Vocabulary:

Amida – (literally, standing). Another term for the shemona essrei (or prayer of eighteen blessings).  See entry above.

Arik Anpin – The second (lower) root of soul, also in the sefira called crown.  It faces downward toward creation and generates a constant will-toward-good in the personality.

Atik Yomin (Atika) – The highest root of the soul.  The innermost point of the sefira called crown, that actually touches the Infinite Light and dwells in the pleasure of that union.

halacha – (literally, walking). The vast system of Jewish law derived from the Torah as received by Moses and explicated by the sages, which defines the entirety of Jewish life.  There is no area of experience that is outside the jurisdiction of halacha.

integrated lights – truths and understandings that have been apprehended by mind or heart.

katnut – (literally, smallness).  A term referring to an immature or constricted state of consciousness.

lights – Lights are always equivalent to consciousness in kabbalistic writings.  Each sefira or spark is a light that transmits a particular insight or capacity for awareness.

malchut – The lowest of the ten sefirot is called malchut which means literally royalty and kingship.  It corresponds to the physical plane and represents the final stage of light’s congealing into matter.

man and woman – Kabbalistic archetypes of male and female in their prime, as opposed to father and mother which signify their later stages of life.

messianic era – The messianic era is a transitional time between this world and the next.  It begins somewhere towards the end of the sixth millennium (we are now within the period of its likely beginnings) and will take us to the threshold of the world-to-come.  It is the joyous stage of actualized perfection. Love of G‑d, love of neighbor, and love of Torah reign.

mother – The higher (or elder) feminine archetype associated with the sefira of understanding (binah)

partzuf / partzufim – The set of six kabbalistic archetypes that coalesce into a family system with each filling a unique role, for example: father, mother, man, woman.  Equally frequently, these partzufim function as different “voices” or sub-personalities within a single individual.

sefira / sefirot – The ten channels of Divine flow and emanation which link the Transcendent Light with Its evolving and apparently finite creation.

Shemona Essrei (literally, eighteen) – the group of originally eighteen, but now nineteen blessings which form the core and backbone of Jewish worship.  Under most circumstances the obligation to pray three times a day is only fulfilled by reciting the Shemona Essrei.  This prayer is recited silently, while standing, feet together, facing Jerusalem.

surrounding lights – truths and understandings that are too deep or great for the mind (or vessel) to grasp.

Mishna – First recording of the oral law compiled by Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi in 180 C.E.  Primarily legalistic in content, the Mishna consolidates the oral tradition as it had evolved from Sinai through the Second Temple period.  It forms the basis of the Gemara.

Synopsis

When a Jewish man and woman wed, seven marriage blessings are recited for them beneath the bridal canopy.  R. Schneur Zalman comments on the last of these special prayers which heralds an idyllic time when “the jubilant voices of both groom and bride will be heard on the streets of Jerusalem…and the groom will rejoice with his bride.”[2] R. Schneur Zalman reads these lines in the context of his encyclopedic knowledge of Jewish teachings where even the most subtle hint reverberates in ever-widening circles of association.  He interprets this prayer as depicting a profound transformation of gender relations that will culminate in messianic times.

R. Schneur Zalman identifies two shifts in status quo anticipated by the prayer’s carefully selected words.  First is the emergence of woman’s voice from passive silence to full expression (as indicated by the blessing’s unnecessary repetition of the word voice both in relation to groom and in relation to bride).  Second is a reversal of polarities between man and woman. Now when consciousness (and its associated joys) descends from above to below it passes first to man and from him to woman. In this sequence, he gives and she receives.  In messianic times the polarity will invert and consciousness will move in the opposite direction; it will pass first to woman, and from her to man (as derived by comparing this prayer’s closing words to a nearly identical line in the sixth blessing that precedes it).  R. Schneur Zalman elaborates on these remarkable teachings and explores their implications both for Israel’s relationship to G‑d, and woman’s relationship to man.

He compares this messianic progression to Judaism’s two-stage process of marital relationship which defines a stepwise sequence of deepening intimacy, called betrothal and marriage.  These are precisely defined terms in Jewish law.  Betrothal is a legally binding commitment to marry.  Though the couple is not permitted to relate sexually, in most other respects they are as if legally married and the dissolution of their engagement requires a divorce.  The second level of matrimonial commitment occurs when the bride formally enters her husband’s home.  The wedding canopy symbolizes their coming together under one-roof and so effects this change of status.  The marriage is finalized by its physical consummation.  These legal categories have metaphysical correlations as well.  In betrothal the couple’s outer layers of soul engage; in marriage their core selves touch and bond.

Betrothal requires one of several specific deeds to activate the obligations associated with that commitment.  The Mishna states, “A woman is [betrothed] in three ways: When she receives a sum of money [or a gift of equivalent monetary value…]”[3] Nowadays this is fulfilled by the exchange of a ring,[4] a gold band that encircles her finger.