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Divine Gender Transformations in Rebbe Nahman of Bratslav

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Divine Gender Transformations in Rebbe Nahman of Bratslav Nordisk Judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies Vol. 26, No. 1–2, 2008, 29–47 DIVINE GENDER TRANSFORMATIONS IN REBBE NAHMAN OF BRATSLAV Justin Jaron Lewis Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario — — A b s t r a c t In several passages in the tales and teachings of Rebbe Nahman of Bratslav, the divine undergoes a process of gender transformation. »The Holy One Blessed Be He» becomes female, and the Shekhinah temporarily takes on a male persona. Characterizations of Hasidic thought as androcentric generally apply to R’ Nahman. There is an accepted hierarchy and polarization of gender which informs much of his oeuvre. This article argues, however, that in these particular passages R’ Nahman disrupts this hierarchy. Whereas Kabbalah and Hasidism normally view the feminine as an outer »garment» for the divine masculine, in these passages the devotee discovers the hidden inwardness of God, which turns out to be feminine. This radical imagery is nourishing for followers of R’ Nahman’s controversial brand of Hasidism. In particular, it provides a theological justification for their unexpectedly intimate encounters with the divine, as they engage in the meditative practice of personal, solitary prayer according to R’ Nahman’s directives. This article will consider two remarkable images of gender trans- formation in the teachings and tales of the Hasidic master Nahman of Bratslav (1772–1810). In his brief lifetime, R’ Nahman was not a particularly successful Hasidic leader; he had no more than a few hundred followers and was surrounded by controversy.1 Yet, he demanded and inspired an unusually intense focus on his own person and teachings. This led to his disciple R’ Nathan Sternhartz’s devoted efforts to transcribe and 30 Justin Jaron Lewis publish R’ Nahman’s teachings, the stories he told, and biographical information and anecdotes about him. After R’ Nahman’s death, his followers (known today as Breslov Hasidim) continued to acknowl- edge him as their rebbe, never choosing a successor; this was and remains a controversial choice.2 As a spiritual guide for his followers, R’ Nahman sought new ways of achieving closeness to the divine. Controversially, for example, he introduced a ritual in which new disciples confessed their sins to him.3 Most significantly, R’ Nahman advocated individual, personal prayer in the vernacular, in seclusion, and established it as a regular spiritual discipline, in effect more important than liturgical prayer. This individual form of prayer, known in Breslov Hasidism as hitbodedut, »seclusion»,4 can lead to profound meditative states.5 It is said to be especially accessible to those who experience many emotional ups and downs6 – although in my own limited experience, it actually tends to produce emotional fluctuations.7 A subset of this practice is »turning torah into prayer».8 Here »torah» has the special Hasidic sense of the spiritual teachings of the Rebbe. The Hasid is asked to reflect on the Rebbe’s teachings and pray, in his own words, to live out their implications. In today’s Hasidic world, R’ Nahman is highly regarded. Critics suggest, however, that Breslov Hasidism involves an escape into a dream world.9 From a Breslov perspective, of course, the escape is an awakening to the world of inner truth, deeper and more real than that of outer perceptions. R’ Nahman’s teachings, as understood by his followers, are not pri- marily theological but always contain advice for spiritual living.10 Yet, he is recognized as a bold and original theologian. His teachings work through an associative system in which the word behinat (»an aspect of…») links disparate images and concepts. Behinat…in R’ Nahman’s thought, like bandhu in Vedic cosmology, sets up »relationships that can be formulated as follows: ‘X is so »bound» to Y that X is Y.’»11 The results of these associations are often surprising and compelling. R’ Nahman’s stories, though resembling secular wonder tales or romances,12 with little overt religious content, have been understood from the beginning as communicating deep spiritual messages.13 Their dreamlike shifts in plot and imagery function much as the chains of association in the teachings do, but on a different level, less Divine Gender Transformations in Rebbe Nahman of Bratslav 31 intellectual and more emotional, opening the imagination to new possibilities. The teachings were gathered by the devoted disciple R’ Nathan in the book Liqutei Moharan (»Gleanings from Our Teacher R’ Nah- man»), and the major tales in the book Sipurei Ma’asiyot (»Tales»). These two works are canonical in Breslov Hasidism, objects of sacred study. They are the sources of the passages to be examined here. Liqutei Moharan 1:15 is a long teaching, transcribed from R’ Nah- man’s own notes, whose theme is the question of how to attain the hidden, inner secrets of the Torah and of God. Toward the end of subsection 6, it includes the following passage:14 And one merits to this [attaining the inner secrets of Torah] through prayer, because »The Holy One Blessed Be He desires (mit’aveh15) the prayers of the people of Israel» [cf. Midrash Tehillim 116]. So when the people of Israel pray before Him and fulfill His desire, then He, as it were, becomes the aspect of (behinat) woman, since He receives pleasure from us. As it is written, »a fire-offering (isheh), an appeasing fragrance to God» [a phrase referring to burnt offerings, Exodus 19:18 and repeatedly in Leviticus and Numbers]. Through the appeasing fragrance which He receives, He becomes the aspect of woman (ishah). And »a female shall surround a male» [Jere- miah 31:21] since the Holy One Blessed Be He becomes the aspect of the garment, the revealed. That is, the aspect that was originally hidden is now revealed, through prayer. And »the Holy One Blessed Be He and the Torah are all one» [a frequent phrase in Hasidic literature, based on similar phrases in the Zohar (2:90b, 3:723a)]; so through prayer the Torah has been revealed, that is, the secrets of the Torah. There is a close parallel to this teaching in Liqutei Moharan 1:73, a brief passage, transcribed from notes taken by disciples, which addresses the same theme of attaining the inner secrets of Torah through prayer. Toward the end of this text it is stated that God desires our prayer, because He wants to bestow kindness on us; And it is known that whoever receives pleasure from someone else is called female – that is, in relation to the other. Therefore, when The Blessed Name receives pleasure from the people of 32 Justin Jaron Lewis Israel, from their prayers, He becomes, as it were, female in relation to the people of Israel. So it is written, »a fire-offering (isheh), an appeasing fragrance to God» – because through the appeasing fragrance which The Blessed Name receives from the prayers of the people of Israel, He mystically becomes woman (na’aseh besod ishah). »And a female shall surround a male»; if so, the inner becomes the outer. During the past decade or so there has been increasing scholarly attention to gender in R’ Nahman, as in Jewish texts in general.16 The study of gender in Kabbalah and Hasidism is dominated by the oeuvre of Elliot Wolfson,17 who argues that these traditions are strongly phallocentric.18 In this context, both Zvi Mark and Daniel Abrams have taken note of the striking and unusual imagery of these two passages from R’ Nahman.19 In agreement with Mark and Abrams, I read these particular passages as creating a vulvic, rather than phallic, image of the Divine.20 In imagery with sexual connotations, the female surrounds the male, that is, the female genitals envelop the male. Here it is the Jew at prayer who is imaged phallically, entering into the Divine, giving it pleasure and having direct access to its inner parts.21 I would like to add to this interpretation a greater emphasis on the change of gender in these passages. The texts’ emphasis on God’s becoming female indicate that what is evoked here is not the usual situ- ation. The choice of verse from Jeremiah makes the same point; in that verse, the words R’ Nahman quotes are immediately preceded by the phrase »for the Eternal has created something new upon the earth.» This transformation of gender takes place against the background of a particular set of polarities which are assumed to be the normal situation. These polarities, as they emerge from these texts them- selves, are as follows: Gender: the »normal» polarities Female Male Israel [in other contexts, Shekhinah, God (»The Holy One Blessed Be He»/ the Divine Presence] »The Blessed Name»)22 Receiving Bestowing Outer Inner Revealed Hidden Garment Body Divine Gender Transformations in Rebbe Nahman of Bratslav 33 These polarities will be familiar to students of Kabbalah.23 They are fundamentals of the Kabbalistic gender system studied by Wolfson, aspects of which pervade much of Jewish thought.24 It is a fixed system which informs many, many texts, including other teachings of R’ Nahman’s. This system contains a paradox which renders the experience of the mystic poignantly unfulfilled. »Revealed» and »garment» are part of the same polarity; but a garment is also a concealment. In theosophic Kabbalah,25 which provides the underpinnings of Hasidic mysticism, the Divine Presence (Shekhinah), through which the mystic accesses the Divine, is simultaneously the garment, the concealment, of the inner, higher Divine to which the mystic aspires. The mystic who enters more deeply into the divine realms discovers that each of the sefirot, the manifestations of the Divine, is a garment concealing that which is still higher and deeper.
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