17- Concerning the Shechina [Divinity]
The Shechina is the place where the Shochen [dweller] is revealed. It is written, “The whole earth is full of His glory,” “There is not a place vacant of Him,” yet there is concealment.
Where there is revelation of His Godliness, that place is called Shechina, meaning that here the Shochen is revealed. It follows that when speaking of the Shechina, meaning when speaking of the Shochen, meaning the Creator, when we call Him Shechina, it is the place of revelation.
That which is revealed in Malchut is what is bestowed upon the lower ones. This means that the measure of His Godliness that is revealed, that revealed measure is only from the perspective of the lower ones, for with respect to the upper ones, there is no such matter as revealing or concealing.
For example, it is impossible to say with respect to the person himself that he is revealed or concealed. Rather, revealing or concealing pertains only to others. Likewise, in spirituality, revealing and concealing pertain only to creation.
It therefore follows that when speaking of the Shechina, meaning when speaking of the measure to which the Creator reveals Himself to the lower ones, it follows that whether we call Him “Creator” or Shechina, it is all one. But the meaning is that the Creator is regarded as concealment, and the Shechina is considered revealing, meaning that the Shochen is revealed, meaning that here the Shochen is apparent and revealed.
When we say, “For the sake of the unification of the Creator with His Shechina,” it means that the concealed will become revealed. It follows that everything is spirituality. Hence, when we say that the person has been rewarded with the installing of the Shechina, it means that the person has been rewarded with the revelation of the Shochen, and any measure of revelation is called Shechina.
When we say that the holy Shechina is called “the common soul of Israel,” it means that the revelation is only toward others. It follows that the Shechina means the revelation that is revealed to the lower ones. It follows that she is the overall of the revelation to the lower ones, meaning that she dresses in the desire of the lower ones.
The desire is the created beings. For this reason, the soul is called “a part of God.” The meaning of “part” is explained in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar], and means that there is a will to receive and through the correction in the desire to bestow, the light of the Creator appears to the creature, and to the lower one, only a part of it is revealed—the measure that the Creator wanted the creatures to attain of Him.
It follows that the meaning of “soul” is that there is a revelation of His Godliness here to a certain extent, which the lower ones can receive. It follows that a soul is only a part of the holy Shechina, who is called “the common soul of Israel.”
This means that the full measure that the Creator wants to be attained, this is called “His desire to do good to His creations,” and a soul is called “part of the Shechina,” meaning a part that the lower one can attain according to the measure of the purity.
This is why our sages said, “Moses is tantamount to 600,000” (Song of Songs 1), meaning that Moses was rewarded with the revelation of Godliness that was ready to be revealed to the whole of Israel. This is the meaning of the words, “The Shechina speaks from Moses’ throat,” meaning that Moses was rewarded with the general revelation called Shechina.