rabbinic theology and the unconscious

Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1978

Rabbinic Theology and the Unconscious

NORMAN SAUL GOLDMAN

Among the contributions of psychology to our understanding of religion, the concept of the unconscious has most significantly led us to recognize the profundity of man's nature. Perhaps that is why Carl Jung describes the unconscious in almost mystical terms in speaking of dreams as having the character of revelations and in writing of the human dread of the unconscious. 1 Jung, in effect, echoes the ancient view of dreams as being divine revelations. The sphere of dreams also encompasses that almost mysterious realm which Freud has labeled the unconscious.

Rabbinic literature deals with dreams in a remarkably contemporary way, recognizing both the manifest and the latent meanings of dreams, which include the differential between conscious and unconscious/A possible mode of compre- hending the unconscious in rabbinic thought is through the myths created by the rabbis as they endeavored to fathom the paradox that was man. The rabbis attempted to comprehend the ambivalent nature of the psyche, which they characterized as being composed of both an "evil inclination" and a ~good inclination" or impulse. Man was at once intensely personal and sensual as well as social and ascetic. In effect, man embraced equally the divine and the demonic.

The perception of the unconscious as being awesome is strikingly close to the powerful rabbinic myths about the presence of God in man's life. The rabbis spoke of the Shekinah as God's power indwelling among men (literally, the term Shekinah comes from the word '~to dwell"). Through an examination of the way the rabbis used the term Shekinah to denote God's presence in the world, we can come to understand the rabbinic view of the unconscious as one manifestation of God's being in the world.

Before we can proceed with this investigation, however, we must clarify some salient points about the function and value of myth. Henry A. Murray, a psychoanalyst and student of mythology, offers a definition of myth which appears relevant to our study of the Shekinah. Murray's definitions are arranged according to the aspects of myth, under each of which one or more

Norman Saul Goldman is Rabbi of Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania. He is also Director of Pastoral Care and Lecturer in Religion and Psychiatry at Eugenia Hospital in Lafayette Hills, Pennsylvania.

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Rabbinic Theology and the Unconscious 145

kinds or classes of myth can be distinguished. First he suggests a formal, descriptive definition: "A myth manifestly consists of the essential features of an important, more or less natural/preternatural situation or event (that has a basic theme) in which at least one extraordinary more or less natural/preternatural psychic entity is involved-a l l this sensibly represented in one channel or another.'3

In terms of the Shekinah myth, this preternatural event consisted of the imagined actions of the Shekinah, for example, its ascension away from man when he sinned and its descent when man was deserving. The psychic entity, according to Murray, is an animate creature or even an inanimate object that is described as perceiving, feeling, thinking, or intending as a human person does. This anthropopsychic entity may have a natural anatomy or no designated anatomy. Certainly the Shekinah conforms, even anatomically, to these re- quirements. The basic theme in the Shekinah myth is its great contribution to man's welfare.

Murray emphasizes that the forces responsible for the course of mythic events are always psychic, never physical or chemical forces, and the representation is always concrete (not conceptual). However, the theme that a myth illustrates is abstract and universal.

Mr. Murray, as we mentioned before, offers other definitions such as referential definitions, functional, conditional, and causal definitions. Thus, for example, the referential explanation suggests that the manifest components of a myth may mean what they literally appear to mean, or they may stand for anything else that is conceivable. The functional definition includes its social and psychological effects, such as its role in personality integration. 4 This latter aspect of myth conforms to Max Kadushin's understanding of a religious experience as an integrative experience and is further reminiscent of William James's notion of the ~'religion of healthy-mindedness. ''5

Murray's conditional definition is related to the ritual enactment of the mythic event, although this type of definition is not true of the Shekinah myth. In normative Judaism the Shekinah's presence is determined only by moral a c t s - n e v e r ritual action. On the other hand, the causal definition which asserts that the myth is produced by dynamic psychic determinants is very much related to the Shekinah, which fulfills the psychic need for sustenance, security, and meaning while being experienced both consciously and uncon- sciously.

It may be worthwhile to inquire in what way the Shekinah myth conforms to some modern theories of religion and of primitive societies. According to Claude Levi-Strauss, myth represents the concrete form of ideation which we may characterize as primal communication2 This is an especially cogent point because, in effect, the stories of the gods, their birth, conflicts, encounters, and deaths are highly concrete and emotional ways of speaking unconscious thoughts.

Mircea Eliade suggests that myth is intimately bound up with ontology. The sacred, alone, is established by myth, while the profane does not have any ontic

146 Journal of Religion and Health

character. According to Eliade, only the holy is real and exists. The main function of myth, therefore, is to describe the "irruptions of the sacred into the world."7

Rudolph Bultmann sees the great value of myth in terms of theology. Bultmann argues that mythology is merely primitive theology and was used as a technique for subduing the powers upon which man felt dependent. By objectifying these powers, by naming them, and by celebrating them, man was able to achieve a sense of security while facing the fearful power of life.

Myths as well as dreams are products of the unconscious thought processes described by Freud as "primary process" thinking and described by L~vy-Bruhl, as ~pre-logical thinking. ''8 Ernst Cassirer also shares the view that the basis of myth is neither intellectual nor logical, but emotional2

We can discern this "primary process" thinking in rabbinic literature. The Midrash, for example, in commenting upon a biblical text, offers its interpre- tations in terse and cryptic language which often relates to the biblical text under analysis in apparently illogical ways. Closer examination of Midrash, however, reveals that the relationship that exists between rabbinic hermeneu- tics and the text it is interpreting are associative rather than logical. The psychoanalytical procedure of free association that is used to investigate the unconscious approximates the rabbinic method of exegesis, wherein the organic nature of its processes stands out as most characteristic.

Max Kadushin, who has devoted a great deal of time and energy to studying and articulating the nature of rabbinic thought processes, has observed that the rabbis intentionally did not conceptualize in clear terms. Instead, they im- planted their ideas in what Kadushin calls "organic complexes." Kadushin's notion of organic thinking is most relevant to an appreciation of rabbinic myth and the unconscious. In effect, Kadushin describes organic thinking in much the same way that mythic thought processes are described. He writes, '~A striking feature of organic thinking is its concreteness." Further on, Kadushin elaborates upon the qualities of non-logical or organic thought as being imaginative. And, still further, he asserts that organic concepts are charged with emotion, recalling to mind the notions of Freud, L~vy-Bruhl, and Cassi- rer.10

One result of Kadushin's penetrating study of the rabbinic mind is a clarification of the relation between myth and unconscious in rabbinic thought. The Shekinah in rabbinic theology represents more than a narrative of the divine-human encounter; the myth of the Shekinah concretizes the wishes, fears, and conflicts that are deep within the unconscious. Consequently, some of man's most dreaded and awesome feelings find expression through the imagery of myth. The limitations of space in the present essay prevent a complete treatment of this hypothesis. However, a succinct illustration may be adequate. Despair and alienation, among other feelings, are communicated through the drama of the Shekinah's self-removal from the life of man. Rabbinic legends relate how, with the fall of man and his increasing propensity to sin, the Shekinah gradually left earth and returned to heaven, n In summarizing this


divine withdrawal, the Midrash states that the wicked do not permit the Shekinah to dwell on earth.12

The latent meaning of these rabbinic statements allows us an insight into the unconscious perception of evil. According to the rabbis, the practice of evil leads to alienation from God. Furthermore, alienation has its ontological conse- quences, for as Eliade maintains, only the sacred exists. Therefore, the performance of evil leading to alienation ultimately corresponds to ontic diminution. The Shekinah or the divine presence in ascending from the earth and away from man symbolizes the undermining of the personal "ground of being" (to use Tillich's characterization of the divine presence).

A second illustration: The human feeling of joy and wholeness is also found in the myth of the Shekinah. The Midrash tells us that the celestial beings were fed by the radiance of the Shekinah2 3 Elsewhere in the Midrash, Moses is advised by God that he is not to eat or drink because he will feast upon the splendor of the Shekinah. 14 These images of nurturing reflect the satisfaction and completeness that derive from communion with God. Abraham was great, the Midrash tells us, because he brought people under the wings of the Shekinah. '5 The import of these statements lies in man's need for a sense of integration and security. The Shekinah is the concrete expression for the feelings of wholeness and well-being that emerge from an integrated personality.

The myth of the Shekinah is found in situations where well-being is a relevant concept. Marriage, for example, can be disastrous without adequate human adjustment. The rabbis describe this marital adjustment by pointing out that good marriages are characterized by their relation to God. In the rabbinic idiom itself: "The Shekinah dwells along with husband and wife. ''16 The presence of the Shekinah, however, evokes much more than the image of divine bliss in the happy home. The myth also recalls the primordial motif of fertility and procreation, as in the Baal and Anath mythologies of ancient Canaan. Applying the rabbinic process of exegesis, one perceives the profound elements of creativity embedded in the myth of the Shekinah. This notion is alluded to in the Talmudic statement that "murder pollutes the land [murder is the diametric opposite of creation; it is destruction] and therefore causes the Shekinah to depart. "1~

The rabbis utilized the Shekinah myth on many different levels of awareness. Consciously, the study of scripture invoked the presence of the Shekinah.18 The rabbis considered study to be a religious duty and therefore an integrative process. Study guided one in the discovery of God and thereby created a sense of well-being which was characterized as the Shekinah.

Social consciousness is also a large aspect of religious life. The community itself (the Kahal or congregation) had significant religious status, and the individual was obligated to participate in its collective life. The rabbis believed that the divine presence was linked closely to the collectivity and, therefore, the community as a whole experienced a sense of well-being which was enunciated in terms of the Shekinah's presence in communal life. 19


According to Kadushin, the rabbis had no need to formulate an all-inclusive God-concept in order to give unity to their experience of GodY ~ Apparently they were content with a more immediate cognizance of God which Kadushin describes as ~normal mysticism." He suggests that the rabbis understood the notion of God in terms of intrapsychic life. God, in rabbinic thought, is a powerful and poignant experience that cannot be grasped by any philosophic concept. Instead, the experience of God is conveyed through value-concepts such as mercy, justice, and sanctity. This relationship between myth, value, and sanctity is equally appreciated by Mircea Eliade, who claims that mythology explicitly establishes a scale of values.21 This value system is a major focal point of the rabbis. The Shekinah is a representative of God and is also correlated to a system of values. When man breaks with that code, the Shekinah becomes more distant as man estranges himself from God. In the original rabbinic statement, ~He who commits a transgression, it is as if he pushes away the feet of the Shekinah."22

Sin, therefore, was more than rebellion against God; it involved an intrapsychic dysfunction as well. If, as we have suggested, the myth of the Shekinah is an unconscious creation signifying relatedness to God as an aspect of psychic wholeness, then alienation from God is tantamount to psychic disintegration. Or, to use Kadushin's words, '~The awareness of the self was heightened and enriched by the experience of God." This means that, conversely, a fragmented experience of God would necessarily imply a diminished self-awareness or a decrease in the level of personality adjustment. 23

These experiences of God are originally perceived on the unconscious or organic level. Freud warns that somewhere along the path ideas and experiences take as they develop from unconscious perceptions into consciousness repression can contain these thoughts at the unconscious level. Psychoanalysis has revealed the power of these imprisoned unconscious ideas, emotions, and experiences. Blocked by represssion, these emotions can become pathogenic. I think that this kind of situation is what Kadushin speaks of when he refers to the experience of God as being in correspondence to the process of personality integration. The experience of God, according to Kadushin, begins uncon- sciously; therefore, the enormous power of this experience can induce conse- quences that affect one's entire psychic well-being. The concept of the Shekinah, Professor Kadushin emphasizes, is carefully structured as a value complex, rather than a philosophical notion; and thereby it embraces the tremendous power of the unconscious. Thus, the Shekinah in its nuance as the unconscious is at once the primary and ultimate source of spiritual well-being.

Although Jung, more than Freud, was willing to recognize the nonscientific aspects of man, Freud finally made reference to what we comprehend as the ineffable. Of course, Freud never suggested the term r yet in some of his writings he hints at the radically different quality of the unconscious. Note, for example: "Analytic investigation reveals some of these latent processes as having characteristics and peculiarities which seem alien to us or even incredi- ble . . . . ,,24 Freud devoted his entire life to a scientific or quantitative understanding of the psyche. His theory of energy or libido, employing the notions of


physics such as ~quantum," reflect this commitment to a quantitative analysis. With this in mind, we can truly appreciate the honesty involved in his recognition of these indefinable qualities. He admits that '~the psychoanalytic assumption of unconscious mental activity appears to be a further development of that primitive animism which caused our own consciousness to be reflected all around us. ''25 Again, Freud ostensibly rejects what he calls mysticism; nevertheless, his own ambivalence is clear. And since Freud has always invited us to read the latent messages, we are directed to ponder the true significance of the master's uncertainty. Much later in his writing Freud accepts the notions of racial memory or ~'archaic heritage" as being especially significant. The admission permits us a view of the unconscious Freud had all along struggled to deny. Further, he explains the unconscious as designating not only latent ideas in general, but especially ideas with a certain dynamic charactery 6 This ~'dynamic character" may be that unique component of the human spirit that reverberates with the quality of the mysterium tremendum. David Bakan has sufficiently established Freud's Judaic sources. In the case of the unconscious, I think the rabbinic prototype is the myth of the Shekinah.

Since the sacred, by virtue of its power, is both attractive and taboo, its divinity is best managed by divorcing it from the psychic structure and attributing to it an independence of being. This is the way in which myth is used when dealing with unconscious ideation. Consequently, we come to appreciate the notion that mythic symbols are not merely representative of reality, but identical with reality. 27

In terms of our discussion of the Shekinah, we can now understand the creation of an independent reality constructed as a distinct phenomenon embodying what had originally been the ineffable. This sacred dimension of personality undergoes a process differentiation and is finally established as a distinct entity. In order to comprehend what had originally been latent in consciousness, the mythopoeic mind transformed this latent power into what Rudolf Otto calls the r other." It is this radically different entity that the rabbis called the Shekinah. The creation of the Shekinah and the description of the Shekinah in its relation to man represented the occasional manifestations of the sacred, a phenomenon described by Eliade as '~hierophany."2s Eliade calls attention to the idea that concomitant with a manifestation of the sacred is a limitation of the sacred. This idea has found acceptance among medieval Jewish Kabbalists in the notion of T s i m t s u m - divine self-limitation. The rabbis were equally cognizant of the implications of theophany or hierophany. Conse- quently, the Shekinah myth allowed for a manifestation or revelation of the sacred in the form of the Shekinah, while at the same time the rabbis could maintain that only an aspect of God is being revealed and thereby limited. In Christianity the major illustration of this divine limitation was the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus. Jesus encountered man, was alternately repelled, abused, and revered by man. The Shekinah is the rabbinic formulation somewhat analogous to the Christ idea. God, through the Shekinah, related to man, was offended and even driven off by man. The Shekinah was designed to undergo the highly human experiences of nurturing, protection, and even


rejection. God, as a purely metaphysical notion, is incapable of what the Shekinah could perorm in a mythic reality.

The rabbis viewed the unconscious as the wellspring of spiritual life. According to Kadushin, the "organic complex" enabled the individual and the community to live in spiritual cooperation, unifying the group through a common mode of thought and action. 29 Certainly this "organic complex" or collective consciousness signified to the rabbis a viable aspect of human awareness and interaction. Perhaps anticipating modern depth psychology, rabbinic theology perceived the powerful and awesome depths of man's being, and in so doing was able to bridge the often cosmic gap between God and man.

References

1. Jung, C. G., Psychology and Religion. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1938, p. 18 ft. 2. Berachot, 55 a. 3. Ohmann, R., Ed., The Making of Myth. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1968, p. 8. 4. Ibid., p. 12 ft. 5. Kadushin, M., The Rabbinic Mind. New York, Blaisdell Publishing Co., 1965, p. 258. 6. Levi-Strauss, C., The Savage Mind. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1968, p. 16 ft. 7. Eliade, M., The Sacred and the Profane. New York, Harper Torchbooks, 1961, p. 95 ft. 8. Freud, S., Interpretation of Dreams. New York, Discus Books, 1970, p. 626 ft. 9. Cassirer, E., An Essay on Man. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1944, p. 79 ft.

10. Kadushin, M., Organic Thinking. Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1938, p. 181 ft. 11. See Ginzberg, L., Legends of the Jews. Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1938, Vol. 1,

p. 123 ff. 12. Genesis Rabbah, 9:7. 13. Ibid., 2:2. 14. Exodus Rabbah, 3:1. 15. Numbers Rabbah, 2:12. 16. Sotah, 17 a. 17. Yoma, 85 a. 18. Avot, 3:5. 19. Seder Olam Rabbah, 15. 20. Kadushin, Organic Thinking, op. cit., p. 231 ff. 21. Eliade, The Quest. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1969, p. 75. 22. Kiddushin, 31 a. 23. Kadushin, Organic Thinking, op. cit., p. 232. 24. Freud, General Psychological Theory. New York, Collier Books, 1968, p. 120. 25. Ibid., p. 121. 26. Ibid., p. 52. 27. Sebeok, T. A., Myth: A Symposium. Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University Press, 1965, p.

14. 28. Eliade, Myths, Dreams and Mysteries. New York, Harper Torchbooks, 1967, p. 124. 29. Kadushin, Organic Thinking, op. cit., p. 211.

rabbinic theology and the unconscious

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