Recap — and where we continue
Welcome back to the third lesson in our series on the maamar Basi LeGani 5711. We continue in ois alef.
In the previous lesson we asked the great question — what is “Shechina”? — and received a first answer from the Alter Rebbe: Shechina is the Divine Presence that “dwells and clothes itself” within reality, and it is “the first revelation of the Infinite Light.” The surprise was that the very word that sounds low actually points to something supremely high — the first spark of the infinite light.
And we ended with a hint: the Rebbe does not stop at one definition. He is about to reveal that “Shechina” is not one fixed level — but something that appears at every level, looking different at each. Today we’ll understand that principle, and climb with it to one of the loftiest levels there is.
The principle — Shechina in every place according to its matter
Let us begin with the principle, for it is the key to all that follows. The Rebbe writes a short but decisive sentence: “Shechina is in every place according to its matter” — bechol makom lefi inyano.
What does this mean? Until now you may have imagined that “Shechina” is one fixed address — a particular spot on the spiritual map. But the Rebbe says: no. “Shechina” is not a place — it is a role. It is the “first revelation”: the point at which a light begins to step out of concealment into revelation, the part that turns downward in order to come and dwell. And such a role exists at every single level.
Picture the word “entrance.” Every building has an entrance. But the entrance of a king’s palace and the entrance of a small hut look completely different. “Entrance” is not one fixed object — it is a role: the place through which one enters. So too “Shechina”: at every spiritual level there is a “first revelation,” a point at which that world begins to shine and step outward — and that is the “Shechina” of that level. At one world it will look one way, and at a higher level — entirely different.
And with this key in hand, let us climb high. Up to the very highest place one can even speak about.
Two foundational concepts — tzimtzum and the kav
To climb up there, we need two foundational concepts in Kabbalah and Chassidus — and we’ll explain them in utter simplicity. Don’t be intimidated by the words.
We spoke of “Ohr Ein Sof” — the unlimited Divine light. But if that light is without any limit, how can a limited, small, finite world come into being at all? In order for there to be room for worlds, Chassidus teaches, there was a “tzimtzum” — a kind of concealment and withdrawal of the infinite light, which clears, as it were, a “space” in which a limited reality can exist.
A parable to feel this: a great teacher, his mind full of an ocean of knowledge, stands before a small child. He cannot pour the whole ocean onto the child — the child simply won’t absorb a thing. What does he do? He “contracts” himself: he sets aside, for a moment, all that he knows, and chooses one small, simple point the child can receive. This contraction is not a loss of his knowledge — the knowledge remains intact; it is only a concealment, to make transmission possible. So too, with infinite distance, the Divine tzimtzum does not mean the light “vanished,” G-d forbid, but that it was concealed, to clear room for a limited world that could receive.
And then, into that “empty space,” a single thin line of light is drawn. We’ll call it simply “the kav,” the line. The kav is like a thin ray bursting from the infinite light, and through it — in order and gradation — all the worlds are built, from the highest of them down to our world.
And now notice the chiddush of the Mitteler Rebbe, the son of the author of the Tanya. He says: this kav — already at its beginning, even before it spread into worlds, the very illumination of it relative to the Essence of the Infinite Light — is called “Shechina.”
Stop for a moment, because this is almost surprising. The kav is among the loftiest things one can speak of — the first ray of the Infinite entering inward. And yet it is called “Shechina.” Why? Here precisely enters the principle we learned: “in every place according to its matter.” At this lofty level too there is a “first revelation” — and therefore there too there is “Shechina.”
The Maharash’s reason — and the beautiful idea
But a question arises: why give the kav — that lofty ray — a name that sounds so “low,” a name whose whole meaning is “to dwell below”?
On this the Maharash answers, beautifully. He says: the entire intent of the kav’s being drawn down — the whole reason it is drawn forth in the first place — is in order that it clothe itself in worlds and in the souls of Israel. In other words: the kav, by its very definition, is the light “on its way down.” Its entire purpose is to descend and to dwell.
And therefore, says the Maharash, already at its beginning — even at its highest point, before it has moved downward in the slightest — it is already called “Shechina.” Because its identity is determined by its destiny. It is the future “dweller” from the moment it comes into being.
And here is a beautiful, deep idea. The highest light is named specifically for its lowest purpose — to come and dwell below. Its greatness is not in remaining above, lofty and detached. Its greatness is that its whole being faces downward, aimed at descending and shining within the world.
And if you notice — this is exactly the same idea we met in the first lesson: that true greatness is not in staying above, but davka in descending below, into the lower world. Even the kav, at the loftiest root, already carries this direction within it.
Summary & teaser — the next rung
So what did we add today?
We learned a key principle: “Shechina is in every place according to its matter” — Shechina is not one address, but the “first revelation” that exists at every level. And we applied it at a very high level: the kav — the first ray of the infinite light — is called “Shechina,” because its entire destiny, in the Maharash’s words, is to descend and clothe itself in worlds and in the souls of Israel.
But this is only one rung on the ladder. The Rebbe will go on to show us “Shechina” also at a lower level — in the world of Atzilus, where the “Shechina” is the level of malchus — and also at a level even higher than the kav, above even the tzimtzum.
In the next lesson we’ll descend a rung, and meet the “Shechina” of the world of Atzilus — together with a fine, brilliant point from the Tzemach Tzedek. Step by step, rung by rung, we are climbing toward the full meaning of “ikar Shechina.”
Thank you for learning with us. We’ll see you in the next lesson.