The Shechinah (שכינה) is not a separate entity from God. It is the point where God's hidden infinity first becomes visible, the way sunlight becomes visible only after it leaves the body of the sun. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi calls it the "world of manifestation," the "matron," the "mother of children," and Knesset Yisrael (כנסת ישראל), the collective source of all Jewish souls.
From this source, every individual creature receives precisely the light and vitality suited to it. But the source itself, the Shechinah in its full intensity, no world can endure directly. Even the highest angels would be annihilated by unfiltered contact with it, dissolved back into nothingness the way the sun's own light disappears within the body of the sun.
So the Shechinah needs a "garment," something that can contain its light without being annihilated by it. And that garment is the Torah. God's will and wisdom, clothed in the laws and narratives of Torah, can hold the infinite light in a form that worlds can receive. The Torah is both transparent to God's light and substantial enough to channel it downward.
In the First Temple, this garment was the Ten Commandments engraved on the Tablets in the Holy of Holies. The Shechinah dwelled there with a power and directness unmatched anywhere else, because the Ten Commandments are the all-encompassing principles of the entire Torah, drawn from Chochmah Ila'ah (חכמה עילאה), the supernal wisdom far above the ordinary chain of worlds.
After the Temple was destroyed, the Talmud teaches, God has only "the four cubits of halachah (Jewish religious law)" (Berachot 8a). Every person who sits alone studying Torah becomes a Holy of Holies. The Shechinah rests with them. The garment has changed. The light has not.
Now, just as in the human soul the principal manifestation of the general vitality is in the brain, while all the organs receive merely a light and potency which shines to them from the source of the manifestation of the said vitality in the brain, so indeed, figuratively speaking, is the essential manifestation of the general stream of vitality, animating the worlds and the creatures therein, clothed and contained in His will, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, blessed be He, which are called the “intelligence,” and these are those which are clothed in the Torah and its commandments. The manifestation of this general flow of life is the source of the vitality which the worlds receive, each one in particular. Only a glow is diffused and shines forth from this source in a similar manner as the light radiates from the sun, by way of example, or as the powers of the organs of the body derive from the brain, as discussed above.1 In the previous chapter. It is this source which is called the “world of manifestation,” or “matron,” or “nether matriarch,” or “Shechinah,”2 Literally “indwelling,” from the word ושכנתי in the quoted verse. from the Scriptural phrase, “That I may dwell among them.”3 Exodus 25:8. For this source is the beginning of the revelation of the light of En Sof, which extends to and illumines the worlds in a “revealed” manner. From this source there extends to each individual thing the particular light and vitality suitable for it, and it [the light] dwells and is clothed in them, thereby animating them. Therefore it is figuratively called “mother of the children” and “community of Israel,” for from this source have emanated the souls of Atzilut and have been created the souls of Beriah, and so forth, all of them being derived only from the extension of the vitality and light from this source which is called “Shechinah,” resembling the radiation of light from the sun. But as for the Shechinah itself, namely, the origin and core of the manifestation whereby the En Sof, blessed is He, illumines the worlds in a “revealed” form and which is the source of all streams of vitality in all the worlds [their entire vitality being no more than the light which is diffused from it like the light radiated from the sun], the worlds cannot endure or receive the light of this Shechinah, that it might actually dwell and clothe itself in them—without a “garment” to screen and conceal its light from them, so that they may not become entirely nullified and lose their identity within their source, like the nullification of the light of the sun in its source, namely, in the sun itself, where this light cannot be seen, but only the integral mass of the sun itself. But what is this “garment” which is able to conceal and clothe [the Shechinah] yet will not [itself] be completely nullified within its light? This is His will, blessed be He, and His wisdom, and so forth, which are clothed in the Torah and its commandments that are revealed to us and to our children, for “the Torah issues from wisdom,”4 Zohar II:85a and 121a. which is chochmah ilaah (supernal wisdom) that is immeasurably higher than the world of manifestation, for “He is wise, but not with a knowable wisdom,” and so forth. And as has previously been explained, the light of the En Sof, blessed is He, is clothed in and united with the supernal wisdom, and He, blessed be He, and His wisdom are One, only that it has descended by means of obscuring gradations, from grade to grade, with the descent of the worlds, until it has clothed itself in material things, namely, the 613 commandments of the Torah. As [this wisdom] came down by descents from world to world, the Shechinah, too, came down and clothed itself in it in each world. This is the shrine of the “Holy of Holies,” which is contained in each world. So also has it been stated in the Zohar and Etz Chaim that the Shechinah—which is malchut d’Atzilut [being the manifestation of the light and vitality of the En Sof, blessed is He, which illumines the worlds, wherefore it is called the “word of G–d” and the “breath of His mouth,” as it were, as in the case of human beings, by way of example, speech reveals to the hearers the speaker’s secret and hidden thought]—clothes itself in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of Beriah, namely, the chabad (chochmah, binah, daat) of Beriah. Through the latters’ clothing themselves in the malchut d’Beriah, there have been created the souls and the angels which exist in the world of Beriah. From there also descends the [wisdom of the] Talmud that we possess. It has already been previously explained5 Chapter 39. in the name of Tikkunim that in the world of Beriah there shine and flow forth the chochmah, binah, and daat (chabad) of the En Sof, blessed is He, in a powerfully contracted manner, in order that the souls and the angels, which are limited and finite beings, shall be able to receive the influence from these categories of chabad. Therefore from there also originates the Talmud, which is also a category of chabad, for the Talmud consists of the reasons and interpretations of the halachot in clearly defined terms. These reasons and interpretations are a category of chabad, while the halachot themselves derive from the middot of the En Sof, blessed is He, namely, kindness, justice, mercy, and so on, from which originate permission and prohibition, license and restriction, liability and blamelessness, as is explained in the Tikkunim. By virtue of the clothing of malchut d’Atzilut in malchut d’Beriah it clothes itself in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of Yetzirah, this being the chabad of Yetzirah. When the latter are clothed in the malchut d’Yetzirah, there are formed the ruchot6 Sing. ruach, the second of the three grades comprising the human soul (nefesh, ruach, neshamah). and the angels which belong in [the world of] Yetzirah. From there, too, comes the Mishnah that we possess, which comprises the legal decisions that are likewise derived from chabad of the En Sof, blessed is He. Only that the categories of chabad, that is, the reasons and interpretations of the halachot, are clothed and hidden within the laws themselves and are not in a revealed form, while the elements of the halachot [themselves], which are in a revealed form, are the very reflection of the attributes of the En Sof, blessed is He, in their revealed form. Thus, it has been explained above in the name of the Tikkunim, namely, that six sefirot nest in Yetzirah. They comprise, in general, two extensions—right and left—acting either with forbearance from the aspect of kindness, that is to say, to permit a thing to ascend to G–d, or acting forbiddingly, and so on.7 Things permitted (“unchained” or “released”) are said to be determined by the aspect of chesed, while the things forbidden (“chained”) are determined by the aspect of gevurah. Cf. ch. 7. And all this is according to the chochmah ilaah d’Atzilut (higher wisdom of Emanation); in which binah and daat are contained, and they are united with the En Sof, blessed is He, for in all of them are clothed chabad of Atzilut with which the light of the En Sof, blessed is He, is united in a perfect union. In a like manner the Shechinah descended and clothed itself in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of Asiyah. Each of those three worlds is subdivided into myriads of gradations, which are also called particular worlds, and malchut d’Atzilut which is clothed in the malchut NOTE: Thereby will be understood the text of the verse, “Your kingship (malchutecha) is a kingship over all worlds.”8 Psalms 145:13. of each particular world—descends and clothes itself in the shrine of the Holy of Holies, namely, the chabad, which is in the world below it in rank. It is from the Shechinah which is clothed in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of each and every general or particular world that light and vitality are extended and diffused to the whole world and the creatures contained therein, the souls, angels, and so forth, for all of them were created by the ten fiats in the act of Creation, these being the “word” of G–d which is termed “Shechinah.”
