I've heard the term for years....I've used the term for years.....AND THEN....someone asks me last night....."Where's that term come from....it's not in the Bible??"

So I started looking and so far have found.....NOTHING!! Commentators use the word....but never explain the origin.

Not good to be using terms we can't explain.

Help!!

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

Answers

Danny,

I did some quick searching on the Internet and found the following data. I don't have time to check it out right now for accuracy, but this seems pretty consistant with typical talmudic stuff (which is where I believe the phrase is derived from).

Here goes:

The Shekhinah is defined, in traditional Jewish writings, as the "female aspect of God" or the "presence" of the infinite God in the world. She is introduced in the early rabbinical commentaries as the "immanence" or "indwelling" of the living God, whose role as the animating life force of the earth is to balance the transcendent deity.

She may be distinguished from the 'Canaanite' Mother Goddess Asherah who the ancient Hebrews honored until about 622 B.C.E. when King Josiah removed the Asherah from the Jerusalem temple and destroyed the outlying shrines. While she does not appear by name in the five books of Moses, the explicators of the Old Testament refer to her in interpreting the text. For example, when Moses encounters the buming bush, he is told to remove his shoes and prepare himself to receive the Shekhinah. According to the rabbis, the choice of the simple thom bush as the vehicle for the revelation was to emphasize the Shekhinah's presence, since nothing in nature can exist without her. In Proverbs, we are introduced to the Divine Mother as Chochmah (Wisdom), who was present from the time of creation as the loving consort and coarchitect with the YHVH, who also reflects the association of the Shekinah with humanity.

In the Talmudic view, actions harmful to other human beings or the earth cause the Shechinah to flee, and she rises upward to the Seven Heavens.' On the other side of the scale are the positive actions of humanity which attract her presence downward to the earth.

The other way that the Shechinah is drawn downward is when people are in need of her as a comforting presence. The rabbis tell us she hovers at the bed of all sick individuals and is seen by the dying as they exit the world into the great light. According to tradition, the Shechinah comes to the good and true at death, giving them the opportunity to go straight up the center of the heavenly ladder in a moment of pure consciousness, into the merger with the Divine. The Shechinah is intimately connected with expressions of human love, particularly romantic and marital bliss. It is she who blesses the happy couple; the glow of lovers is considered to be the reflection of her presence, The scholars of the Spanish and Safed schools also understood that the Shechinah could "appear" to inspired individuals (or "Prophets"), and that the form adopted would be a reflection of the divine purpose (Novick 204-14).

Shekhinah is identified with the eagle's wings both in Exodus and Revelation and is thus the ultimate mystery the nagual of the shaman's vision quest exemplified in Moses' 'burning bush'. She is also identified as the feminine moon deity (Wolkenstain and Kramer xv).

Within the Kabbahstic system of "sephiroth" or emanations of divine energy (known to the readers as the "tree of life" or "cosmic tree"), the ten sephiroth are equally balanced with one side of the tree representing female qualities and the other male qualities. Within this system or map of consciousness, Shechinah is most often identffied with Malchuth (which translates as "sovereignty") at the base of the cosmic tree, which to me represents the energy of the earth (Novick 204-14).

Using an ancient term for the indwelling or presence of God, the Kabbalists employed Shekhinah to symbolize a particular realm within the divine world. Described as daughter, bride, mother, moon, sea, faith, wisdom, speech, and a myriad of other figures, usually but not always feminine by fact or association, the Shekhinah is the chief object of both the divine and human search for wholeness and perfection. She is the bride of God within God, mother of the world and feminine side of the divine self, in no way fully separable from the male self of God. Indeed, the root of all evil, both cosmic and human, is the attempt to bring about such a separation. The picture of that feminine aspect of divinity is a complicated one. As the tenth of the sefirot, or manifestations of divine selfhood, she is, when facing those above, passive and receptive. She takes all the upper powers into herself; "All the rivers flow into the sea," as the Kabbalists love to quote from the Book of Ecclesiastes (1:7). But as the sea transforms all the rivers, gives them new life as a dynamic power all her own, and reaches her destined shores as a new being, so is the Shekhinah, when facing the lower worlds, described as giver, provider, ruler, and judge (Green A 255-7).

"While the Shekhinah plays a central role in all of Kabbalistic literature, it is especially in the Zohar that its feminine character is highlighted. The author of the Zohar was possessed of a seemingly boundless mythic imagination, a great deal of it centering on female figures, both sacred and demonic, as well as on deeply ambivalent fantasies concerning human women in this world." (Green A 255). In what is surely one of its most strikingly impassioned passages, the Zohar speaks of the love of God through the symbol of the kisses that Jacob gives to Rachel: "When it (the spirit of love) enters the palace of love, the love of supernal kisses is aroused, those of which Scripture says: "Jacob kissed Rachel" (Gen. 29:11). This arousal brings about the kisses of supernal love, as needs to be. These kisses are the beginning of all love, attachment, and binding above. That is why the Canticle opens its praises with: "Let Him kiss me." Who is to "kiss me"? The one hidden in sublime hiding. but should you ask: "Do kisses apply to the most hidden One? Does that one kiss below?"

This comes from a pretty goofy website (trying to blend religions) - but there may be some truth in the historical data. But doesn't reading all THAT make you want to look for another name to call the cloud???

I'll keep looking.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

I agree Mark.....too weird for me!!!

It probably is of Jewish origin....but I want to know...the exact origin and the meaning of the word.....and why do we use it??

Help!

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

OK,

This is a little better data on history & linguistics:

John D. Keyser

In Revelation 21:22, the phrase "glory of God" in The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures is rendered "God's SH'KHINAH" in the Jewish New Testament -- notice!

I saw no temple in the city, for ADONAI [YEHOVAH], God of heaven's armies, is its Temple, as is the Lamb [Christ]. The city has no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it, because GOD'S SH'KHINAH gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. This is very important. The word "Shekinah" (Sh'khinah) was coined from verbal cognates (related words) in the Bible which describe the "presence" of YEHOVAH in a certain locality. The verbal cognates are used extensively to describe the "Shekinah" appearances. The word "Shekinah" itself is not found in the Biblical texts, but the concept clearly is. The word most certainly is derived from "shakan," and whoever first used the word "Shekinah" coined it as a substantive (noun form) from the verbal forms used to describe the "abiding, dwelling, or habitation" of the physical manifestations of God described in Exodus 24:16, 40:35 and Numbers 9:17-18 -- and various other places where "shakan" is used. Note that the word is also used to describe the mystical "Shekinah" presence in the Tabernacle and later in the first and second Temples. The word "mishkan," (mshkn), a derivation of "shakan" (shkn), is often translated "tabernacle." The Hebrew for tabernacle is more often simply "ohel," 'ohel, or tent. "Mishkan" means "dwelling place" -- that is, THE "DWELLING PLACE" OF "HIM WHO DWELLS" OR "SHEKINAH."

The Hebrew verb "shakan" (shkn) simply means to take up residence for a long period of time in a neighborhood. The distinction between this word and "yashav" -- which is also translated "dwell" -- is as follows: You can use the word "yashav" to mean an individual doing the dwelling WITHOUT reference to others or to duration, while "shakan" means a PROTRACTED DWELLING IN THE MIDST OF A NEIGHBORHOOD OR A GROUP OF PEOPLE. The primary meaning is to reside and continue as a member of the community. Of course, when it refers to God, it takes on an added mysticism that is obvious from the scriptures.

When verbal forms are translated as nouns, the word sometimes means "habitat." Grammatically (in Hebrew), when verbal forms are translated as nouns, they are called "substantives." Technically, therefore, "Shekinah" is a substantive rather than a noun.

Some people object that the word "Shekinah," (shknh), is not to be found in the Old Testament in its noun form, and that it describes a concept that is not scriptural. It is also claimed that the word was coined by Post-Biblical Rabbinic scholars. While it is admitted that the Rabbinic concept of God being some sort of hovering non-personal force is an unacceptable extension of the meaning, the CONCEPT OF A PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION of God's localized dwelling on this planet IS, nonetheless, scriptural. I have chosen to use the word "Shekinah" (shknh) to name this "presence" and to better develop a concept I will get to later on in the article. Also, this meaning is in general use among many Christians -- even though they are generally ignorant of the origin of the word.

How's that???

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

"The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures" is a Jehovah's Witness publication.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002