Shekhinah is the radiant presence of the Divine. She is daughter, sister and mother, the Sabbath Queen, the eternal light. She is the Torah (five books of Moses). The prayer shawls symbolize her clothing. Her name comes from the Hebrew word “shakhan” which means “to dwell.” Her presence dwells within each of us and every where.

In “Jewish Meditation,” Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan states that “wherever the Shekhinah rests, there is an enhanced ability to experience the Divine. A description which logically links Shekhinah to the Messianic Era is described in “Miracles, Mysteries, and Prayer,” where Rabbi Philip S. Berg states that Shekhinah is “the quantum collective consciousness of the entire universe.” I believe that this consciousness must reach a critical mass of appropriate prayer (including thought, art and actions) on Earth to initiate the Messianic Era.

The word for deity, mentioned over 7000 times in the Hebrew bible, is composed of four letters : Yod, which stands for Father, Heh which stand for Mother, Vav, which stands for Son, and Heh, which stands for daughter. Shekhinah is associated with the Heh letter. While it is clear that the female is given equal importance in the written representation of Deity in Holy Scripture, conscious acceptance of the female was nearly eliminated with the patriarchal takeover thousands of years ago.

As stated in Proverbs: “Happy is the one who finds wisdom (Shekhinah) and the one who gets understanding… She is more precious than rubies… Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasure, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold to her; and happy are those who hold her fast.”

It is said that Shekhinah fled when her Jerusalem temple was destroyed, thus Divinity was split apart. Kabbalistic writings teach that the absence of her feminine spirit within the Divinity is the source of great distress and imbalance in the world. For many centuries, Hebrew peoples have prayed for her return.

The most important reason for connection with Shekhinah is the experience of true joy. This is an experience one has in the womb. In current society we are taught to look outside ourselves for satisfaction and contentment. Our society is experiencing this iniquity with widespread violence, toxicity, and disease. To turn this around we must understand that all of our thoughts, art forms and acts are prayers. Since prayer does work, and since every thought is a part of our prayers, our world reflects the sum total of these prayers. The Messianic Era occurs when the common consciousness reaches the threshold of connection with this experience of true joy by connecting with the essence of the Shekhinah Within.

The first step to having a “whole” people is a “whole” divine. Blessed Be – Alan Bachman – Desert Wind.