The quest for the lost princess: transition and change in Jewish lore

Judaism, Summer, 1994 by Howard Schwartz

On the day of Yom Kippur the decision is made on high as to whether or not each person's name will be sealed in the Book of Life. Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed, known as the Ari, was able to divine the future, and he always knew from Yom Kippur who, among his disciples, would live or die. This knowledge he rarely disclosed, but once, when he learned there was a way to avert the decree, he made an exception. Summoning Rabbi Abraham Beruchim, he said: "Know that a heavenly voice has gone forth to announce that this will be your last year among us--unless you do what is necessary to abolish the decree."

"What must I do?" asked Rabbi Abraham.

"Know, then," said the Ari, "that your only hope is to go to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and there pray with all your heart before God. And if you are deemed worthy you will have a vision of the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence. That will mean that the decree has been averted and your name will be inscribed in the Book of Life after all."

Rabbi Abraham thanked the Ari with all his heart and left to prepare for the journey. First, he shut himself in his house for three days and nights, wearing sackcloth and ashes, and fasted the whole time. Then, although he could have gone by wagon or by donkey, he chose to walk to Jerusalem. And by the time Rabbi Abraham reached Jerusalem, he felt as if he were floating, as if his soul had ascended from his body. And when he reached the Wailing Wall, the last remnant of Solomon's Temple, Rabbi Abraham had a vision there. Out of the wall came an old woman, dressed in black, deep in mourning. And Rabbi Abraham suddenly realized how deep was the grief of the Shekhinah over the destruction of the Temple and the scattering of her children, Israel, all over the world. And he became possessed of a grief as deep as the ocean, far greater than he had ever known. It was the grief of a mother who has lost a child; the grief of Hannah, after losing her seven sons; the grief of the Bride over the suffering of her children scattered to every corner of the earth.

At that moment Rabbi Abraham fell to the ground in a faint, and he had a vision. In the vision he saw the Shekhinah once more, but this time he saw her dressed in her robe woven out of light, more magnificent than the setting sun, and her joyful countenance was revealed. Waves of light arose from her face, an aura that seemed to reach out and surround him, as if he were cradled in the arms of the Sabbath Queen. "Do not grieve so, my son Abraham," she said. "Know that my exile will come to an end, and my inheritance will not go to waste. And for you, my son, there shall be a great many blessings."

Just then Rabbi Abraham's soul returned to him from its journey on high. He awoke refreshed, as if he had shed years of grief, and he was filled with hope.

When Rabbi Abraham returned to Safed he was a new man, and when the Ari saw him, he said at once: "I can see that you have been found worthy to see the Shekhinah, and you can rest assured that you will live for another twenty-two years. Know that each year will be the blessing of another letter of the alphabet, for the light of the Divine Presence shines forth through every letter. And you, who have stood face to face with the Shekhinah, will recognize that light in every letter of every word."

So it was that Rabbi Abraham did live for another twenty-two years, years filled with abundance. And all who saw him recognized the aura that shone from his face, for the light of the Divine Presence always reflected from his eyes.

THIS TALE, "A VISION AT THE WAILING WALL," DErives from the city of Safed in the sixteenth century. It is one of a cycle of tales about the great Jewish mystic Rabbi Isaac Luria, known as the Ari. Here the Ari perceives that one of his disciples faces a mid-life transition and sends him on a journey to wholeness, a quest to the Western Wall, the last remaining wall of the Temple in Jerusalem, to plead mercy from the Shekhinah, who is identified in the Kabbalah as the Bride of God. There Rabbi Abraham has a vision of the Shekhinah, in which he first sees her as an old woman who emerges from the wall "dressed in black, deep in mourning." Soon after this he faints and has a vision of the Shekhinah as a celestial bride.

Central to understanding this mystical tale is the concept of the Shekhinah. The term is first found in the Talmud, codified in the fifth century, where it refers to the Divine Presence, that is, the presence of God in the world. It is linked, in particular, to the sacred quality of the Sabbath. But by the sixteenth century the meaning of the term shekhinah had considerably evolved. It came to be identified with the feminine aspect of the Divinity, and took on mythic independence. Myths can be found in the Zohar and other kabbalistic texts that portray the Shekhinah as the Bride of God and Sabbath Queen who once made her home in the Temple in Jerusalem and later, when the Temple was destroyed, went into exile with her children, Israel. At this point the mythic figure of the Shekhinah becomes entirely independent of the divinity and takes on a separate identity. Nor will her exile end until the Temple has been rebuilt, which Jewish lore links with the coming of the Messiah, since the rebuilding of the Temple is said to be one of the miracles that will occur in the messianic era.