In the previous lesson we stopped in the final portion of chapter 52, at the first line of page 73b. So that the flow of the ideas will be clear, let us first review in broad strokes what we have learned until now, and then begin reading a few lines before the point where we left off.
The subject opened at the beginning of chapter 51, where the Alter Rebbe asked how to reconcile what appears to be a contradiction. On the one hand we say of the Holy One, blessed be He, «the whole earth is full of His glory» and «there is no place empty of Him». On the other hand we speak of a place in which the Shechinah rests. But if the Holy One, blessed be He, is found everywhere and there is no place empty of Him, what room is there to say that the Shechinah rests in one particular place?
The essence of the answer, which we discussed at length in the recent lessons, is that we are dealing here with stages and levels. When we say «there is no place empty of Him» we are speaking of one level; when we say that the Shechinah rests in a particular place, we mean another level. In very general terms there are three levels, as in the analogy of the human soul:
The soul is present and active in every part of the body. In every single limb and in every single cell of the body the neshamah shines and acts.
Nevertheless, there is one place in the body where the soul is revealed in its essence, and that is the brain in the head, and from there the life force branches out to all the particulars.
Afterwards the life force contracts and divides itself out to each limb according to its character and to each cell according to its nature.
There is no contradiction here at all, since we are speaking of different levels and different stages. And exactly so in G-dliness:
The very essence and being of the Creator, of which it is said «the whole earth is full of His glory» and «there is no place empty of Him».
The revelation of the Shechinah, the revelation of the life force in its general form, from which the life force will afterwards come to all the worlds, like the brain from which the detailed distribution to all the limbs proceeds. This level in G-dliness is called Shechinah.
The third stage, in which every single world and every single detail receives what is fitting for it.
In chapter 52 we are occupied mainly with explaining what the Shechinah is, how it operates, where it is revealed, and what results follow from its revelation.
Until now we have said that there is a level called Shechinah, and in the most general sense it is the overall life force of the entire order of hishtalshelus, the chain of descent of all the worlds. In greater detail, this general life force divides into the world of Beriah, the world of Yetzirah and the world of Asiyah. In each of these three worlds there are the created beings of that world, the formed beings of that world and the made things of that world, and in each and every world the identical process unfolds: first the revelation of the general life force of that world, and afterwards a descent out of which the particulars of that world emerge. The revelation of the general level in each world is called the Shechinah that is revealed in that world, and after it comes the descent to the particulars.
In the physical world, the principal revelation of the Shechinah is in the Holy of Holies in the Beis HaMikdash. That is the place where the main revelation of the Shechinah is found. And so it is in every world: the primary G-dly revelation of that world is called the Holy of Holies of that world, and it is in the category of the brain. Just as in a person the essence of the soul is revealed in the brain, so in each and every world the principal revelation is in the level called the brain of that world.
And here comes the point we mentioned in the previous lesson. Who can contain this wondrous G-dly revelation, which is infinite, and from which everything will afterwards come down to all the particulars? We compared it to the sun that illuminates the world: the force of its light is exceedingly powerful, and in order for the world to be able to benefit from it there must be a shield, a protection and a tzimtzum, a contraction, by means of which the world can receive.
What are the mochin, the brain, of each world? What is, as it were, the brain of the Holy One, blessed be He, His chochmah, binah and daas? It is the Torah. The Torah is the Creator's wisdom, and in it is revealed the principal G-dly life force of all of creation.
And just as there is the Torah as it is in its source, lofty and above the worlds, so too there is the manner in which the Torah itself descends and contracts into each and every world: there is Torah as it descends into the world of Beriah, Torah as it descends into the world of Yetzirah, and Torah as it descends into the world of Asiyah. The descent of the Torah into each world is the descent of the Shechinah into each world, and consequently, as a result of this, the created beings of each and every world come into being. The center of it all is the Torah.
The Torah itself, as we discussed at length in the previous lesson, is both the center in which the light shines and the shield over that light, by means of which the created beings are able to receive. How can the Torah be both the sheer intensity and the shield at once? On the one hand the Torah is infinite wisdom, and on the other hand the Holy One, blessed be He, clothed the Torah in physical garments. The Holy One, blessed be He, placed this power in the Torah: that it should contain, on the one hand, the greatest and most infinite intensity, and on the other hand, since it has clothed itself in physical garments, it gives the created beings of every world the ability, as it were, to bear that intensity and to hold their ground.
Let us turn to the words of the Alter Rebbe (page 73a, in the passage beginning «ובירידתה»):
«ובירידתה בהשתלשלות מעולם לעולם גם השכינה ירדה ונתלבשה בה», and in its descent through the chain of worlds, from world to world, the Shechinah too descended and clothed itself in it. When the Torah descends and is drawn down from a higher world to the world below it, the Shechinah descended and clothed itself in the Torah of that world, in each and every world.
«וזהו היכל קדש קדשים שבכל עולם ועולם», and this is the chamber of the Holy of Holies in each and every world. In every world there is its own chamber of the Holy of Holies, and it is the place where the level of Torah belonging to that world is revealed. For Torah is the wisdom of the Creator, and therefore the chochmah, binah and daas of each and every world are called the chamber of the Holy of Holies of that world.
«וכמ"ש בזהר וע"ח שהשכינה שהיא מלכות דאצילות», and as is written in the Zohar (we will skip the parenthesis for now): the Shechinah, which is the sefirah of malchus of the world of Atzilus, the highest of the worlds, «היא מתלבשת בהיכל קדש הקדשים דבריאה, שהוא חכמה בינה דעת דבריאה», clothes itself in the chamber of the Holy of Holies of Beriah, which is the chochmah, binah and daas of Beriah. That is to say, the sefirah of malchus, which is the final sefirah of the world of Atzilus, is called Shechinah, and when it descends below it first clothes itself in the three first sefiros of the world of Beriah, chochmah, binah and daas, which are called the Holy of Holies of Beriah.
But clothing itself in the chochmah, binah and daas of the world of Beriah is not yet enough for the created beings of Beriah to be created and brought into existence. For that, the Shechinah must descend and be drawn down all the way to the sefirah of malchus of the world of Beriah, and only then do the created beings of the world of Beriah come into being, as we discussed in the previous lesson by way of analogy.
To summarize: In this section we reviewed the three levels through which the apparent contradiction is resolved, between «there is no place empty of Him» and the resting of the Shechinah in one particular place, as in the analogy of the neshamah that shines throughout the whole body while its principal revelation is in the brain. We saw that in each and every world the same process unfolds: the revelation of the general life force, the Shechinah of that world, and after it the descent to the particulars. We clarified that the brain of each world, its Holy of Holies, is the Torah, which is both the infinite intensity and the shield that enables created beings to receive, because it clothed itself in physical garments. And we learned in the Alter Rebbe's own words that in the descent of the Torah from world to world the Shechinah descended and clothed itself in it, and that malchus of Atzilus first clothes itself in chochmah, binah and daas of Beriah, and that in order for the created beings of the world of Beriah to come into existence it must descend all the way to malchus of Beriah.
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words on the further descent of the Shechinah through the worlds.