Suckling at My Mother's Breasts: The Image of a Nursing God in Jewish Mysticism

Chapter 1: Breastfeeding and Religious Transmission in Rabbinic Literature

Chapter 1 Breastfeeding and Religious Transmission in Rabbinic Literature Sarah stood and uncovered herself, and her two breasts were pouring milk like two spouts of water. As it is written: “And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would suckle children?” (Genesis 21:7). —Pesikta Rabbati 43:4 Introduction This chapter explores rabbinic texts that use breastfeeding as a metaphor for spiritual transmission. While these works do not identify God as a nursing mother, they contain two themes that are central to the breastfeeding divine’s development in later medieval mystical literature. The first theme presents nursing as a metaphor for transmitting spiritual orientation and is found in stories of prominent Biblical figures such as Sarah, Moses, and Esther. Although these texts address different ideological concerns, they are linked by the concept that suckling a mother’s (or, as shall be seen, a father’s) milk transmits a life-long spiritual disposition. The preferred disposition in these texts is an orientation toward Judaism, holiness, and performing good deeds. The second theme presents suckling mother’s milk as a metaphor for learning and experiencing the Torah. This theme is related to the first, since Judaism understands Torah study as an important way to achieve positive and desirable spirituality. The second theme also incorporates descriptions 15 16 Suckling at My Mother’s Breasts of the Torah as a nursing mother. These feminine Torah associations anticipate the two themes’ convergence in kabbalistic literature, where Torah becomes one of Shekhinah’s many signifiers. In developing their suckling imagery, the rabbis present a metaphor comparing two complex actions: the physical act of breastfeeding and the psychological experience of spiritual transmission. Comparing these very different actions allows the rabbis to understand a mysterious interior experience by appealing to an observable, external one. Breastfeeding’s characteristics and associations, as understood by the rabbis, provide structure for the inchoate, personalized experience of spirituality, bringing the abstract into relationship with the concrete.1 The physical and emotional connections between a nursing mother and her child become tools for understanding how religiosity is passed from one person to another, and suckling’s intimate, nourishing connotations are read onto spiritual transmission to provide structure for an experience whose motives and sensations would otherwise remain obscure.2 Each narrative that presents the suckling metaphor engages breastfeeding ’s basic associations with nurture and tenderness, while offering text-specific details that further texture the reader’s understanding of spirituality.3 These details begin, but do not end, with choices about who is suckling from whom, and why. A mother who suckles her own children evokes different associations than a wet nurse who suckles for money (or other reasons). A nursing mother has different connotations than a nursing father. A nameless baby directs a reader’s attention differently than a young culture hero like Moses or Esther. In this way, both breastfeeding and spiritual transmission accommodate an almost unlimited number of variations on their central themes, fueling individual religious speculation as the reader interprets these variations for himself. Each permutation adds further nuance to the central idea of suckling as spiritual transmission, laying a firm foundation for the nursing mother image’s incorporation into later kabbalistic theology. The following textual excerpts represent a broad time period, ranging from the fifth century Genesis Rabbah through the twelfth century Exodus Rabbah. Several of the stories exist in variations that cover five hundred years or more. Although these selections are arranged thematically , their dates demonstrate an ongoing fascination with the metaphor of suckling as spiritual transmission and a living cultural interest in its related imagery. The texts included in this chapter do not represent Breastfeeding and Religious Transmission in Rabbinic Literature 17 all rabbinic works containing the suckling theme. Instead, they are restricted to works identified as “principal sources” for the Zohar’s authors, connecting them to later kabbalistic suckling imagery.4 All are fully integrated into the rabbinic canon of study and learning, demonstrating that the suckling metaphor is thoroughly embedded in Judaism ’s foundational literature. Suckling as Spiritual Transmission of Jewish Identity In the following texts, the rabbis explore the topic of conversion to Judaism by crafting a story that links converts to Judaism’s founding couple, Abraham and Sarah. This story, repeated in several variations, uses the nursing-as-spiritual-transmission metaphor in three ways. It explores the motivations underlying conversion, suggests a “historical” cause for conversion and promotes a...