The Sabbath, Divine Reality, and the Streams of Desire

This passage from the Zohar is a majestic and interpretively playful reading of Psalms 19:2–3: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the sky proclaims God’s handiwork.” The Sabbath is here presented as an inner divine dimension that receives the flow of the supernal dew, the waters of emanation, through the “days,” also key aspects of the inner divine self, the sefirot. The streaming forth of these different dimensions is presented as a luminous current of divine energy, ultimately resulting in the irrigation of the shekhinah, culminating as a Sabbath within the divine. It is also a stream of eros and romance within the divine, of love, joy, and coupling.