Thanking the Great Mother’s Body

When we say, “Barukh Atah Adonai, Elohainu, Melekh Ha’Olam”
(“We bless you, Lord, our God, King of the World”)—we
recognize that the males who wrote this formulation “doth
protest too much, methinks,” as Shakespeare put it.

Clearly this overwrought, even violent, construction—fashioning
an androcentric deity who is not only a “Lord,” but also a “God,”
and furthermore a “King,” over everything in the “World”—was
meant to crush any gynocentric deities that were common in
biblical women’s lives during the period of ancient Israel.

Here is a prayer that corrects this, and that doesn’t insecurely create a deity who needs such excessive admiration. You can substitute foodstuffs other than bread in this prayer (grains, fruits, vegetables, wine), but the ur-food is bread, so I’m starting here:
Bruchah Aht Shekhina, Aym ha-Aretz,
ha’motziah lechem mee’Goofaich.
Blessed are You, Shekhina, Mother of the Earth,
who brings us bread from your very Body.

AMEN.