“Presence”(Shekhinah), known also through other names like “Kingship”(Malkhut) or“the Matron,” has been identified with the community of Israel . The sons are all contained in one central male figure“Glory”(7iferet).“Presence” and“Glory” unite in a lower sacred marriage from which all the blessings and souls of the righteous are born. The two sacred marriages within the godhead, the higher hierons gamos between“Wisdom ” and“Understanding” and the lower between“Glory” and“Presence” are not quite alike. The first two hold each other in constant embrace of which is said:“In the hour when the male partner ejaculates and the semen flows forward, he does not need to seek out the female, because she abides with him, is never separated from him, and is always ready for him. For the semen does not come forward except when the female is ready and the desire of both is like one in one ecstatic embrace”(Zohar 111 290). Through the stability of their harmonious union these two Sefirot represent archetypes of family life.“Understanding” was often described as a mother bird sitting over her young or nursing them(Zohar 1 162a, f.).
The two other sacred marriages, the lower one between a son “Glory”(Ziferef) and a daughter“Presence”(Shekhinah), which often means between God and the people of Israel , is of a different nature. These two have often been separated and quarreled when Israel sinned. Then God retreated from his people. The Zohar expressed a philosophy of Jewish history through this lower marriage. The suffering of the Jewish people was a result of their unfaithfulness to their divine lover, an idea with roots in the prophet Hosea and others. In anger, God sent His people into exile and dismissed his beloved. Through the pious among them, however, they could strive for reunion with God . The proper attitude in prayer and religious deeds could restore and maintain the divine union. The entire order of the universe was understood to depend on the pious. This secret of Yihud, bringing Oneness, is the highest endeavor of the Kabbalists . Through it the individual soul can enter the realm of the divine and the divine light can stream into the world. On the other hand, sinners