We have reached the second half of chapter 53, having stopped last time on page 74b (page 148). Let us begin with a brief review of what we have learned so far, and from there continue, with G-d's help.
The general theme running through the last several chapters, beginning with chapter 51, is the explanation of the concept of hashra'as haShechinah, the resting of the Divine Presence. What exactly do we mean by the familiar expression that the Shechinah rests in the Holy of Holies? After all, the Holy One, blessed be He, is everywhere. How can one speak of one particular place at all?
The explanation was built on the analogy of the human soul. Although the soul itself is present throughout the entire body, there is nonetheless one particular place in which the general life force of all the limbs rests. Before that life force reaches each individual limb in its own particular way, according to its capacity, its ability and its character, there is a single center that contains the vitality of all the limbs together: the brain in the head.
And in the nimshal, the lesson: there is the Essence of the Creator, who is certainly everywhere, «leis asar panui mineih», there is no place devoid of Him. And there is the particular Divine life force that shines in detail into every single detail of creation and throughout the entire seder hishtalshelus, the chain of descending worlds. Between the two stands the level called Shechinah: the general life force of all created beings, parallel to the brain in the head that contains the general vitality of all the limbs.
Where does the Shechinah rest? Just as in the analogy it rests in the brain, so too in the nimshal: the general Divine life force, which contains within it all the particulars that will later emerge from it, rests in the level called mochin (the intellectual faculties), which is the aspect of Holy of Holies within each and every world.
In every world all ten sefiros are present: the mochin, the middos (emotive attributes), and the sefirah of malchus. The mochin of each world are the center of vitality that contains all the particulars of that world, while it is from the malchus of that world that the life force is actually drawn down to the creatures of that world.
Accordingly, when we say that the Shechinah rests in the Holy of Holies, we mean that it rests in the level of mochin of that world. The Shechinah itself is the sefirah of malchus of the world of Atzilus, and it is called by that name because it contains the vitality of all the worlds and of the entire seder hishtalshelus. In the world of Beriah, which comes immediately after Atzilus, the Shechinah rests in the Holy of Holies of that world, which is the mochin of Beriah, and from there it descends through all the sefiros until the malchus of Beriah, from which the creatures of that world are created. And so too in the world of Yetzirah, and so too in the world of Asiyah.
Let us note a very important point: the Divine mochin of each and every world are the Divine wisdom, which is the Torah, the expression of the Creator's infinite wisdom. It follows that the Shechinah is revealed in Torah, since the Torah is the mochin of every world and it contains within itself the vitality of all the worlds. And Torah exists in all the worlds, in Atzilus and higher, and in Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, and in each world the revelation of the Shechinah there is in fact the revelation of the Torah of that world. That is the content of chapter 52.
Chapter 53: The resting of the Shechinah in the Beis HaMikdash
After learning about the resting of the Shechinah in the spiritual worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, we arrived in chapter 53 at the physical world of Asiyah. Here too the Shechinah rests: in the Beis HaMikdash, in the Holy of Holies. In the previous lesson we learned that in the Holy of Holies of this physical world there shone a Divine light loftier than all the worlds: loftier than Beriah, than Yetzirah and than Asiyah. And we detailed the difference between the first Beis HaMikdash and the second.
In the first Beis HaMikdash: in the Holy of Holies there shone the light of the Shechinah, which is the sefirah of malchus of Atzilus. And why is this light loftier than all the worlds, if it is shining into this physical world? Because the revelation of the Shechinah is in Torah, in the mochin, and the essence of Torah, the source that contains within it the whole of Torah, even as it exists in the upper worlds, is the Ten Commandments. Since the Ten Commandments were in the Holy of Holies of the first Temple, the totality of Torah was there, and therefore the light shining there was the greatest of all.
The enclothement in the first Temple: this light came and was grasped within a physical enclothement, for the Ten Commandments were written and engraved on tablets of stone. And once it was enclothed in physical tablets, it certainly no longer had the same intensity it has in its supernal source; it was contracted and it descended. Even so, it was still loftier than the spiritual world of Asiyah and than Yetzirah: the light of the Shechinah came down into the mochin of Beriah, and from there to the malchus of Beriah, and immediately became enclothed in the stones of the Holy of Holies. That is why these stones were «ma'aseh Elokim», the work of G-d, and existed miraculously, a tangible expression of the fact that they do not exist according to the rules of nature. Everything else in nature descended and was contracted further and further until it entered the framework of natural law, whereas these stones did not descend and contract in that way, and this expressed the fact that they stand at a higher level: the malchus of Beriah.
In the second Beis HaMikdash: the Gemara says that the Shechinah did not rest in it. This does not mean that the Shechinah did not rest there at all, for even in the second Temple no person was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies except the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur. Rather, it did not rest there in the same manner and with the same intensity as in the first Temple. From the standpoint of the light there was no change, since the Ten Commandments, which are the totality of Torah, were there as well. But from the standpoint of the enclothement, the resting of the Shechinah descended lower: to the malchus of Yetzirah, which became enclothed in the mochin of the spiritual world of Asiyah and no lower. And this is still loftier than anything else in the world, for everything in the world descends further still, down to the malchus of spiritual Asiyah and down to physical Asiyah.
We stopped in the middle of the page, at the line beginning with the word «adam», at the conclusion of the passage dealing with the second Temple: «ולכן לא היה רשאי שום אדם להיכנס שם לבד כהן גדול ביום הכיפורים», «and therefore no person was permitted to enter there except the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur».
From here we move on to clarify what happens today, at a time when the Beis HaMikdash is destroyed. Certainly the Shechinah rests even now, and the question is where that level called Holy of Holies is to be found, and in what manner it exists.
On this the Gemara in Berachos says: «ומשחרב בית המקדש אין לו להקב"ה בעולמו אלא ד' אמות של הלכה בלבד», «since the day the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, the Holy One, blessed be He, has nothing in His world but the four amos of halachah alone». And the Gemara brings as a source the verse, «The L-rd loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Yaakov».
Here is the explanation: the «dwellings of Yaakov» are the places where Jews study Torah in general, while the «gates of Zion», as the Gemara there explains, are the places distinguished by halachah. Therefore «the L-rd loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Yaakov»: it is in the places distinguished by halachah that the Shechinah rests, and precisely there, «the Holy One, blessed be He, has nothing in His world but the four amos of halachah alone».
To summarize: In this section we reviewed the foundation of hashra'as haShechinah: the general life force of all created beings, which rests in the aspect of mochin, the Holy of Holies of every world, and is revealed in the Torah of that world. From there we moved to the physical world of Asiyah. In the first Beis HaMikdash, the light of the Shechinah shone in the Holy of Holies with an enclothement reaching down to malchus of Beriah, and for this reason the stones were «ma'aseh Elokim» and existed miraculously. In the second Temple, although from the standpoint of the light there was no change, the enclothement descended to malchus of Yetzirah, enclothed in the mochin of spiritual Asiyah. Finally we opened the question of what happens during the time of exile, and we brought the words of the Gemara that the Holy One, blessed be He, has nothing in His world but the four amos of halachah alone.
In the next section we will explain these words: what exactly are those four amos of halachah, and how does the Shechinah rest in them at a time when the Beis HaMikdash lies in ruins.