That’s right. According to some mystical traditions, particularly within Kabbalah, the Temple was literally the place where God, the King, and His Shekhinah (שְׁכִינָה), His Divine Presence, were united. It was a cosmic honeymoon suite, if you will.
The tradition tells us that on the very day King Solomon finished building the Temple, God and His Bride were joined together, and Her face shone with pure, perfect joy. And that joy, that union, rippled outward, blessing everything above and below. As long as the Temple stood, it was their sacred space, the place of ultimate connection. Every midnight, the Shekhinah would enter the Holy of Holies, and they would celebrate their joyous union.
Think about that for a moment. This isn't just some abstract theological concept. The loving embrace of the King and His Queen, their zivvug ha-kodesh (זִוּוּג הַקֹּדֶשׁ), their sacred coupling, was seen as essential for the well-being of not only Israel, but the entire world! As Tree of Souls by Howard Schwartz points out, this is a primal image of the sacred marriage, what’s sometimes called a hieros gamos.
The texts describe this union in remarkably sensual terms. The King would come to the Queen, and lie in Her arms, fulfilling Her every wish. He would place his left arm under Her head, embrace Her with His right, and let Her revel in His strength. Their pleasure, we're told, was indescribable. He made His home with Her and took His delight between Her breasts. They lay in a tight embrace, Her image imprinted on His body like a seal upon a page, as it is written in the Song of Songs (8:6), "Set me as a seal upon Your heart." As long as the Temple stood, the King would descend from His heavenly abode every midnight to seek out His Bride and enjoy Her in their sacred bedchamber.
The Zohar, that foundational text of Kabbalah, doesn’t shy away from the physicality of this connection. Zohar 1:120b calls it "the one total coupling, the full coupling, as is proper." And Zohar 3:296a elaborates: "The Matronita (the Shekhinah) united herself with the king. From this, one body resulted." Ginzberg, in his Legends of the Jews, also touches on this, gathering together many threads of these traditions. It's pretty clear: there's a strong, undeniable sexual dimension to kabbalistic thought, especially in the Zohar.
But here's where the story takes a tragic turn. What happened when the Temple was destroyed?
According to this mystical understanding, the Shekhinah went into exile. Bride and Groom were torn apart. The destruction of the Temple meant not just the loss of a building, but a cosmic rupture, a severing of the divine connection that sustained the world.
This is a powerful and evocative myth, one that connects the physical and the spiritual in a profound way. It illustrates the direct correlation, as these texts see it, between the unity of God and His Bride and the very existence of the Temple in Jerusalem.
So, what does this all mean for us today? Perhaps it's a reminder that sacredness can be found in intimacy, that connection is vital, and that the longing for wholeness, for union, is a fundamental part of the human, and even the divine, experience. Maybe, just maybe, by understanding the depth of this ancient longing, we can work to repair the breaches in our own lives and in the world around us, striving to bring the King and Queen back together, in whatever way we can.