with each other that growth and new creation have the ability to occur.
Finally, at the highest levels, the level of the World to Come, the male/female dynamic no longer exists. Any reproduction, such as it is, is asexual. Ultimately, this is the point to which we aspire.
HaChalban in Talilei Chaim on Parshas Noach, explains at length that the rebellion of the Generation of the Flood was against the reality of world marked by lines and distinctions, the wanted to return to the primordial state on תהו in which there were no such distinctions. God gave them what they wanted. He flooded them with water, a metaphor for goodness, He removed all the barriers and distinction in the world for those who did not want them, and only those who remained in the vessel survived.
The state of תהו as described Kabbalistically, is a state in which entities are all the same gender. Meaning, nothing knows how to give, nothing knows how to receive. Consequently, there are no relationships and no building of any sort. It is an existence in which everything remains as it always has been. It is a pre-male/female state.
The Talmud teaches us that history can be divided into three parts, two thousand years of תהו, two thousand years of תורה and two thousand Messianic years. The years of תהו are years in which there is no real ability to grow and develop as the male/female dynamic is not yet fully established. The years of Torah are defined by the dual nature of Halacha, permitted forbidden, pure impure, innocent guilty, which reflect the essence of the male/female duality. Finally, there are the Messianc years in which existence rises above and beyond our conventional understanding of male/female. This is our current era, although one that has not been fully actualized.
I would like to suggest that the changing mores about gender and relationships are a reflection of the forces within existence that are pushing the world to a higher spiritual plane. Sensing these forces, though lacking the means by which to harness them now, we find that there are people whose spiritual gender does not reflect their biological destiny, and those whose biological tendencies are challenged by the realities of the God-mandated lines that mark the world as we know it.
I hope that these ideas give some perspective on a very challenging topic and open the way to greater understanding on all sides.
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