We are in chapter 52, where we stopped in the middle of the chapter on daf 73a, at the line beginning «ומהו הלבוש» (And what is the garment). The closing chapters of Tanya call for special attention and careful contemplation, since the concepts they deal with are abstract. Still, let us at least try to grasp the plain meaning of the words as the Alter Rebbe sets them down. We will therefore begin by reviewing the foundations we have already learned.
In chapter 51 the Alter Rebbe opened with a question: what exactly do we mean by the term Shechinah, when we say of a particular place that the Shechinah rests there? For example, that the Shechinah rests in the Holy of Holies, or in any place where ten Jews are gathered, and the like. The difficulty is obvious: «מלוא כל הארץ כבודו» (the whole earth is full of His glory), the Holy One is found everywhere, and «לית אתר פנוי מיניה» (there is no place devoid of Him). So what could it mean to say that the Shechinah is found specifically here? That is the contradiction the Alter Rebbe sets out to resolve in these chapters.
The essence of the answer is that we are speaking of two different levels in G-dliness. When we say «לית אתר פנוי מיניה» and «מלוא כל הארץ כבודו», we are referring to a higher level of G-dliness, the essence of the light, which is literally present everywhere. When we say that the Shechinah rests in the Holy of Holies, we are referring to a lower level.
[This lower level is indeed a diminished level relative to the higher one, and yet nothing can be accomplished without it: without this descent there would be no particularized revelation at all in the lower levels, as will be explained shortly.]
To understand what makes one level higher and another lower, we learned at length from the analogy of a person's body and soul. The very same question can be asked about the soul: where exactly is the soul that gives life to the body? On the one hand it is present throughout the entire body, and every living cell in the body is enlivened by the soul. On the other hand we say that there is a place called the brain, where the primary vitality rests and where the functioning of all the life forces is located. So which is it: does the brain contain the functioning of all the limbs and the whole system of limbs, or is the vitality present in every place and every cell?
The essence of the soul: there is a dimension of the soul that truly is present everywhere, except that it is lofty and abstract, and there is no way to give it expression and say that here it is present in this way and there in that way. From the standpoint of this dimension there is no difference between a higher limb and a lower one: in the toenail, in the heart and in the hand it is all the same. This is not a particularized revelation of the soul at all, but something entirely general.
The brain, the intermediate stage: in order for that lofty level to descend into particulars, to enliven a hand that can write, a mouth that can speak, a brain that can think and legs that can walk, there has to be an intermediate stage. That stage is a concentration of all the particulars that are destined to emerge, a concentration whose entire purpose is to reveal them. And that concentration is located in the brain.
The spreading forth into the limbs: from the brain the vitality begins to descend and divide out to each and every place, and every limb receives what is suited to it.
The same is true in the nimshal, in G-dliness. Certainly «לית אתר פנוי מיניה» and the Holy One is found everywhere. But His will was to reveal Himself in every place according to the character of that place, just as in this physical world there is a division into inanimate, vegetable, animal and speaker, and each one receives according to its capacity. So too in general terms there are the worlds of Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, and in each world ten sefiros, and within them created beings, angels and souls, and each one receives what suits it. And from where will all these particulars come, each according to its own character? For that an intermediate stage is required.
This stage is called the initial revelation of the Divine vitality. For the first level, of which it is said «מלוא כל הארץ כבודו», cannot be called revelation at all: it has no relationship to particulars whatsoever. But the level at which one can already speak of the beginning of revelation, even though it is not yet revelation to particulars but only a beginning from which the particulars will later emerge, that is the level called Shechinah, which in the analogy is the brain.
And from the standpoint of this intermediate stage one still cannot say that particulars are present here, just as one cannot say that sight, hearing, walking and speech are located inside the brain. What is in the brain is the capacity from which the particulars will later emerge, that is, the first stirring of their capacity to be revealed. The actual revelation will take place when the thing literally descends to the places to which it needs to descend. This is the concept of Shechinah: a revelation that is not yet an actual revelation to particulars, but which contains the beginning from which the revelation will come.
Now we must add an important detail. Even after we have spoken of the intermediate stage called Shechinah, from which the revelation of particulars will come, the particulars do not emerge from it directly. A further process is required.
Here is an analogy. The sun illuminates the world, and the light and warmth that we receive here certainly come from it. But first of all, the sun itself does not arrive here, only its light; the sun itself remains above. And secondly, even to say that the sun's light reaches us is not precise, for the light of the sun itself is too strong, too great and too hot, and the world cannot receive it. A tzimtzum, a contraction, is therefore required, which the verse calls «מגן», a shield, a sheath for the sun. And what emerges after that contraction is also called the light of the sun, but it is not the same light that existed before the contraction.
It emerges, then, that even within the intermediate stage called Shechinah, from which the revelation will come, there are stages. The level of Shechinah itself is like the sun; it has light, but its light is too strong and too great to be received, and therefore there must be a certain tzimtzum, and only what remains after the contraction can the worlds and created beings receive.
The same holds true in the soul of a person. The brain, which contains all the powers of the soul, does not transmit all those powers directly to the limbs, for it holds powers that are very high and very lofty. A person has powers so lofty that he has never reached them, never known them and never felt them, and they themselves are never revealed. Instead a certain regulation takes place, and only a small, contracted measure is revealed, one that he is able to contain and receive at present. Were all the potential a person has for understanding to be revealed in his intellect at once, he would be utterly overwhelmed. So too according to age, «רוב שנים יודיעו חכמה» (many years teach wisdom), and things are revealed gradually, through a process of development. And even someone who has reached a very advanced age and studied all his life reveals only a tiny percentage of the capacity within him, precisely because of that same regulation.
And so it is in the nimshal. The powerful Divine revelation called Shechinah, from which the revelation to all the worlds will afterward come, is not itself revealed in the worlds, only its light; and even its light is not revealed in them directly, but only after a tzimtzum.
Let us begin by reading the last two lines on page 144 (daf 72b): «וכולן אינן רק מהתפשטות החיות והאור מהמקור הזה הנקרא שכינה, כהתפשטות האור מהשמש» (and all of them are merely from the spreading forth of the vitality and light from this source called Shechinah, like the spreading forth of light from the sun). «וכולן», all of them, means all the created beings that come into existence and all the souls that are emanated; all of them are nothing but the spreading forth of the vitality and light from the source called Shechinah. And this is in the manner that light spreads forth from the sun: the sun itself does not arrive here, only the light that spreads forth from it.
«אבל השכינה עצמה שהיא ראשית הגילוי ועיקרו, מה שאין סוף ברוך הוא מאיר לעולמות בבחינת גילוי, והיא מקור כל המשכות החיות שבכל העולמות, שכל החיות שבהם אינו רק אור המתפשט ממנה כאור המתפשט מהשמש» (but the Shechinah itself, which is the beginning of the revelation and its essence, that which the Ein Sof blessed be He illuminates to the worlds in a manner of revelation, and it is the source of all the drawings down of vitality in all the worlds, for all their vitality is merely light spreading forth from it, like the light spreading forth from the sun). It is called «ראשית הגילוי», the beginning of the revelation, because the first level, the essence of the light, cannot be called revelation at all, just as the essence of the soul cannot be called that. The level at which revelation begins is the Shechinah, and it is like the brain in the analogy: it is not yet a revelation to particulars, but here the revelation begins, and it is the source of all the vitality in all the worlds.
And for this reason, «אי אפשר לעולמות לסבול ולקבל אור שכינתה שתתגלה ותתלבש בתוכם ממש, בלא לבוש המעלים ומסתיר אורה מהם» (it is impossible for the worlds to bear and receive the light of His Shechinah, that it should be revealed and literally clothed within them, without a garment that conceals and hides its light from them). Even the light that spreads forth from the level called Shechinah cannot be received as it is; a tzimtzum must take place. And just as, were there no shield over the light that issues from the sun, created beings could not receive it, so too if there were no garment that conceals and hides, the worlds would be unable to receive the light of the Shechinah.
In summary: in this section we reviewed the Alter Rebbe's question from chapter 51, how the resting of the Shechinah in a particular place can be reconciled with «מלוא כל הארץ כבודו» and «לית אתר פנוי מיניה», and it was explained that we are dealing with different levels in G-dliness. From the analogy of the soul and the body we learned three stages: the essence of the soul, which is present equally throughout the whole body and is not in the category of revelation at all; the brain, which is the concentration of the beginning of revelation; and the spreading forth of vitality to the limbs, each one according to its own character. Corresponding to these in G-dliness are: «לית אתר פנוי מיניה»; the level of Shechinah, which is the beginning of the revelation and its essence; and the revelation of particulars in the worlds. We also learned from the analogy of the sun that even the light of the Shechinah cannot be revealed in the worlds as it is, and must come by way of tzimtzum and a garment that conceals and hides.
In the next section we will take up the line at which we stopped, «ומהו הלבוש», and learn what that garment is which conceals and hides the light of the Shechinah from the worlds.