My friend Netanel Zellis-Paley, on Twitter, asked for everyone's spiciest Judaism take, and this occurred to me Friday night while reading Arthur Green's A Guide to the Zohar, so I tweeted it in response as my spiciest take. I will post an expanded version later on.
Kabbalah teaches that Malchut/Shechinah is the alienated bride who desperately longs to be reunited with her male lover, G!d, which happens on Shabbat when Malchut is the Shabbat bride. (This is already a very traditional take that was spicy in its day.) There are figures from the Tanach associated with each sefirah. The ones primarily talked about are the male figures. The figure associated with Malchut? David HaMelech.
Many readings of David and Yonatan see it as more than a friendship, but rather as a gay love relationship. II Samuel 1:26 has David saying Yonatan's love was more wonderful than that of women and I Samuel 20 seems to be about lovers forced to part, with 20:41 perhaps referring to a physical sign of arousal on David's part toward Yonatan. Therefore, I think one can read Malchut/Shechinah and G!d's love story as a gay love story, and the Shabbat Espoused as David - and this is how I will think of it going forward, as a gay man, when reciting Lecha Dodi and Ka Gavna, on Friday nights.
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