Images of Gendered Ontology

Abstract This chapter explores the image of the androgyne. For kabbalists, this is one of the basic motifs in portraying the dynamics within the supernal world, and it has central relevance for the rapport between the human and the Divine. In order to better apprehend the formation of the complex Zoharic imagery, the origins of the concepts intertwined in Zoharic texts are elucidated. This exposition includes a consideration of the Platonic myth of the primordial human, as well as the development of gendered ontology from ancient Greek sources to Kabbalah, revealing the genealogy of the metaphysical infrastructure of the kabbalistic imagery. The inquiry illuminates the various ontological frameworks underlying the Zoharic imageries of the sexually differentiated Divinity.