Q&A: God Is Female
God Is Female
Question
Is it permitted to speak to/about God in the feminine?
Answer
What could possibly be forbidden about that?
Discussion on Answer
Those are just homiletic quips. "Pronouncing" there obviously means cursing. It is indeed customary to address Him in the masculine and the Shekhinah in the feminine. I see no reason at all to change that, since this whole feminist discussion seems hollow and unnecessary to me. I don’t see any importance in it, but I also don’t see any prohibition against addressing Him in the feminine.
Since the female is weaker than the male, and as the Talmud says in Berakhot, "His strength weakened like a female," seemingly there is some disgrace to God if one speaks of Him in the feminine.
The male too has weakened strength in relation to God.
Certainly, but among the available options (to use masculine terms or feminine ones), one should use masculine terms, otherwise it’s needless disrespect.
Very weak. Women have strengths of their own, even if not physical ones.
You probably ought to address Him as His Excellency the Mighty-Fisted One, because a boxer is the strongest. Or maybe just call Him Muhammad Ali.
The Talmud in Berakhot expounds from the verse "Because the Lord lacked the ability," which apparently uses feminine language regarding the Holy One, blessed be He (according to the Talmud, the word "ability" is feminine), that the nations will say about Him, "His strength weakened like a female." From here it follows that it is not appropriate to use feminine language when speaking about God.
Once people are used to addressing in the masculine, and in a verse that speaks about lack of ability the wording shifts to the feminine, then there is some emphasis here that lack of ability expresses a feminine trait of relative weakness. If from the outset the address had been in the feminine, or if it had been in a verse not dealing with lack of ability (but rather, for example, with the divine trait of generating life), there would be nothing derogatory about it. Though one cannot deny that from the days of the Hebrew Bible and the Sages until our own day there is still a perception that a man is above a woman in certain respects—like in the hierarchy in which inanimate, plant, animal, speaking being, Israeli, Israel.
The Talmud says that the use of the feminine hints that the gentiles will perceive inability. They do not perceive inability because of the use of the feminine. There is no statement there at all that feminine language is derogatory, for otherwise they should not have written the verse that way.
Furthermore, since nowadays the situation is different, I see no reason to be concerned about a hierarchy that was practiced in Babylonia two thousand years ago.
I saw that someone asked one of the rabbis why God is referred to in the masculine and not the feminine, and this is what he answered:
"Masculine means active, and feminine means acted upon. Therefore it is impossible to liken Him to the feminine, since He is not acted upon by the created world. About this it says, 'One who pronounces the name of the Lord'—that is, one who makes Him female—shall be put to death. At the same time, the Shekhinah is the dimension of the Godhead's participation in the acts of those below, and with respect to it there are feminine images."
Should one be concerned that reading or addressing God in the feminine might involve the prohibition of 'pronouncing the name of the Lord' or be considered disrespectful toward Him, as it were?