Shekhinah

The Shekhinah (Biblical Hebrew: שכינה‎ šekīnah; also Romanized Shekina(h), Schechina(h), Shechina(h)) is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning 'dwelling' or 'settling' and denotes the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God. This term does not occur in the Bible, and is from rabbinic literature.:148After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines; and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a timbrel, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they will be prophesying.And the spirit of the LORD will come mightily upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.Let us invite the Shechinah with a newly-laid tableand with a well-lit menorah that casts light on all heads.Three preceding days to the right, three succeeding days to the left,and amid them the Sabbath bride with adornments she goes, vessels and robes...May the Shechinah become a crown through the six loaves on each side through the doubled-six may our table be bound with the profound Temple services'In the imagery of the Kabbalah the shekhinah is the most overtly female sefirah, the last of the ten sefirot, referred to imaginatively as 'the daughter of God'. ... The harmonious relationship between the female shekhinah and the six sefirot which precede her causes the world itself to be sustained by the flow of divine energy. She is like the moon reflecting the divine light into the world.'Their prophet said to them: 'The sign of his kingship is that the Ark will come to you in which there is tranquility from your Lord and a relic from the family of Moses and the family of Aaron, borne by the angels. In this is a sign for you if you are true believers. The Shekhinah (Biblical Hebrew: שכינה‎ šekīnah; also Romanized Shekina(h), Schechina(h), Shechina(h)) is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning 'dwelling' or 'settling' and denotes the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God. This term does not occur in the Bible, and is from rabbinic literature.:148 The word shekhinah is not present in the Bible, and is first encountered in the rabbinic literature.:148–49 The Semitic root from which shekhinah is derived, sh.kh.n, means 'to settle, inhabit, or dwell'. In the verb form, it is often used to refer to the dwelling of a person or animal in a place, or to the dwelling of God. Nouns derived from the root included shachen ('neighbor') and mishkan (a dwelling-place, whether a secular home or a holy site such as the Tabernacle). In classic Jewish thought, the shekhinah refers to a dwelling or settling in a special sense, a dwelling or settling of divine presence, to the effect that, while in proximity to the shekhinah, the connection to God is more readily perceivable. The shekhinah represents the feminine attributes of the presence of God, shekhinah being a feminine word in Hebrew, based especially on readings of the Talmud. The shekhinah is referred to as manifest in the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem throughout rabbinic literature. It is also reported as being present in the acts of public prayer. In the Mishna the noun is used twice: once by Rabbi Hananiah ben Teradion (c. 135 CE): 'If two sit together and the words between them are of the Torah, then the shekhinah is in their midst'; and Rabbi Halafta ben Dosa: 'If ten men sit together and occupy themselves with the Law, the shekhinah rests among them.':148–49 So too in the Talmud Sanhedrin 39a, we read: 'Whenever ten are gathered for prayer, there the Shekhinah rests'; it also connotes righteous judgment ('when three sit as judges, the Shekhinah is with them.' Talmud tractate Berachot 6a), and personal need ('The Shekhinah dwells over the headside of the sick man's bed.' Talmud tractate Shabbat 12b; 'Wheresoever they were exiled, the Shekhinah went with them.' Talmud tractate Megillah 29a). In particular, the shekhinah is a holy fire that resides within the home of a married couple. The shekhinah is the highest of six types of holy fire. When a married couple is worthy of this manifestation, all other types of fire are consumed by it.:111, n. 4 There is no occurrence of the word in pre-rabbinic literature such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is only afterwards in the targums and rabbinic literature that the Hebrew term shekhinah, or Aramaic equivalent shekinta, is found, and then becomes extremely common. McNamara considers that the absence might lead to the conclusion that the term only originated after the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, but notes 2 Maccabees 14:35 'a temple for your habitation', where the Greek text (Koinē Greek: ναὸν τῆς σῆς σκηνώσεως) suggests a possible parallel understanding, and where σκηνώση skēnōsē 'a tent-building', a variation on an early loanword from Phoenician (Ancient Greek: ἡ σκηνή skēnē 'tent'), is deliberately used to represent the original Hebrew or Aramaic term.:148