The age-old preoccupation with and pursuit of feminine physical perfection (both on the part of men and women) is not a matter of mere frivolity or superficiality. It is a reflection of very deep spiritual longings for the greatest human attainment - the state of being God in a physical body. Having reached this state, the face and body, no less than the personality and the behavior of the enlightened person, attest to the fact that herein lies God.

The Hebrew language helps us to understand this very clearly. The Hebrew word for 'face' is panim. The very same letters, written with different vowels, make up the Hebrew word for 'internal' or 'inward', p'nim. Ones outward face, then, is understood to be a representation of one's internal beauty, as defined by being in balanced proportion, one feature to the other. The feminine singular form of the word for 'corpulent' in Hebrew is sh'menah. These very same letters, rearranged, make up the word for the word for 'Soul', which is neshama. The word for 'skinny' is razeh in the masculine singular and razah in the feminine singular. These same letters, when rearranged, become the words haraz which means 'the secret' or the word zohar which means 'the Light of Splendor'. Seeing the inner vision of the zohar is one of the most coveted spiritual attainments in mystical Judaism. The Zohar is also the name of one of the most central texts in Jewish mysticism (the body of Jewish mysticism is called the Kabbalah - the receiving). Therefore, when a woman who thinks in Hebrew considers the shape of her body says to herself: "I am corpulent", she is, on a deeper level, saying "I am the Soul". When she thinks to herself: "I am skinny" or "I want to be skinny", she is, on a deep level, thinking: "I am the secret. I am the Light of Splendor", or " It is my will to be the secret", "It is my will to be the Light of Splendor." This is the true basis of women's obsession with their weight. When, in times gone by, it was desirable for women to be corpulent, the underlying desire was to know oneself as the revelation of the Godly Soul and to have the Soul spread outward into physical space. Today, in our skinny-obsessed world, we are yearning to be the embodiment of the Light of Splendor. 

We are generally agreed that breasts are riveting erotica. Our attention is drawn to the breasts of a woman (this is not only true of men, but also of women); their size, shape, whether or not her nipples are erect, the degree of exposure and so on. The Hebrew word for 'breasts' is shadayaim. One of the names of God is Shadai. This same word shadai, punctuated slightly differently, but pronounced very similarly by Ashkenazi and Yemenite Jews and identically by Oriental Jews, means 'my breasts'. Our attention is magnetically drawn to a woman's breasts because our Soul is magnetically drawn to God, in Its aspect that is called Shadai, when we see a woman's breasts. 

Using the arithmetical values of the Hebrew language it is possible to understand much more. One must be fluent in the Hebrew language and adept in the use of the arithmetical values in order to do this. However, some examples can certainly be proffered to all in order to demonstrate this principle: The name of God Shadai was first revealed to Avraham (Genesis 17:1) when his name was still Avram. When Avraham received the letter heh from his wife Sarai's name, and her name became Sarah, his name was transformed to be numerically equal to the word for 'uterus', which is rechem in Hebrew. This same letter heh appears twice in the Holy Ineffable name of God - the Tetragrammaton. We now see that the breasts and the uterus are connected to God's holiest Name (which the writer is not permitted to write here). It is no wonder that we are stricken at the sight of a beautiful woman - she awakens within the Soul the longing for the beauty of God Itself!

The Hebrew word for handsome is yafeh, while for beautiful the word is yafah. The arithmetical value of the words yafeh or yafah are identical and they equal the word ha'nolad - 'that which is born'. This same value, in turn, equals the word for ha'yodea meaning 'the one who knows'. From this numerical equality we learn that beauty, as seen on the physical level by the eye of flesh, is identical with the concepts of 'birth' ( the reader is requested to recall that we just spoke about the fact that the Hebrew words for 'uterus' and the 'breasts' evoke recollection of God's holy Names in the Soul) and 'knowledge' on the spiritual level - and thus even as the eye is perceiving physical beauty, as determined by shape and proportion, the Godly Soul is perceiving birth and knowledge, which are Its concepts of beauty. 

We see, then, that when the consciousness of the Hebrew speaker encounters (or, more properly, creates) a phenomenon of consciousness, deeper levels of the subconscious are activated which remind the Soul of God and the purpose of creation, which is to enable the ultimate paradox to occur i.e., to become the indescribable, unimaginable, absolutely attribute-less God to dwell in a finite body. We now see clearly why the beauty of a woman is so compelling - her beauty if reminiscent of the ultimate beauty.

The desire of a woman to have the perfect face and body of her imagination and the desire of a man to have the woman who possesses the perfect face and figure of his imagination love him and wish to unite with him sexually, are fantasies, the actualization of which is utterly futile and impossible to realize. They are reflections that exist in the minds of individuals in constricted consciousness receiving a glimmer of the Truth, beginning to imagine the unimaginable - becoming an embodiment of That which is beyond all being. 

We can never satisfy our innermost desire either by lusting to be, or lusting for, a perfect looking person. We can, and indeed, are enjoined to, become God in a body so that others looking at us may say: "This is my God, and I will glorify It." (Exodus 15:2).