"Took Them Out to the Market"

The Truth Behind “Sacred Sexuality” in the Eyes of Talmudic Sages.
Pele, Jan 2024

According to the Talmud, it can be said quite clearly that in the world of our sages, sacred sexuality was an important part of the ancient Hebraic mystery schools.

When the Babylonian Talmud deals with the questions of when and how to reveal the secrets it speaks about three distinctive parts of the secretive knowledge: "Secrets of Creation" (Ma’ase Bereshit), "The Secrets of the Merkava \ Chariot", (Ma’ase Merkava) and another part called "The Secrets of Sexuality", (Sitrey Arayot).  Those secrets were given only to the few and worthy.

From the mystical Jewish literature as well as from the testimonies of the church fathers, secrets related to sacred sexuality were perceived by our ancestors as the ultimate mystical interpretation of the scroll of the Song of Songs. Just as the "Secrets of Creation" are related to the text of the creation of the world in Genesis and the "Secrets of the Merkava" to Ezekiel's visionary test of the chariot, the Secrets of Love are rooted in the text that Rabbi Akiva claimed to be the most sacred text in the whole Bible – The Song of Songs (For an expansion on these matters and a detailed list of sources see in my book "The Old Will Be Renewed and the New Will Be Sanctified", footnote 250, published by "The Academy for Jerusalem" 1997).

 Furthermore: in the eyes of the Talmudic sages, the central point of Jewish faith and worship was related to the sacredness of sexuality. For this reason, the Sages claimed that in the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple, there were golden statues of angels in the form of a male and a female which were engaged in an act of love. A symbol of divine sacred sexuality was standing, according to the Sages, at the center of the ancient Jewish temple, the place where according to those Sages all prayers of all people (even today) are passing through on their way from this world to the heavens (this is why one should face Jerusalem while in prayer).

The problem with sacred sexuality is that it can only be understood within the context to which it belongs, the context that has protected intimacy and subtle nuances that characterize sacred spaces. As soon as sacred sexuality is taken out of its context, it may be interpreted by the public in a distorted cheap way.

The reason for this is simple: most people have sexual experiences in their personal lives, but these experiences are very far from something that can be really called ‘sacred’. Most people have no experience of sacred sexuality. All they know is sex. Simple and banal sex. Therefore, all they are able to understand is sexuality within the boundaries of what is known and familiar to them. Not anything beyond.

People for whom sex is an instinctive outlet of tension and nothing more, are unable to understand what mystics who experience sexuality as an encounter with the divine are even talking about. To them, such ideas seem to be an unnecessary way to justify simple lust. Like a spiritual fig leaf in which dubious "spiritual" types try to cover up their shame so that they can continue to engage in carnal sex, like any other human being, while singing God’s name to show up holly.

In the world of most people, sexuality is a space subjected to power dynamics, hidden control struggles, and subtle and gross manipulation. Sex in the world of the general public is nothing more than the mutual use of the other person's body to vent desires and stress. There is no sacredness or exaltation in it. All there is is biological excitement, and sometimes, when we get lucky, some romantic connection. Sex, as it is known in the mainstream, is often loaded with different layers of exploitation and abuse, which many times are actually mutual.

"What's all this have to do with sacredness?" many would ask with contempt.

"Put them out to the market"

In the Talmud one of the sages, named Rish-Lakish, claims that when the enemy soldiers destroyed the Temple they entered the Holy of Holies and were very surprised to discover that in the most sacred space of the Jewish temple a sexual statue was presented. The Sages claimed that the Cherubs who were presented in the Holy of Hollies were "into each other like a man who’s penetrating his companion... As the love of a male and a female" (Yoma 54\a.)

In my book "The Old Shall Be Renewed and The New Shall be Sanctified" which was already mentioned above, I proved that in the language of the Talmud, the term that is used to describe the pasture of the Cherubs refers to what we call in today's language "intercourse". The Cherubs in the Holy of Holies were not only hugging and embracing each other but were engaged in full sexual connection.

From the point of view of the Jewish mystical tradition, the golden figure of Cherubs in Lovemaking represented the cosmic union between the masculine and feminine principles of the divine realms, but the soldiers who broke into the temple with dirty boots could not see anything superior in this golden figure. For them, it was a sexual pornographic symbol and nothing more. 

Rish Lakish claims that the foreign soldiers took the loving cherubs out to the market square and mocked the people of Israel, that after all, in the end, everything for them is just sex:

Here is the language of the Talmud:

Reish Lakish said: When the foreigners destroyed the Temple and entered the Sanctuary, they saw the cherubs penetrating one another. They took them out to the market and said: ‘These Jews, whose blessing is a blessing and whose curse is a curse, are they too occupied with such matters?’ They immediately debased them, as it is stated: ‘All who honored her debase her, as they have seen her pubic hair’ (Lamentations 1:8). (Talmud, Yoma 54b)

Professor Yehuda Liebes from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem writes about it in a similar spirit:

"The erotic, and even the sexual aspect, are indeed an important part of the myth, as (through them) God is presented in his full personality. It is not for nothing that in the Temple, in the Holy of Holies, the Cherubim were found in the form of a male and a female nestling in each other. But as soon as they were brought out into the market and laymen could point at them, Immediately their essence changed. The Eros became merely sex, the myth became a banal reality, and the blessing became a curse..." ( Liebes, "Judaism and Myth - the Plots of God", Hebrew. Translated by me O.P)

And on a personal level…

In the Holy of Holies of my heart, the Cherubim are making Love. In my inner world, sexuality is a multidimensional space that connects heaven and earth. In sexuality, as I see and experience it, there is an earthly dimension as well as a heavenly one, a prophetic dimension, which can be connected to if you know how. This is a truly divine dimension that lies behind the curtains of common sex.

It is possible to connect through sexuality to the sources of the soul. To the sources of creativity, renewal, and rejuvenation. Sexuality has a most physical dimension, but at the same time, it has an opposite dimension, a dimension of "shedding off the physical form" (as the coin of Hasidic mystical language) and union with the Divine Nothingness (Ayin in Kabbala, or Void) beyond all manifested reality.

Sexuality enables a deep ecstasy that celebrates the fusion between Matter and Spirit. In ecstatic states, the human spirit is allowed to unite with the sacred and experience cosmic love and expansion. Sexuality is a space where souls descend into the flesh. Only through sex are children born into this world. Our genitals are mystical portals that stand between the world of souls and the world of matter. When they open, the connection is possible.

Because of this, sexuality can also be a space for deep prayer (see article “Sex, Drugs and Prayers”). Sexuality can be a space that enables deep spiritual transformation if you only know how to approach it. I could write a whole book about these things (and maybe I really should) because the sexual space is a space so rich in possibilities and gifts, yet so neglected by the current civilization, that did not dare to delve deep enough into the meaning and power of sexual love.

For me, the term "Sacred Sexuality" is not a farce. This is not painting low lust with spiritual colors to justify "fornication", as some people believe. For some mainstream people “sex is sex is sex! We all know what sex is, and the use of sacred terminology is intended to dazzle the eyes of the innocent fools, while under the table there is a common desire for sexual satisfaction”. Banal, and as they know it to be, also violent, manipulative, and exploitative. These people are like a deaf person who does not know that they are deaf, and stumble into a dance party. This person can not understand why everyone is jumping and moving strangely.

But this is the very thing that Rish-Lakish's beautiful words point to: It is impossible to see sexuality as sacred in the consciousness of the market square, the consciousness that prevails today in newspaper articles, and social media.

There is a Hasidic tradition that says that Baal-Shem-Tov (the great master from the 18th century, Ukraine) always made sure that on the table where he used to sit with his disciples and give transmissions of Kabbalah, there would always be an open bottle of vodka. The purpose was so that whoever peeks in and sees them burning with the love of God can dismissively say to himself that this is nothing but a bunch of drunks, and walk away. Only those who have an inner sense will truly feel it and come gently in. Those who are not deaf will hear the music. Those whose souls are drawn to the sacred will notice what is really happening around that table: mystics, drunk with the love of God, flying on soul journeys into the inner chambers of the Divine and making love with the Shekinah! Does it really matter if there is a bottle of vodka on that sacred table?

Ohad Pele. January 2024. Berkeley, California.