This story got gigantic front-page billing in today's Journal News. It describes some Rabbi who has "discovered" that the Tetragammon backwards reads "hu/hee" which is Hebrew for Him/Her. This, says that Rabbi, is solid proof that God contains both male and female elements.
[It is also, says the Bear, solid proof that mysticism is ad hoc, arbitrary and dumb. When you get mystical anything can mean anything. There are no rules, no rhyme and very little reason. Significance can be attached to everything -or nothing - according to the fancy of the mystic.]
Anyway, the Rabbi's "discovery" is nothing new. For thousands of years, Rabbis have taught that God is neither male nor female, and mystics have emphasized that whatever God might be, He/It has male and female elements. The idea this Rabbi says he has uncovered, and upon which the media is fawning, is not anything new. Anyone aware of what mystics have said about the "Schina" or of what the Ramban and others have said about the essence of God will be unimpressed.
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