Chapter 52: The Brain of the World: the Shechinah and the Torah

In a person’s soul, the chief disclosure of its overall vitality is in the brain, and the limbs receive only a light and a force that radiates to them from the source of that disclosed life in the brain. Exactly so, by way of analogy, the chief disclosure of the overall flow of vitality animating the worlds and their creatures is wrapped in and contained within His will, wisdom, understanding and knowledge, may He be blessed. These are termed mochin (“brain”), and they in particular are what is vested in the Torah and its mitzvos.

The disclosure of this overall flow is the wellspring from which the worlds draw their vitality, each in its own specific way. From this wellspring only a radiance goes out and shines, like sunlight spreading from the sun, to give an illustration, or like the bodily limbs’ powers that issue from the brain, as described earlier.

This source is what is called alma d’isgalya (“the revealed world”), matronisa (“the queen”), ima tata’ah (“the lower mother”) and Shechinah, from the words “and I will dwell (v’shachanti) among them” (Shemos 25:8). It is named for this: here the light of the Ein Sof first begins to be disclosed; it draws down and shines to the worlds in a revealed way; from this source there is drawn to each thing the particular light and life that suits it; and it dwells and is clothed within them to give them life.

That is why, by way of analogy, it is called “the mother of the children” and “the community of Israel”: from this source the souls of Atzilus were emanated and the souls of Beriah were created, and so on. All of them are nothing but the spreading out of the life and light from this source, the one termed Shechinah, the way rays spread out from the sun.

But the Shechinah itself, which is the beginning and core of the revelation, the light with which the Ein Sof, blessed be He, shines to the worlds in a revealed way, and which is the source of every flow of life in all the worlds [for all the life in them is only light spreading from it, like light spreading from the sun], the worlds cannot bear or receive the light of the Shechinah so that it should actually dwell and be clothed within them, without a garment that hides and conceals its light from them. Otherwise they would be nullified out of existence entirely in their source, just as sunlight vanishes into its source inside the sun’s globe, where this light cannot be seen at all, only the body of the sun itself.

What garment, then, can conceal and clothe it, and yet not be dissolved out of existence by its light? It is G‑d’s will, blessed be He, together with His wisdom and the rest, which are vested in the Torah and its mitzvos, the things “revealed to us and to our children” [Devarim 29:28]. For “the Torah issues from wisdom”, namely supernal wisdom (chochmah ila’ah), which is immeasurably above the revealed world, since “He is wise, though not with a wisdom that can be known,” and so on. As explained earlier, the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, is wrapped in supernal wisdom and fully one with it: He and His wisdom are a single unity. It simply descended through stages of concealment, level after level, along the descent of the worlds, until it came to be vested in physical things, namely the Torah’s 613 mitzvos.

As it came down through the chain of worlds from one world to the next, the Shechinah too came down and was clothed in it in each and every world. This is the chamber of the Holy of Holies in each and every world. As is written in the Zohar and Etz Chaim: the Shechinah, which is malchus of Atzilus [the disclosure of the Ein Sof’s light, blessed be He, and of the vitality radiating to the worlds; hence it is named “the word of G‑d” and, so to speak, “the breath of His mouth”, by way of analogy, as in a person speech reveals his hidden, concealed thought to the listeners], is clothed in the chamber of the Holy of Holies of Beriah, which is the chochmah, binah and daas of Beriah. And through their being clothed in malchus of Beriah, the souls and angels of Beriah were created.

And from there, too, comes the Talmud that we have. As cited earlier from the Tikkunim: in the world of Beriah, the wisdom, understanding and knowledge of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, shine and flow in a state of great contraction, so that the souls and angels, which are limited and finite, can receive from these levels of chochmah, binah and daas. That is why the Talmud comes from there, for it too is a matter of chochmah, binah and daas: the Talmud is the reasons of the laws in their fully clarified form, and the reasons are chochmah, binah and daas. The laws themselves come from the attributes (middos) of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, which are kindness, judgment, mercy etc. From them come the permitted and the forbidden, the kosher and the unfit, liability and exemption, as written in the Tikkunim.

Through malchus of Atzilus being clothed in malchus of Beriah, it is clothed in the chamber of the Holy of Holies of Yetzirah, which is the chochmah, binah and daas of Yetzirah. And through their being clothed in malchus of Yetzirah, the ruchos (spirits) and the angels of Yetzirah were formed.

The Mishnah we study likewise derives from there: it consists of the settled rulings, which also issue from the chochmah, binah and daas of the Ein Sof, blessed be He.

Only, the levels of chochmah, binah and daas, which are the reasons of the laws, are clothed and hidden within the body of the laws and are not revealed. The body of the laws, which is revealed, is the very radiance of the attributes of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, in revealed form. As cited earlier from the Tikkunim: “Six sefiros nest in Yetzirah,” which are, in general, two lines, right and left: to be lenient, from the side of kindness, that is, to permit, so that it can rise up to G‑d; or to be strict etc. And all of it follows the supernal wisdom of Atzilus, with binah and daas included in it, and they are united with the Ein Sof, blessed be He. For within all of them are clothed the chochmah, binah and daas of Atzilus, with which the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, is united in a perfect unity.

In the same way, the Shechinah came down and was clothed in the chamber of the Holy of Holies of Asiyah.

Each of these three worlds is divided into myriads of levels, which are also called particular worlds. And malchus of Atzilus, which is clothed in the malchus

Note: This explains the words of the verse, “Your kingship is the kingship of all worlds” (Tehillim 145:13).

of each particular world, comes down and is clothed in the chamber of the Holy of Holies, which is the chochmah, binah and daas of the world one level below it.

Thus from the Shechinah vested in the innermost chamber of every world, whether a general world or a particular one, light and vitality flow out and spread through that entire world and all its creatures, souls, angels and the rest. Every one of them came into being through the ten utterances of Creation, which are “the word of G‑d”, and that word is what is termed Shechinah.