The Purpose of writing this blogpost
Our God is One and indivisible. That means that YHVH is not divisible into anything. The background reason for writing this blogpost, is as part of my ongoing attempt to share with you my living experience of YHVH – to help teach you who and what YHVH is, to give you something of YHVH’s nature and personality, and to value the Oneness of YHVH, so that it becomes easier for you to know YHVH.
However, my main reason for writing this is in response to certain theologians (eg Dan McClellan) currently claiming that Asherah being written out of the Bible was a tragedy; and also, in response to the repeated and dogged assertion of certain Gnostic teachers (pretending to be Ebionites), that God is both male and female – in other words, that God is divisible. I beg your humble indulgence here, and hope that you will understand my purpose in writing this type of article – to encourage you to accept YHVH as YHVH is, and not pick and choose just the bits of God you can relate to or identify with, or which are like you.
The Inconsistencies that result in dividing God
Some people, without even thinking about the implications of what they are saying, declare that God gave God’s feminine qualities to women, and God’s masculine qualities to men. Think about it: How long before the creation of ‘women’ and ‘men’ did YHVH exist for? Moreover, how long before ‘female’ and ‘male’ were even a thing in the animal or plant kingdoms, did YHVH exist for? Such people are basically declaring that certain parts of YHVH’s personality were already classified as either ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’, before man and woman even existed! In accepting such statements without question, we are merely agreeing to limited definitions of God on human terms, and YHVH is not, never was, and never will be, a human being.
My Support for Women’s Equal Rights as a Talmidi
In case some of you didn’t know, I am a man (my poor attempt at humour there). I also consider myself pro-feminist and pro-women’s rights; I am opposed to controlling, patriarchal structures and toxic, exclusivist male dominance in society. However, I do not view God as either a male or a female, or divisible into male or female parts. Growing up, with an abusive father and an emotionally distant mother, I found it unhelpful in the absolute extreme when either side claimed that God was a man or a woman; it was an obstructive and destructive barrier for me. Then, when I came to Judaism and Talmidaism, I finally discovered the God I had always worshipped and held dear in my heart since childhood – the God who had always protected me and nurtured me, in spite of my parents. The nature of YHVH, the God of Love and Justice, Compassion and Righteousness, was the nature of the God I had always known, my Rock and my Shelter – my safe space – who had always been there to protect me and redeem me.
Insisting on focusing on the female or male parts of God is creating a god in our own image
If your entire theology is dependent on you trying to divide up and label your ‘God’ into male and female – then please ask yourself, is it really YHVH you are seeking to understand? Your only success will be in manufacturing your own puny human godling, no bigger and no greater than the pagan gods, and it is your own, personal little godling-idol you are defining and modelling out of clay. YHVH is so much greater, more majestic and infinitely more powerful than anything we men and women can create in our own minds; YHVH’s attributes are far, far more vast and extensive than merely what can be labelled ‘male’ or ‘female’.
As mortal humans, with our eyes focussed on earthly and mortal things, we have a tendency to anthropomorphise everything, in order that we might understand whatever it is we are trying to comprehend. However, Humans are a tiny, minuscule part of God’s created Universe, and if we wish to even begin to comprehend what YHVH has given of God’s Self for us to comprehend, we have to stop defining YHVH by classifying YHVH using human, earthly, mortal terminology.
The male-female pairings of the pagan Canaanites
The pagan Canaanites had Baals and Asherahs galore. Their pantheon was dominated by male-female pairings, and there came a time when even Yahwist Israelites fell for this mindset, and began claiming that even YHVH had an Asherah, just like YHVH’s worship-rival, Baal. Their logic was that, if human beings came in male-female pairs, then the gods must also come in male-female pairs – even YHVH. There just has to be a female counterpart to YHVH, doesn’t there? It’s only natural, isn’t it?
The futility of isolating a part of God because we want to be able to relate to and identify with God
Humans, being what humans are, seem to need something they can identify in God as being just like them, in order to somehow force God to be relatable. So some men identified the supposedly masculine parts of God, so that they could grasp the concept of God and identify with that, using it to justify their patriarchy; and some women tried to identify the supposedly ‘feminine parts’ of God, so that they could comprehend God better, to support them in their daily struggles. The thing is, there is no point in trying to ‘identify with God’, because none of us are God or God-like; we are trying to make YHVH into a human being so that we can relate to YHVH, when instead, we need to accept YHVH as YHVH is, and not use labels like ‘masculine’ or feminine’, or ‘female’ and ‘male’, when describing YHVH.
When YHVH created the concept of male and female, YHVH assigned some of God’s qualities to females, and some to males, right throughout the animal kingdom, including humans. Those previously unlabelled, heavenly qualities were not the automatic right of either gender to have. Nor did YHVH even give the complete range of God’s qualities to the sum of the two genders; not everything that YHVH is, was given over to women and men.
Humans can indeed glory in the divine qualities that God has blest us with
I need to say that women can indeed glory and truly rejoice in the Divine qualities that YHVH gave of God’s Self to women; and men can truly rejoice in the qualities that YHVH decided to give of God’s Self to men. However, what YHVH gave us in total, amounts only to a minuscule percentage of the total sum of YHVH’s Divine qualities – YHVH did not even halve YHVH’s qualities. I have come to realise that a man or a woman – femininity and masculinity – is not even a 1000th of what YHVH is. We can never hope to ever compare to the total magnitude and infinity of what YHVH is.
We humans, as the children of YHVH, no matter what gender we identify as, no matter what might be our nature, we can all of us, without exception, rejoice and glory in the blessed and wonderful qualities that YHVH has given each and every one of us, just so that we can be sentient beings with a portion of YHVH’s spirit within us; no matter our sex or gender, we each have a small portion of YHVH’s spirit coursing through our body and soul.
Both Baal and Asherah were forbidden, not just Asherah
In the days of Elijah, when Baalists gained ascendency, many men worshipped Baal, the divine masculine, and many women worshipped Asherah, the divine feminine. Some historians even say that this duality crept into scriptures, and the prophets had to say enough was enough, that YHVH is definitively neither male nor female. If the existence of the divine Asherah was eventually expunged from Hebrew scripture, so too was the divine Baal.
Torah says (Dt 16:21-22) that we should not erect a Baal-Stone or an Asherah-pole besides the altar of YHVH. In pagan Canaanite temples, these two objects were common items in their ‘holy of holies’, symbolising the dual natures and sexual pairings of their gods. Then Israelites began copying them. Enough was enough. Assigning male and female terms to describe YHVH is no different to erecting Baal-stones and Asherah poles beside YHVH’s altar.
Present Gnostic Teachers barging their way into our online communities
Modern Gnostic cults, like so many pagan religions before them – just like the pagan Canaanites before them – fail in understanding the God of Israel and all nations, because they can only understand God in terms of human-identity words, human-defined terms and labels; like everyone else, even though they pretend to be Ebionites by falsely claiming that label, they are still trying to comprehend God, define God, label and split God into two human halves – our God, who is One and indivisible. Their leaders muscle in on our communities and try to take us over (as he has tried to do in our various groups for the last 30 years), but their beliefs and teachings ultimately betray their true origins; they still worship Baal and Asherah, the divine male and the divine female.
No practical necessity in Talmidaism to divide God into female and male
In the Talmidi community, we have full, complete equality between men and women. In our community, I would always hope that a woman will never be oppressed for being a woman, and equally, that a man will not be oppressed for being a man. We therefore do not need to halve YHVH, or divide God up into smaller labelled parts, and limit ourselves to just a tiny segment of God, in order for any of us to find confidence in either our maleness or femaleness.
What dividing God might say about the one who does it
I would humbly like you to consider this: If someone were to say, “I’m only interested in those qualities of God that I share, and that are like me; I’m not really interested in any other part of God”, what does that say about the person seeking God? What does it indicate about their spiritual journey?
We are effectively only loving the bits we like and can relate to, the bits that are like us humans, and we reject or ignore everything else. But everything else matters, because it is part of who and what YHVH is! YHVH’s own Self, YHVH’s great, Divine Wholeness, and immense Completeness, is important for the greatness and wellbeing of the human soul!
Now, this might sound a bit silly at first, but think about it: If we worship only a tiny fraction of what God is, like concentrating only on God’s ‘male’ qualities, or only on God’s ‘female’ qualities, it’s like loving someone only for the shape of their little finger, just because it looks like our little finger, and that’s what we can relate to. We are basically saying that we’re not really interested in any other part of the person we’re supposed to be in love with. If we focus our entire spirituality only on a tiny part of YHVH’s nature, can we ever truly say that we love YHVH with all our heart, with all our might, and with all our soul? Can we? Can we even claim it is YHVH we worship?
Focusing on one part of God alone gives us a false image of God
I’m sure you have heard the story of several blind men who examine an elephant for the first time, and come to different conclusions about what an elephant is. The man who examined its trunk concluded an elephant was like a snake, and the man who examined its leg thought it was like a tree. If we insist on concentrating just on one small part of God, like what we think are God’s ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ qualities only, we will arrive at a very blinkered idea of who and what YHVH is.
Conclusion: Accepting YHVH for who and what YHVH is
YHVH is not a human being, nor a man or a woman; YHVH is not divisible, YHVH is One. If you can grasp – and indeed, honour – the fact that YHVH is neither male nor female, neither masculine nor feminine, you will have a gentler, smoother ride towards the Mind of YHVH; it will help you in your individual journeys towards understanding the purpose and designs of YHVH, and thereby know YHVH. We do not need to cherry-pick the qualities of YHVH we individually admire, in order, supposedly, to boost confidence in our manhood or womanhood, or to be able to identify with YHVH or relate to God. If we are asking YHVH to accept us as we are, is it really too much to ask that YHVH be accepted for who and what YHVH is?
Blessings and peace in the Holy Name of YHVH our Saviour
Shmuliq