[3] TB Kidushin 2a.  The passage continues, “…or by a document, or by sexual relations.”

[4] Shulchan Aruch, Eben HaEzer (IH), 31.

[5] Central prayer of Jewish worship.  See glossary.

[6] The closing line of a blessing, expressed in the formula of “Blessed are you…,” is called its seal.  It condenses all the thoughts that precede it into a single statement of prayerful affirmation.

[7]The entire sixth blessing reads, “Gladden the beloved companions as You gladdened Your creature in the Garden of Eden from aforetime.  Blessed are You, HaShem, Who gladdens groom and bride.”

[8] The blessings are said in a different order under the chupa than at the celebratory meals.  Under the chupa the prayer over the wine is said as the first sheva brocha and then the six special blessings follow.  At the celebratory meals, the six special blessings precede the prayer over wine so the numbering changes.  What is here called the seventh becomes the sixth.  What is here called the sixth becomes the fifth.

[9] In the siddur containing the essay here translated, there also appears another essay entitled,  Ci Al Kol Kavod, Chupa (Above Every Glory is a Canopy), where this point is explicitly elaborated.

[10] Deut. 30:20.

[11] TB Pesachim 49b.

[12] Bamidbar Rabba 12:10, Mishna, Taanit 4:8, TB Taanit 26b.

[13] Song of Songs 3:11.

[14] Exodus 19:10.

[15] Isaiah 54:5.

[16] Rambam, Mishna Torah, Hilchot Melachim 12:5.

[17] Proverbs 8:30.

[18] TB Hagiga 12a.

[19] Exodus 19:20.

[20] Exodus 20:2.

[21] TB Shabbat 146a.

[22] Mishna, Kidushin 3:1.

[23] A clarification for those less familiar with Hebrew.  The Mishna presents a formula for effecting halachic engagement which includes the statement, “Behold you are sanctified to me…” Why doesn’t the groom say a more explicit and straight forward statement, “Behold, you are engaged to me.”  The paragraph explains that the Hebrew word for sanctified has other associations that the sages wished to bring into the process.

[24] Zohar II:121b, 122; III:66a, b.  This is the term for the point where the sefira of chokmah contacts the sefira of keter.

[25] TB Sanhedrin 22b.

[26] Isaiah 54:5.

[27] Israel is defined as a creature, unique in the universe, by virtue of its capacity to know, contain and reveal the full range of existential possibilities that exist within Divinity Itself.  At present this is only a potential, but a potential that will be realized.

[28] TB Kidushin 2a.

[29] Shulchan Aruch, IH 31.

[30] Ari, Aytz Chaim, Shaar Miut HaYareach..

[31]Brains is a literal translation of the Hebrew word, מוחין and is a frequently used term in kaballa.  It refers to the upper three sefirot, keter, chokmah, binah (and sometimes daat), and thus indicates the faculties of conscious and superconscious awareness, i.e., intelligence in broadest sense of the term.

[32]Generally this combination of names refers to the endpoint and rectified expression of masculine and feminine in their equal-statured, face to face relationship.  Sometimes however it expresses this less mature state of relationship where the feminine remains dependent upon the masculine.  See Zohar I:20a (R. Ashlag’s Commentry, para. 110-115) where both of these usages appear.  Another explanation appears in Shaari Kedusha by R. Yosef Gikatillia, Shar Chamishi.

[33] See footnote Error! Bookmark not defined..

[34] The word khala also relates to a similar root, כלה, which means to complete, finish, perish, as in the phrase כלות נפש, a state of fatal rapture where the soul actually leaves the body because of its insatiable longing to unite with its Beloved above.

[35] Proverbs 12:4

[36] Sefer Yetzira, I:7,

[37] Standard Liturgy, Kaballat Shabbat, L’Cha Dodi.

[38] Need to track down sources

[39] R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Tora Or (TO), Parshat Vayigash, (first words, biur al…)

[40] TB Berochot 64a.  “’And all your children [literally sons] shall be students of HaShem and your children [sons] will have abundant peace.’ Don’t read [banekha] “your sons”, but [boniekh] “your builders.”

[41] TB Baba Batra 75b.

[42] Isaiah 6:3.

[43] Isaiah 4:3.

[44] Jeremiah 31:22.

[45] Zohar I:140a, and many others.

[46] I Shmuel 1:1 – 2:10; TB Brochot 31a,b.

[47] The term katnut describes an immature state, generally corresponding to the soul’s preadolescent period of development “where the individual is only able to understand the externality of things…”  The term applies both to the natural growth process when the soul is passing through katnut for the first time, and it is an age-appropriate condition, as well as regressed expressions of katnut, where an adult lapses into age-inappropriate immaturity.  The verse from Psalms, “I was struck mute with silence…” refers to the latter.

This essay has been extracted from Sarah Yehudit’s larger study on the nature of gender in Kabbala. Please visit Kabbalistic Writings on the Nature of Masculine and Feminine to read a summary and browse through this book or buy it directly.

This essay can also be viewed in adobe pdf format.