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Chapter 10
Moshe’s Black Wife
The Torah Koan of Was She or Wasn’t She?
In the Book of Numbers Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite (Ethiopian) woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman. They said, Has God indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn't he spoken also with us? God heard it. Now the man Moses was very humble, above all the men who were on the surface of the earth. God spoke suddenly to Moses, and to Aaron, and to Miriam, Come out you three to the tent of meeting. They three came out. God came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth. He said, Hear now my words: if there be a prophet among you, I God will make myself known to him in a vision, I will speak with him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in my entire house: with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of God shall he see: why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?
The incident of the Kushite woman whom Moshe marries is riddled with questions. Why is Moshe taking a second wife? What happened to Tzipporah his first wife? Did he or did he not he divorce her? Why would the Torah sanction two women being married to the same man? What is the nature of this second wife? Kush in Hebrew refers to the country of Ethiopia and a kushite is a dark-skinned person form Ethiopia. Was Moshe’s second wife a black woman? If so, why does the Torah emphasize this?
The Talmud (quoted by Rashi on the verse) asks rhetorically, “Was Kushite her name? Tzipporah was her name! [i.e., Tzipporah was from Midian not Ethiopia.] Rather, just as an Ethiopian (Kushite) stands out [in a crowd of light skinned people] so did Tzipporah stand out because of her [righteous] acts”. According to this universally accepted understanding, the pshat (literal meaning) of the term Kushite is a metaphor and is not to be taken literally. In fact, such usage of the word kush occurs elsewhere in the Torah. King Saul is called “black” (kush)[1] and King Hezkiyahu is called “black” (kushi)[2]. Additionally, Targum Onkelas (authoritative 2nd century Aramaic translation of the Bible) translates kushite as “beautiful”, i.e., her beauty, both in form and in action, stood out.
Based on this view Moshe had only one wife and Tzipporah was her name. Moshe had, however, divorced himself from her. This is the implication of the redundant part of the verse “for he had married a Cushite woman”, i.e., he had originally married the beautiful Tzipporah but now he had separated himself from her. It was for this reason that Moshe’s brother Aaron and especially his sister Miriam were criticizing him.
The oral tradition fills in the missing narrative. When a prophet was in a state of prophesy the elevated state of consciousness and physical transcendence necessitated that he or she abstain from sexual intimacy with the respective spouse (sanctity of marriage was a prerequisite for prophesy). Torah dictates, however, that when the spiritual master was not receiving prophecy then he or she was responsible to the emotional and physical needs of his wife or her husband.
Now, Miraim had overheard her sister-in-law Tzipporah bemoaning the fate of women who are married to prophets [she had just witnessed the previous episode of the two men, Eldad and Medad prophesizing in the camp] because they endure a life of virtual celibacy while their husbands are constantly “serving the Lord”. Miriam took Moshe to task reminding him that aside from the mitzvah of “being fruitful and multiplying” the Torah is adamant about a man’s obligation to a woman’s conjugal needs for intimacy. Miriam and Aaron told Moshe that he cannot divorce himself from his wife forever, rather only when he was speaking with God. “They said, Has God indeed spoken only with Moshe? Hasn't he spoken also with us?” Meaning, both of us also receive prophecy from God and yet we do not leave our spouses celibate. What they did not yet comprehend was that there never was a moment when God wasn’t speaking with Moshe! This is what God revealed to Miriam and Aaron.
He said, Hear now my words: if there be a prophet among you, I God will make myself known to him in a vision, I will speak with him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in my entire house: with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of God shall he see: why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?
The Talmud tells us that God even agreed with Moshe that he should separate himself from intimate contact with Tzipporah the beautiful “black” woman.[3] So far so good. The pshat, the simple narrative of the text, makes sense and our questions have been answered. There is, however, something else going on here that the rabbis are not letting us in on just yet. First, we have a principle that is religiously adhered to by the kabbalists: Ain mikreh yotzai meday pshuto” – a verse can never be divorced from its literal meaning. The Torah is a code and was not revealed in the world to be read primarily as a work of literature where metaphors and euphemisms are accepted linguistic devices. Linguistic style can apply to the Oral Torah but not to the Written Torah.[4]
The rabbinical sages and kabbalists often transmit information simultaneously on many levels. They conceal deeper truths in the very matters they reveal. Although a rhetorical question is a question to which no answer is expected, that is not the case here. There is a hidden assumption (hava amina) in the “rhetorical” part of the question that remains true even after the apparent answer is given. A quick rule of thumb regarding rabbinical-kabbalistic methodology is that the question can also be read as a statement. In this case, the question “Was Kushite her name? Must also be read as a statement of fact that “Kushite was [indeed] her name!” In other words, the Kushite woman is not only a euphemism for Tzipporah but she was, in fact, another person!
The Midrash Chronicles of Moses[5] relates that Moshe did marry an Ethiopian queen from the land of Kush. “He pushed her away”, however, “and wedged a sword between her and himself”. This expression implies that although Moshe entered into a sacred matrimonial union with the Kushite woman he did not engage in a physical relationship with her. Why did Moshe marry a second woman and what is the significance that she was black?
An equally intriguing problem is that we now have what appears to be a case of conflicting rabbinical traditions (“chalukai midrashim”). One source is explicit that Kushite is simply an appellation for Tzipporah and the other source is explicit that Kushite is another woman. Rabbis arguing with each other? Different conflicting “opinions”? Both views cannot be true, can they? Which explanation is historically correct? Rather, the rabbis are notorious for camouflaging secrets of the Torah in worldly guise. What then could be the secret of Moshe’s black wife? This is the Kabbalah Koan of the Kushite woman: Was she another woman or wasn’t she?
“Two Girls For Every Boy”
(“Surf City” Jan and Dean 1963[6])
Two women in marital union with one spiritual leader. What could the divine purpose be behind this arrangement? Why would Moshe, a holy master, the Mashiach (messiah/redeemer) of his generation and the one who spoke “mouth to mouth” with God need two women? Conversely, why would two women, spiritual masters in their own right, need to be in union with one man? Remember, Moshe is a man on a mission. He is the 26th generation from Adam. Twenty-six is the value of the Tetragrammaton, the essential Name of God, the code for the inner design of creation. At the time of Moshe, due to the Sinaic revelation and the uniqueness of that generation (known as the “Generation of Knowledge”), all creation was set for the completion of the tikkun for Adam’s eating from the Tree of Knowledge. What then was Moshe doing in a polygamous relationship with a Semitic Midianite, the daughter of a high priest, and a Hamitic Ethiopian queen?
The prototype of Moshe with two wives has its primal origins with Adam and his two wives. It is well documented throughout the Talmud, Midrash and Zohar that Adam had two wives -- Eve (Chava) and Lilith (Chava HaRishona/the First Chava). There is sorrowful confusion and misinformation about Adam’s first wife (who only later became known as the infamous Lilith), but this is not the place to unravel that great mystery. Suffice it to say that the first Chava, the sacred part of Lilith, was the spiritual “backside” to the “frontside” of the second Chava (Eve).
Both aspects required spiritual rectification. The “First Chava” was truly a “higher” mode of feminine energy, but because her divine root was in the extremely powerful energy of the “backside” she was also more vulnerable to spiritual infection. Because she ate from the “fruit” of the Tree of Knowledge (which actually occurred in stages) the First Chava became contaminated. She had to be separated out from the entire process of cosmic tikkun – for the time being. It is this aspect of Primordial Woman that became distorted and became known as the demonic Lilith. In her essence, however, she is holy of holies - an essential component to the grand tikkun of creation. The First Chava must receive her rectification before the present reality can ascend into a higher dimension – the original Gan Eden and beyond. The rectification of Adam’s second wife, Eve, received its tikkun throughout the remainder of the story in Genesis, and as she incarnated in the matriarchs and various other female personalities throughout history.
Both Eves received a significant rectification when their spiritual essences transmigrated into the generation of the Patriarch Jacob. It is for this reason that he married two women (two sisters!). Rachel was the second Eve incarnate and Leah was the first Eve incarnate. Jacob was none other than the essence of Adam incarnate. The set and setting were picking up where they had left off in Gan Eden. In the language of the Kabbalah the second Eve in her more rectified mode is now known as Rachel and the first Eve in her truly transformed state is now known as Leah. In other words, the dark, backside of Lillith has been restored into the “light” of Leah. These teachings are well known throughout the esoteric Torah, especially in Lurianic Kabbalah. This phenomenon is alluded to by the first letter of the three words “the Kushite woman that he took [in marriage]” are heh – aleph – lamed. Read backwards from left to right, i.e., from the “backside”, spell out the name Leah.[7]
Although the major parts of the cosmic readjustment of feminine divinity were completed with Jacob, Rachel and Leah, the process still required fine-tuning. Enter Moshe, Ish HaElohim – the Man of God on a mission from God. Moshe has incarnated that aspect of Jacob/Adam and his two wives – Tzipporah and the Kushite are none other than incarnated aspects of Rachel and Leah. Who was the Kushite woman that Moshe married? Was she Tzipporah by a different name or truly a different person? Are the Torah traditions contradicting each other? Was she [another woman] or wasn’t she?
Tzipporah and the black Kushite are indeed two distinct persons, yet they constitute a single spiritual entity. Just as the two Eves were “back to back” these two female figures are “back to back” with each other. As in the geometric form of the Mobius strip, they share a common wall, two surfaces with only one side. Tzipporah and the Kushite are spiritual twins that emanate from the same soul root. Tzipporah is the “front” and the Ethiopian queen is the “back”. The Kushite is Tzipporah (i.e., her backside), yet the Kushite (a.k.a. the first Eve) is also a separate entity that is part of Tzipporah’s soul (a.k.a. the second Eve) in order for Moshe (a.k.a. Jacob and Adam) to complete their tikkun.
Indeed, “Kushite” simultaneously is both another woman and a euphemism for the beauty of Tzipporah. Within the “black” beauty of Tzipporah the Torah encoded a hidden mystery. The Torah spoke this double entendre, “Kushite”, to conceal the secret of Moshe’s black wife and his mission of cosmic tikkun going back to the original Adam and the first two Eves. Moshe’s second wife was another woman yet she also wasn’t. She really was black yet she also wasn’t. The mystery of Moshe’s second wife was that she wasn’t yet she also was. Only now you know the secret behind that which truly was. Was she or wasn’t she? The answer to this Biblical riddle lies in the Kabbalah Koan of Moshe’s black wife. [1] Psalms 7
[2] Jeremiah 38
[3] “Three things Moshe originated on his own and the Holy One agreed with him… he separated from his wife”. Tractate Shabbat 87a
[4] Even with the Oral Torah, however, the words of chazal (“our sages, their memory for a blessing”) are concise and deliberate. The depth of their metaphoric and allegorical intent is more often than not closely aligned to their “literal” meaning.
[5] Otzar HaMidrashim. This reference is mentioned by the ARI, see further. Chronicles of Moses is also known as Sefer HaYashar
[6] Original lyrics by Brain Wilson of the Beach Boys
[7] Lekutay Torah and Sefer Halikutim of the ARI, parshat B’halotecha. Also mentioned there is that kush has the numerical value of 326 (including the value of its own self (known as the kolel), which equals the well known “shach” sparks of constricting divinity, i.e. the aspect of the powerful, black gevurot of the “kushite woman” the backside of Tzippora.
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