Souad & Silverman/Subjugated Voices, 2. Shekhinah: Transgendered or Transvestite? A comparison of Zohar and Sha’are Orah

Emily Leah Silverman’s “Shekhinah: Transgendered or Transvestite? A comparison of the Zohar and Sha’are Orah,” examines the views of Shekhinah from two thirteenth-century kabbalistic texts, the Zohar (Book of Splendor) and Sha’are Orah (Gates of Lights). Shekhinah, also known as Malchut (kingdom), is an attribute of God and is considered to be the feminine sphere or the feminine face of God. While interest in her has grown amongst Jewish feminists, further analysis of a scholarly nature is lacking. Silverman examines if it is possible to redeem Shekhinah from the texts and investigates if kabbalistic sources are valid for Jewish feminist theologies. The focus of Emily’s discussion is how each text portrays Shekhinah’s mutable gender qualities. In this preliminary investigation of a complex subject, Silverman examines the verbs and some of the symbols that each text uses to describe Shekhinah’s channeling and changing nature.