Rabbinic theology and the unconscious

Abstract

Among the contributions of psychology to our understanding of religion, the concept of the unconscious has most significantly led us to recognize the profundity of man's nature. Perhaps that is why Carl Jung describes the unconscious in almost mystical terms in speaking of dreams as having the character of revelations and in writing of the human dread of the unconscious.1 Jung, in effect, echoes the ancient view of dreams as being divine revelations. The sphere of dreams also encompasses that almost mysterious realm which Freud has labeled the unconscious. Rabbinic literature deals with dreams in a remarkably contemporary way, recognizing both the manifest and the latent meanings of dreams, which include the differential between conscious and unconscious.2 A possible mode of compre hending the unconscious in rabbinic thought is through the myths created by the rabbis as they endeavored to fathom the paradox that was man. The rabbis attempted to comprehend the ambivalent nature of the psyche, which they characterized as being composed of both an "evil inclination" and a "good inclination" or impulse. Man was at once intensely personal and sensual as well as social and ascetic. In effect, man embraced equally the divine and the demonic. The perception of the unconscious as being awesome is strikingly close to the powerful rabbinic myths about the presence of God in man's life. The rabbis spoke of the Shekinah as God's power indwelling among men (literally, the term Shekinah comes from the word "to dwell"). Through an examination of the way the rabbis used the term Shekinah to denote God's presence in the world, we can come to understand the rabbinic view of the unconscious as one manifestation of God's being in the world. Before we can proceed with this investigation, however, we must clarify some salient points about the function and value of myth. Henry A. Murray, a psychoanalyst and student of mythology, offers a definition of myth which appears relevant to our study of the Shekinah. Murray's definitions are arranged according to the aspects of myth, under each of which one or more