Recap — and we descend a rung
Welcome back to the fourth lesson on the maamar Basi LeGani 5711. We are still in ois alef, continuing the great question — what is Shechina.
Until now we climbed high. We saw, by the Alter Rebbe, that Shechina is the first revelation of the Infinite Light, and by the Mitteler Rebbe that even the kav — the first ray of the Infinite — is called Shechina. And the principle that united it all: Shechina is in every place according to its matter.
Today we descend a rung. We’ll leave, for a moment, what is above the worlds, and arrive at the first world that can even be called a “world” — the world of Atzilus. And there we’ll meet the Shechina in a different garment, and with it a fine and brilliant point of the Tzemach Tzedek.
The world of Atzilus, and its malchus
To understand, we need to know, briefly, the world of Atzilus. After all we have discussed — Ohr Ein Sof, tzimtzum, kav — comes the first, and highest, of the worlds: the world of Atzilus.
The very word “Atzilus” tells its character. “Atzilus” is from “etzel” — near, adjacent. The world of Atzilus is a world still “adjacent” to its source, not separated from it. That is why it is called a world of open G-dliness: there the Divine still shines openly, without concealment. (Below it will come the worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah — in which the light progressively hides, down to our world.)
And of what is the world of Atzilus “made”? Of “sefiros.” A sefirah is a vessel, a Divine channel — an attribute through which G-dliness acts and reveals itself. There are ten: Chochmah and Binah, which are intellect; Chesed, Gevurah and Tiferes, which are emotion; and so on, down to the last of them.
And the last, the tenth, is called “malchus,” kingship. And malchus is special. While the other sefiros are like “content” — intellect, love, might — malchus is the power that brings all of it out, to another. That is why it is likened to “speech.”
And this is a precise parable. When an idea is in a person’s mind — it is still part of him, united with him, internal. The moment he speaks it, the speech goes out and reaches another, separate from him. So too malchus: it is the “speech” of the world of Atzilus — the power that goes out and creates and gives life to all the worlds below. As it says, “And G-d said, let there be light” — by speech the world was created.
And another trait of malchus, worth remembering: “lais lah migarmah klum” — it has nothing of its own. Malchus does not “invent” a new light of its own; it receives from the sefiros above it, and passes it further down. It is the channel — the first revelation of Atzilus toward what is below it.
And therefore the Rebbe writes: “relative to Atzilus, malchus is called Shechina.” Entirely logical, by our principle — Shechina is the part that comes to dwell and be revealed downward. And in the world of Atzilus, that part is malchus.
But before we continue, we must remember one more thing about Atzilus — and it is critical for today’s whole lesson: Atzilus is a world of complete unity. The sefiros there are not “things” separate from G-dliness; they are utterly united with it. In the language of Kabbalah: “ihu v’garmohi chad” — He, the Divine light, and His vessels, the sefiros, are literally one. There is no sense there of a separate “existence.” Even malchus, as long as it is “at home” in Atzilus, is wholly united with the rest. Hold on to this point.
The Tzemach Tzedek’s precision — when exactly “Shechina”
But here enters the Tzemach Tzedek — the third Rebbe — and makes a very fine precision. He asks: wait. When exactly is malchus called Shechina? Always? In every state?
And his answer, in the words of the maamar: “specifically as it becomes the level of atik for the world of Beriah.”
Let us explain. There is a fundamental rule in Kabbalah: “the lowest of the higher becomes the highest of the lower.” The lower end of a higher world descends and becomes the root, the “head,” the source — of the world beneath it. So malchus of Atzilus — the lower end of Atzilus — descends and becomes the “atik,” the source and soul, of the world that comes after it, the world of Beriah.
Picture an upper reservoir. From its bottom a pipe goes out, and the water descending in it becomes the source of a lower pool. The lower outlet of the upper reservoir is precisely the inlet, the “head,” of the pool below.
Or in the language of teaching: a teacher who comes to teach a child must take the lowest end of his own understanding — the simplest point he has — and make it the highest point the child can absorb. There, at the point of meeting, the “lowest” of the teacher becomes the “highest” of the child. That is malchus becoming “atik” to Beriah.
And the Tzemach Tzedek says: only in that state — when malchus descends and becomes a source for a lower world — only then is it apt to call it “Shechina.” But, he continues — and here are the precise words — “while it is in Atzilus, it is united with them” — as long as malchus is above, united with the rest of the sefiros — “the term Shechina does not apply.”
And do you remember why? Because of that unity we emphasized: in Atzilus all is one, “ihu v’garmohi chad.” “Shechina,” we said, is a term of dwelling within something else. But when all is one — there is no “else” to dwell within. Malchus there is simply “at home,” united with its family. And to “dwell” is possible only when one goes outside the home and comes to reside in a foreign place.
Picture an ambassador. As long as he is in his own country, among his own people — he is simply a citizen, one of the family; we don’t say he “dwells” there. Only when he is sent to reside in a foreign land, to represent his country, does he “dwell,” a representative residing in another place. So too malchus: only when it is “sent” below, to be the source and life of the world of Beriah — only then is it “Shechina.”
The reconciliation — it does not contradict the kav
But wait — perhaps you noticed a problem. In the previous lesson we said the kav is called Shechina. And now the Tzemach Tzedek says malchus is called Shechina only when it descends to Beriah. So which is it? Which is the “Shechina” — the kav above, or malchus below?
On this the Rebbe answers and reconciles it all in one sentence: “and nevertheless this is not a contradiction.”
Because, he explains, the “Shechina” our Sages speak of — when they say simply “Shechina,” in the ordinary, familiar sense — refers to malchus of Atzilus, and even that, only when it becomes a source for Beriah. That is “Shechina” in the plain sense, the one our Rebbeim spoke of.
But “in its root” — when one looks at Shechina much higher, relative to the Infinite Light — there the kav too is called Shechina. Both statements are true; each speaks of a different stratum.
And again our key principle returns: Shechina is in every place according to its matter. There is no contradiction, for “Shechina” is not one fixed level. At every stratum of reality there is a “first revelation” — the point that goes out and faces downward — and therefore at every stratum there is a “Shechina” of its own. Relative to the Infinite Light — that is the kav; relative to Atzilus — that is malchus. The same role, on different floors of the same building.
And by the way, right here, on the page, sits the Maharash’s reason we learned last lesson — why the kav is called Shechina: “because the kav’s whole intent of being drawn down is in order to clothe in worlds and the souls of Israel.” Notice? The very same logic recurs at every level: what is called “Shechina” is always the side whose entire matter is to go out and clothe itself below — whether the kav, or malchus.
Summary & teaser — toward above the tzimtzum
So what did we add today?
We descended to the world of Atzilus, and met there the Shechina in the form of malchus — the lowest sefirah, the “speech” that goes out and creates, the “kingship” that generates an “other.” And we learned the Tzemach Tzedek’s precision: malchus is called Shechina specifically when it descends to dwell in a lower world, not while it is still “at home,” united in Atzilus — because “Shechina” means dwelling within another, and when all is one there is no “other.”
And we saw there is no contradiction between malchus and the kav, for Shechina is in every place according to its matter — at every floor, its own “first revelation.” So far we hold two rungs: malchus of Atzilus, and above it the kav. But the Rebbe has not finished the climb. There remains the highest level one can speak of — Shechina as it is above even the tzimtzum, in the first root of the light.
There we’ll ascend in the next lesson, with the explanation of the Rashab. Thank you for learning with us. We’ll see you in the next lesson.