ABSTRACT
Two major usages of sexual imagery, metaphors and praxis, occur in the kabbalistic literature. For describing these usages, it is reasonable to divide various types of sexual discussions into two main parts, according to their referents on the theological or theosophical plan. However, the mediaeval kabbalists, who adopted the already existing sexual motifs, elaborated on details of rabbinic thoughts concerning sexual issues and sometimes integrated philosophical ideas, which contributed mainly to the formations occurring in the ecstatic kabbalah. The sexual symbolism that describes the relationship between the righteous and the Shekhinah assumes the female nature of the Shekhinah. The mainstream of kabbalah, the theosophical kabbalah, articulated earlier Jewish perceptions of human and divine existence, employing a multiplicity of sexual factors. The kabbalists transported the human sexual relationship—not only the sexual polarity—into the supernal world; the processes there had to conform to human sexual behaviour.
