Is God A Hermaphrodite?

[DeSwiss]

Is God a hermaphrodite?

The Chicago Tribune
Staff Report
August 15, 2008


The journal of Reform rabbis published an article this week proclaiming that if the four-letter Hebrew name of God were spelled backward and pronounced it would sound like the Hebrew words for "he" and "she." Held by Jewish tradition to be unpronounceable, the Tetragrammaton is often replaced by "Adonai" or "Lord" when reading scripture. Christians pronounce it as Yahweh or Jehovah. Could Yahweh have a yin and a yang? Does God's gender matter?

Rabbi Mark Sameth, the New York rabbi who wrote the article, said yes indeed. Based on 13 years of study, he has concluded that God is a hermaphrodite. "If we read the text as a mystic might, paying extremely close attention, assuming that the text conceals more than it reveals, we may find hints regarding God's androgynous nature, so to speak, peeking out through the surface level of the Torah," he wrote in the CCAR Journal.

"If Moses' name spelled backward becomes the name HaShem (God's name,) might not God's name spelled backward similarly reflect something essential about humankind? Indeed it does." Sameth argues that when the four letters are arranged in their proper order, they spell out the sounds of the Hebrew words for "he" and "she" or "hu" and "he." Therefore, the ancient Israelites' notion of God was not masculine, but dual-gendered, or hermaphroditic.

Sameth doesn't advocate suddenly saying the name—backward or forward. But he does encourage Jews to open their minds and think more inclusively about God. What do you think? Is the rabbi on to something? Or is he just full of hooey?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-seekerbox-15-aug15,0,3329746.story">LINK

- Actually this makes a lot more sense to me than most of the rest of the stories in the bible, like being swallowed whole by a whale and living to tell about it, or flying up to heaven to see the wheel in the middle of the wheel, etc.

I mean, when god is all good and stuff -- blessing folks and being all kind and everything -- dropping manna from heaven and getting folks out of bondage, well then that's the female side taking over.

But when Yahweh's being an pure-D asshole, like when he's destroying cities or authorizing the indiscriminant slaughter of babies by being pounded to death on rocks, or killing kids for poking fun at the elders by being eaten by wild bears, well that's the testosterone talking....
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DeSwiss


http://www.atheisttoolbox.com/">The Atheist Toolbox

on edit: spelling

[madeline_con]

1. "Hebrew name of God were spelled backward..."

If you listen to rock music backward, you become a murderer. :eyes:

spelledit

[DeSwiss]

7. Hmmm....

...an interesting analogy.

- Maybe that's what killed rock & roll???

[panader0]

2. God is the totality of being

Sex is not involved.

[DeSwiss]

8. I never got that impression....

...from reading his book.

- In that lil' tome, sex seems to be everywhere....

[tama]

31. Ehm...

How do you propose exclude sex - or anything - from the totality of being?

[davidinalameda]

3. God is all

[DeSwiss]

9. God is....

...All That Is.

[tama]

32. What do you mean

by "Is"?

[PDJane]

4. At the risk of getting hammered.........

God is a man-made fiction.

[DeSwiss]

10. And a persistent fiction....

...at that!

[SharonAnn]

5. Not sure about that. I thought she was black.

[DeSwiss]

11. Yeah...

me too.

[bananas]

12. Athena - she's the bomb!

[bananas]

13. Black Athena - Martin Bernal - etc etc

[Beregond2]

6. It never ceases to amaze me how literalistic

atheists are; as bad as fundamentalists. This lack of an ability to think metaphorically strikes me as more of a disability than a philosophy.

[cosmik debris]

14. It never ceases to amaze me

How theists always use "metaphor" to excuse the parts of their religion that are just down right embarrassing.

[bananas]

16. How's life in Waco?

Have your insane neighbors risen from the dead yet?
If so, press one.
If not, press two.
For more options, press three.

[DeSwiss]

17. Thank you.

- I just didn't have the patience today....

[bananas]

15. Like Annie Hall, God is polymorphously perverse.

[DeSwiss]

18. If that's the case....

...then "god-years" must be terribly, terribly long. Freud said that polymorphous perversity occurs from infancy through about age five, progressing through three distinct developmental stages: the oral stage, anal stage, and phallic stage.

- I'm assuming he's still stuck at the phallic stage.....

[DeSwiss]

21. n/t

[ZombieHorde]

23. So awesome, I love it!!!!!!!!

[SidDithers]

30. That's brilliant, thanks for posting...nt

Sid

[Az]

25. Atheists are more that capable of dealing with metaphor

Its just we keep bumping into theists that insist that the dang book is literal. And we just have to say ..."Oh really". And thats when we get all gaga over the literal interpretations of the bible. Because it is often quite fun to find the silly bits that don't do well when read literally as some would have us believe it is meant to be interpreted.

So understand... its not the atheists that believe the bible is meant to be read literally that should be marveled at. Its the theists that claim it is literal and try to defend it that are off kilter.

[TechBear_Seattle]

19. This is very clearly stated in the Bible: Genesis 1:27

ויברא אלהים את האדם בצלמו בצלם אלהים ברא אתו זכר ונקבה ברא אתם
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

The English translations switch number, but the Hebrew apparently does not (my Hebrew is very shakey): it states that God created Adam in the image of himself and created him as both male and female. The implication is that the image of God is both male and female.

(The Hebrew word ADM is a means "red ochre" and is used in a generic sense to mean "human being." The feminine form of the word, ADMH, is used to mean "earth." It is related to the Assyrian word adamu, "to create.")

[knitter4democracy]

26. That was my first thought, too.

I thought this was clear from the Bible. I know many Christians who believe that the Holy Spirit is the feminine in the Trinity as well.

[Occam Bandage]

20. Our word for "God" spelled backwards is "doG." Clearly this implies that God's true form is canine.

:crazy:

[tama]

33. NO!!!

The mathematical God defined in Category theory categorizes God as category of all categories called category CAT. God's true form is feline!!!

[Marrah_G]

22. I don't know about the Hebrew Gods but....

I think my Goddesses would be a bit dismayed to find their male counterparts were not really male !

[Evoman]

24. Other: god doesn't exist.

[freestyle]

27. If we are in the image of God, then God contains all of us

I don't see God as gendered at all, but as encompassing all human variation, and then some. God is too big to reduce to such terms as father or mother or father and mother. When I see male references for God, or say them in our Creeds, I don't see that as wrong, just woefully incomplete.

[JerseygirlCT]

29. Yes. nt

[JerseygirlCT]

28. On your comments...

I've had similar thoughts from time to time, I have to admit.

I don't think God has a gender - or as this proposes perhaps, God has all genders.

In any event, God is not male only, that I'm sure of!

[DeSwiss]

34. To the extent....

...that I can be said to "believe" in god -- then I believe that what people are referring to as god, is in fact the expression of ALL THINGS. EVERYTHING. ALL OF IT.

- Put simply: God = All That Is