The Orthodox Esoteric Understanding of Sex and Holiness: Marc Gafni

When sex becomes virtually the only arena in which we experience erotic fulfillment then the Shechina is in exile. The exile of the Shechina is the exile of the erotic into the sexual. The redemption of the Shechina is therefore the re-expansion of eros from the narrow confines of the sexual back into the broad expanse of living. The goal of life is to live erotically in all facets of being.

Sex models the erotic but it does not exhaust the erotic. Sex at best, in a context of authenticity, can fill our sexual needs; it can never fill our erotic needs. When sex tries to do what is beyond its power to accomplish, sexuality implodes on itself. We begin to find ful-fill-ment only in boundary-breaking sexuality. It is only there that we experience eros. This is the Shechina in exile. The redemption of the Shechina is manifested when what the Talmud calls the taste of sex, not sex itself — eros — is once again part of the fabric of all the dimensions of our lives.

marc gafni
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