Recap & opening — today we open the words
Welcome back to the second lesson in our series on the maamar Basi LeGani 5711. We continue in ois alef — chapter one.
In the first lesson we painted the big picture. We saw that the whole maamar — and the whole series — hangs on one sentence of the Midrash: “ikar Shechina b’tachtonim haysa” — the essence of the Divine Presence was in the lower realms. The Almighty wanted the essence of His presence davka here, below, in this world.
Today we stop speaking in generalities and finally open the maamar itself — ois alef — word by word.
And notice how the Rebbe opens. Not with an answer — but with a question. And before we can understand the maamar’s great answer, we must understand the question. Because the whole depth is hidden precisely within it.
The Rebbe’s first move — the precision in one word
The Rebbe opens the maamar by quoting his father-in-law. He writes: “So writes my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, in his maamar for the day of his passing” — and brings the words we already met: “Basi LeGani Achosi Kallah… legani, leginuni, to the place where it was My essence at first, for the ikar of the Shechina was in the lower realms.”
And then, at once, the Rebbe stops and says, in effect, four words: “to understand the precise wording — ikar Shechina.” That is: let us be precise. Why did the Midrash trouble to write “ikar Shechina”?
Listen to the precision. The Midrash could simply have said, “the Shechina was in the lower realms” — that the Divine Presence was below. But it does not say only “Shechina.” It says “ikar Shechina” — the essence of the Shechina. That little word, “ikar,” is not decoration. It demands an explanation.
And here the Rebbe teaches us a whole approach to learning. Before you ask “where” the Shechina was — above or below — you must ask a far more basic question: what even IS “Shechina”? For if we do not know what Shechina is, the word “ikar” will tell us nothing. We won’t know what exactly was below, nor what it means that davka its essence was there.
So let us pause the maamar for a moment, and ask the simple — and enormous — question: what is “Shechina”?
The first definition — Shechina, from “to dwell”
To answer, the Rebbe brings the definition of the Alter Rebbe, the author of the Tanya. And the definition begins from the word itself. “Shechina” — from which root does it come? From the root “shochen” — to dwell, to reside.
And the Alter Rebbe is precise: it is called Shechina “because it dwells and clothes itself” — shochenes umislabeshes. Two words, and both carry weight. “Dwells” — resides, present permanently; it does not visit and pass, but settles in. And “clothes itself” — enters within, wraps itself inside the thing, like a soul that clothes itself within a body and acts from within it.
And for this the Alter Rebbe brings a source from the Torah: “from the expression v’shachanti b’socham.” This is the verse said about building the Mishkan: “And they shall make Me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell within them.” So “Shechina” is the Divine Presence as it comes and “dwells,” and clothes itself, within reality.
And there is a famous precision here — a small touch we’ll return to later in the maamar, but worth tasting now. It does not say “and I will dwell within IT,” within the Mishkan. It says “within THEM,” in the plural. And our Sages expounded: within each and every one. That is, this presence is not only within a building of stones; it seeks to dwell within each one of us.
Feel the sweetness of this for a moment. The Almighty does not merely “supervise” the world from outside, from above. He seeks to dwell within it — and within us. That is “Shechina.”
So that is the first definition, and it sounds simple and accessible: Shechina is the Divine Presence as it dwells and clothes itself within reality. But the Alter Rebbe adds a few more words — and within them hides an enormous chiddush that overturns all we thought.
The second half — and the surprise: the first revelation of the Infinite Light
The Alter Rebbe continues, and says that “Shechina” is — and I quote — “the first revelation of Ohr Ein Sof,” the first revelation of the Infinite Light.
Let us unpack this expression slowly, word by word, for every word in it is deep.
Begin with “Ohr Ein Sof” — the Infinite Light. In Chassidus we distinguish between the Almighty Himself — the Atzmus, the Essence, which cannot be grasped at all — and His “light”: the Divine revelation, the divine “energy,” through which He relates to creation and gives it life. And why “Ein Sof,” without end? Because this light is without limit, without measure, without boundary.
To feel the difference between “Essence” and “light,” picture the sun. There is the body of the sun itself — the source. And there is the light that spreads from it and fills the room. The light is not the sun itself, but it is its revelation; through it we “meet” the sun without touching it. So — with infinite distance, for in such parables we speak only by approximation — “Ohr Ein Sof” is the unlimited Divine revelation. Not the Essence itself, but the light that bursts forth from it.
And now the word “first.” “The FIRST revelation.” That is: the very first moment in which this light begins to step out of concealment toward revelation. The first spark of revelation, even before the light descends and spreads into the worlds.
And now put it all together — and feel the surprise. We were sure that “Shechina” is something low. After all, the whole word comes from “dwelling below,” from a presence that clothes itself within a Mishkan of wood and curtains, the lowest place. And the Alter Rebbe comes and says exactly the opposite: “Shechina” is the first revelation of the Infinite Light. Not a low thing — but rooted and supremely high. The first spark of the infinite light.
Notice what happened here. One word — “Shechina” — holds within it two poles at once. On one side: a presence that “dwells” below, clothing itself within physical things. And on the other: a supremely high root, the first revelation of the Infinite. And that is exactly what will turn the whole maamar into a fascinating journey.
What this does to our question — and a five-rung ladder
And now return with me to the sentence we began from: “ikar Shechina b’tachtonim haysa” — the essence of the Shechina was in the lower realms.
Suddenly it sounds completely different, doesn’t it? If “Shechina” were just some small, low presence — it would not be so astonishing that its place is below. But after learning that “Shechina” is the first revelation of the Infinite Light — something lofty and sublime — the statement that davka its “essence” was below, in the physical world, becomes far more daring. The highest thing — seeks to be specifically in the lowest place. Already here you can sense the depth of the chiddush the maamar is driving toward.
And here precisely the journey of ois alef begins. For the Rebbe is not satisfied with one definition. He goes on and says something surprising: “Shechina” is not a word with one fixed meaning. Its meaning changes according to the place. In the words of the maamar — “Shechina is in every place according to its matter.” At one level of reality, “Shechina” means one thing; at a higher level — something else, loftier.
And so, through the rest of ois alef, the Rebbe will climb a ladder with us — rung by rung, through the explanations of five of our Rebbeim: the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, the Maharash, and the Rashab. At each rung we’ll discover what “Shechina” is there, until we reach its highest meaning — and finally understand what “ikar Shechina” means.
We’ll climb that ladder together in the next lesson.
To summarize today: we opened ois alef with a question — what is “Shechina”? And we received a first answer from the Alter Rebbe, in two parts. First, Shechina is the Divine Presence that “dwells and clothes itself” within reality — and seeks to dwell within each of us. And second, it is “the first revelation of the Infinite Light” — not a low thing, but a supremely high root. And in the next lesson we’ll see that this is only the first step on the ladder.
Thank you for learning with us. We’ll see you in the next lesson.