This hierarchy of flow describes the relationship between man and woman in their earlier stages of development. Just as each day brings messiach one step closer, so does the relationship of groom and bride daily mature into its ideal of equal-statured union. The verse that describes its future and perfected state is, “A woman of valor is the crown (עטרה) to her husband.”[35] This source depicts the bride as a valiant or mighty woman who now assumes the position of crown to her husband (the groom). Their roles have reversed. Until this stage he served as her crown holding the lights that were ultimately destined to her, but still too “big” for her vessel. Here she becomes his crown and holds the consciousness that eludes his now more limited grasp.
One could summarize the entire 6,000-year odyssey of Biblical history as the progressive enlightening of the lower realms. Each instant some increment of Infinite Light trickles down into the world and integrates into the minds of its inhabitants. An elaborate production line exists, extending from above to below, that packages the Infinite Light into a form that can be absorbed by the lower worlds. One key feature of this cosmic chain of descent is that the higher level always functions as a crown to the world below it.
In the betrothal period initiated at Sinai, the flow of consciousness passed from from mother to man to woman, and each served as the crown to the one below it. The verse which describes this arrangement is, “the crown wherewith his mother crowned him on the day of his espousals…”, for at Sinai the man received his superconscious inheritance of lights from mother as an engagement gift. He internalized a portion and passed a fraction on to his fiancee as a betrothal token, as an engagement ring.
In the future, this crown of superconscious lights that man received from mother will instead come from woman (i.e., his wife). She, who had previously been below him in stature and “intelligence”, will now surpass him, and their roles will reverse. She will be holding their higher lights and he will receive his portion from her.
The mechanism which underlies this turn of events is a metaphysical law that has two formulations. Sefer Yetzira states, “The end is enwedged in the beginning.”[36] The last (and lowest) point of creation was actually the first and essential reason for it. Similarly a verse from Shabbat liturgy states, “The final act was the first thought.”[37] These ideas are discussed at length in othe places.[38]
Kaballa teaches that this first thought was a piercing vision of the accomplished purpose of creation. Its utter and compelling beauty inspired HaShem (as it were) to begin this “labor” of materializing that dream. It is the whole point of creation and yet it is the last to come forth. Everything else is an intermediate building block toward its one culminating end, the perfect embodiment of that original vision. The last piece of handiwork in the six days of creation was woman. This means, according to these principles, that her “root” is higher than all that preceded her, for “the last and lowest end derives from the first and highest beginning.” It follows that her trait of receptivity must be the ultimate and eternally enduring purpose of creation.[39]
When the universe is a work in progress, HaShem needs builders to complete the milleniums-sized task of perfecting the world. This downward-facing work is a masculine skill and when it is in demand, power and status resides with those what have it.[40] But eventually (and actually quite soon in the relative scheme of things) the world will be built, the job will be done, Shabbat will come. And then the trait in high demand will be receptivity, the capacity to receive the Divine revelation of love and light and Presence that is the pleasure of eternity. This upward-facing activity is a feminine skill and, apparently, the ultimate purpose of creation.
In the world of appearances, woman is lowest, in the world of roots, she is highest. When creation returns to its roots and its hierarchy rules, the polarity of masculine and feminine will reverse and she will becomes the crown to her husband. Now the opposite is so.
