Actually, there's no innate reason for it to be more reasonable to consider one celestial object more masculine than the other. Long before the dominant deity became masculine, it was feminine - with a masculine, derivative, counterpart. In this context, we can understand such figurative associations of the moon with femininity, both because of its association with menstruation and because of its cyclical nature, implying rebirth and firtility, but we should be just as psychologically able to make the connection that the sun is the giver of fertility (crops), life, and rebirth. Both should not be a stretch for us. The reason for the many masculine and feminine synonyms, in Hebrew, is the extensive and inclusive use of words from comletely unrelated periods in history (bible, gmara, vegomer), where the objects' gender changed from one period to the other - or from one geographic location to another (across the extensive Jewish globe, specifically). Sorry this is in English, but I couldn't bring myself to writing all of this using a virtual keyboard. I will try harder - or write less - next time. o
|