The Alter Rebbe now answers the following question: Inasmuch as the Temple was located in this physical world, how was it possible for the Shechinah to be found there to a higher degree than in the upper Worlds? He answers:

כי עשרת הדברות הן כללות התורה כולה

For the Ten Commandments are the all-embracing principles of the whole Torah,

As explained in the Azharot of R. Saadya Gaon, the Ten Commandments incorporate all 613 mitzvot of the Torah. See also beginning of Tanya, ch. 20.

דנפקא מגו חכמה עילאה, דלעילא לעילא מעלמא דאתגליא

which derives from the level of Supernal Chochmah, i.e., Chochmah of Atzilut, that is far higher than the “world of manifestation.”

It is far higher than Malchut of Atzilut, which is called the “world of manifestation” because it reveals the light of Ein Sof to the Worlds.

As explained earlier, for this reason the Torah is able to act as a “garment” that does not become nullified in the light of the Shechinah which garbs itself in it — since its source is higher than the Shechinah. However, in order for Torah to act as a concealing “garment” it must descend lower than the level of the Shechinah, thereby enabling the light of the Shechinah to be received by created beings.

However, as Torah descended into the Ten Commandments engraved on the Tablets, it did not do so in a manner that would make it similar to other physical things. Rather, as will soon be explained, it remained on a level which is higher than the previously mentioned upper Worlds.

וכדי לחקקן בלוחות אבנים גשמיים, לא ירדה ממדרגה למדרגה כדרך השתלשלות העולמות עד עולם הזה הגשמי

In order to engrave them on material tablets of stone, it (Supernal Chochmah, which is Torah) did not descend degree by degree, parallel to the order of descent of the Worlds which descend by stages from a higher world to a lower world, until it reached this material world.

Generally, in order for a flow of Divine light to arrive at this physical world, it must first descend from World to World, coming down through the Worlds of Yetzirah and spiritual Asiyah, both of which are higher than its ultimate destination, this world. This, however, was not the case with the Tablets.

כי עולם הזה הגשמי מתנהג בהתלבשות הטבע הגשמי

For this material world functions through the garb of material nature,

והלוחות מעשה אלקים המה

while the Tablets are “the work of G‑d,”2 a Divine creation, in which G‑dliness — not nature — is revealed,

והמכתב מכתב אלקים הוא

“and the writing is the writing of G‑d,”3 writing in which G‑dliness is perceived,

שלמעלה מהטבע של עולם הזה הגשמי הנשפע מהארת השכינה שבהיכל קדשי קדשים דעשיה, שממנה נמשך אור וחיות לעולם העשיה, שגם עולם הזה בכללו

beyond the nature of this material world which is derived from the radiation of the Shechinah in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of Asiyah, from which light and vitality issue to the World of Asiyah, in which this physical world is also included.

The ray of the Shechinah which is in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of Asiyah, gives this physical world its vitality after first being garbed in Malchut of Asiyah, as explained earlier. This was not the case with the Tablets.

אלא בחינת חכמה עילאה דאצילות, שהיא כללות התורה שבי׳ הדברות, נתלבשה במלכות דאצילות ודבריאה לבדן

But the level of the Supernal Chochmah of Atzilut, consisting of the totality of the Torah as it is encapsulated in the Ten Commandments, clothed itself in Malchut of Atzilut and of Beriah alone, and did not clothe itself further in the lower Worlds,

והן לבדן המיוחדות באור אין סוף שבתוכן

and they alone (Chochmah of Atzilut as it is garbed in Malchut of Atzilut and Malchut of Beriah, without further vestment), united as they are with the [infinite] light of Ein Sof that is within them,

הן הנקראות בשם שכינה השורה בקדשי קדשים דבית ראשון, על ידי התלבשותה בי׳ הדברות, החקוקות בלוחות שבארון בנס

are referred to as the Shechinah which rested in the Holy of Holies of the First Temple, through its being vested in the Ten Commandments, which were engraved by miraculous means in the Tablets reposing in the Ark.

As the Sages tell us,4 the letters mem and samach, circular letters hewn through the entire thickness of the stone, stood in their place miraculously.

ומעשה אלקים חיים

Moreover, the Ten Commandments upon the Tablets were the work of the Living G‑d — Elokim Chayim,

הוא עלמא דאתכסיא המקנן בעולם הבריאה, כנודע ליודעי ח״ן

(5this being, in terms of the Sefirot, Binah of Atzilut, which is known as “the concealed world” which nests in the World of Beriah, as is known to those familiar with the Esoteric Discipline).

Those familiar with the Kabbalah know that Binah of Atzilut radiates into the World of Beriah, a world which still remains in the category of “a concealed world” — i.e., it is categorized as a World, but not a World whose independent being is revealed, in that the World of Beriah is aware of how it is wholly dependent on G‑d.

ובבית שני, שלא היה בו הארון והלוחות

As for the Second Temple, in which the Ark and the Tablets did not repose, these being among the five things found in the First Temple and lacking in the Second,

אמרו רז״ל שלא היתה שכינה שורה בו, פירוש: מדרגת שכינה שהיתה שורה בבית ראשון, שלא כדרך השתלשלות העולמות

our Rabbis, of blessed memory, said6 that the Shechinah did not abide there. This means not that, G‑d forbid, the Shechinah did not abide there at all, rather it speaks of the category of the Shechinah which used to abide in the First Temple — which was not in the manner of the ordinary descent of the Worlds.

It was this level of Shechinah that did not abide in the Second Temple, but only a far lesser level.

אלא בבית שני היתה שורה כדרך השתלשלות והתלבשות: מלכות דאצילות במלכות דבריאה, ודבריאה במלכות דיצירה, ודיצירה בהיכל קדשי קדשים דעשיה

But in the Second Temple it abided according to the order of gradual descent, of Malchut of Atzilut vested in Malchut of Beriah and the latter in Malchut of Yetzirah, and the latter in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of Asiyah, that shrine being ChaBaD of Asiyah.

וקדשי קדשים דעשיה היה מתלבש בקדשי קדשים שבבית המקדש שלמטה, ושרתה בו השכינה: מלכות דיצירה, המלובשת בקדשי קדשים דעשיה

And the Holy of Holies of Asiyah was clothed in the Holy of Holies of the Temple below. In it rested the Shechinah, i.e., Malchut of Yetzirah, which was clothed in the Holy of Holies of Asiyah.

ולכן לא היה רשאי שום אדם ליכנס שם, לבד כהן גדול ביום הכפורים. ומשחרב בית המקדש

Therefore, because the Shechinah resided in the Temple’s Holy of Holies, no man was permitted to enter there, except the High Priest on Yom Kippur. And since the destruction of the Temple,

of which the Sanctuary was a part, G‑d resides in the shrine of Holy of Holies of Torah and the mitzvot, for as mentioned earlier, the Shechinah must reside in the Holy of Holies:

אין לו להקב״ה בעולמו אלא ד׳ אמות של הלכה בלבד

“HaKadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, blessed be He) has but the four cubits of Halachah alone.”7

Torah is the shrine of the Holy of Holies that connects G‑d with the world, so that HaKadosh (the illumination of the Shechinah, which is Kadosh, i.e., separated and apart from the world) should become Baruch (from the Hebrew root meaning “to draw down”) — drawn down into the world.

ואפילו אחד שיושב ועוסק בתורה, שכינה עמו, כדאיתא בברכות, פרק קמא. פירוש שכינה עמו

And even if one Jew sits and engages in Torah study, the Shechinah is with him, as is stated in the first chapter of Berachot.8 The phrase, “the Shechinah is with him” means that although he is a being of this material world, the Shechinah is nevertheless with him.

The level of Shechinah that is with him is:

כדרך השתלשלות והתלבשות מלכות דאצילות במלכות דבריאה ויצירה ועשיה

in order of the gradual descent and investment of Malchut of Atzilut in Malchut of Beriah and Yetzirah and Asiyah.

It is thus inferior even to the indwelling of the Shechinah in the Second Temple, an indwelling that did not require the vestment in Malchut of Asiyah.

It differs from the drawing down of the Shechinah in the world in general, in which case the identical progressive descent occurs, in that the Shechinah which resides in the world passes through the additional “garment” of kelipat nogah, while Torah and the mitzvot do not.

The reason that it must go through Malchut of Asiyah is that the overwhelming majority of the mitzvot of the Torah involve physical action. The Shechinah therefore descends into the level of action — Asiyah, as shall now be explained.

כי תרי״ג מצות התורה רובן ככולן הן מצות מעשיות, וגם התלויות בדבור ומחשבה, כמו תלמוד תורה, ברכת המזון, קריאת שמע ותפלה

For the 613 commandments of the Torah are by and large precepts which involve action, including even those mitzvot which are fulfilled by word and thought, such as Torah study, the Grace after Meals, the recital of the Shema, and prayer,

This is so even though these mitzvot involve thought — seeking to grasp the concepts in one’s studies, and to experience the kavanot of the Shema and prayer — and as such they are not bound up with action,

(text that was not part of the reading during the class but it is part of the learning)

moreover, it has been ruled that the motion of the lips while one is speaking is considered an

“action” — in which case all these mitzvot involve a form of action.

The Rebbe explains that the Alter Rebbe will now anticipate the following question: It still

remains to be understood why specifically the four cubits of Halachah take the place of the Holy

of Holies; why should this be not so when a Jew studies a subject in Torah which is not

Halachah, for there too the Shechinah is with him? The Alter Rebbe therefore explains that

Halachah possesses the especial merit of expressing the Divine Will (as explained at length in

Iggeret HaKodesh, Epistle 29).