In Jewish mysticism, this presence is often understood through the concept of the Shekhinah. But here's something fascinating: it's not just one Shekhinah, but two!
According to mystical tradition, God's daughter, the Shekhinah— the divine feminine presence—exists in two realms simultaneously. There's a Shekhinah above, and a Shekhinah below. As it says in Psalms (45:14), "All of the glory of the king's daughter is within Her." This heavenly Shekhinah dwells in heaven, guarding the secrets of the Written Torah.
But then, there's the earthly Shekhinah. She descends to earth from a distant land, a place of light, revealing the secrets of the Oral Torah. The Sefer ha-Bahir tells us she's God's messenger, illuminating the world through her actions. Her deeds bring light to the world.
So how do these two Shekhinot stay connected? The tradition says God built a window between them. Whenever the heavenly Shekhinah needs her Father, or He needs Her, they connect through this window. It’s as if God Himself enters the world in the form of His daughter.
This idea of two Shekhinot is beautifully explored in the Sefer ha-Bahir, which uses it as a parable for understanding the feminine elements within the sefirot, the ten emanations of God. These two Shekhinot are also known as the Two Mothers, referring to Binah and Malkhut. Binah, the third sefirah, symbolizes the Mother and the upper, heavenly feminine. And Malkhut, the tenth sefirah, represents the earthly feminine, the Shekhinah whose home is traditionally in the Temple in Jerusalem.
The key takeaway here is that the divine feminine is present both in the heavens and here on earth. The heavenly Shekhinah, associated with Binah, represents God's glory and is united with God in the innermost chamber. Meanwhile, the earthly Shekhinah, linked to Malkhut, influences the lives of human beings.
We can also interpret this myth as a representation of the two Torahs: the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The Sefer ha-Bahir explicitly connects the Shekhinah to a princess coming from "a faraway land, from the side of light," which certainly sounds like heaven. According to this kabbalistic understanding, the heavenly Shekhinah is linked to the Written Torah, while her earthly manifestation is linked to the Oral Torah. This is especially fascinating when we consider that while rabbinic tradition states that God revealed both the Written and Oral Torah at Mount Sinai, the Sefer ha-Bahir suggests the Written Torah remains in heaven, while the Oral Torah was revealed on earth.
This theme of a divine princess is echoed in later stories, too. Think about Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav's famous story, "The Lost Princess," from Sippurei Ma’asiyot. In this story, the king almost always represents God, and the princess represents the Shekhinah. In Rabbi Nachman's tale, the princess vanishes mysteriously, somehow lost to the Other Side. The quest to bring her back from exile is an arduous one and remains unfinished at the story's end.
The idea of the two Shekhinot invites us to consider how the divine manifests in our own lives. Is it something distant and abstract, residing only in the heavens? Or is it something present and active in our daily experiences, guiding us and illuminating our path? Perhaps, like the two Shekhinot, it's both. Perhaps the divine is simultaneously transcendent and immanent, a constant presence that connects us to something greater than ourselves.