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Chapter 53
Now, when the First House stood, and in it the ark and the tablets were in the chamber of the Holy of Holies, the Shekhinah (the divine presence), which is malchut (kingship) of Atzilut (emanation), which is the aspect of the revelation of the light of Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, rested there and was clothed in the Ten Words, with a surpassing excellence and a surpassing might, in a revelation great and mighty, more than its revelation in the palaces of the Holy of Holies that are above, in the upper worlds. For the Ten Words are the whole of the entire Torah, which comes forth from within the supernal wisdom, high above, above the revealed world. And in order to engrave them in tablets of physical stone, it did not descend from level to level in the way of the downward chain of the worlds, down to this physical world. For this physical world is conducted in the clothing of physical nature. And the tablets, they are the work of Elohim, and the writing, it is the writing of Elohim, above the nature of this physical world, which is flowed into from the shining of the Shekhinah in the palace of the Holy of Holies of Asiyah (making), and from that palace light and life are drawn to the world of Asiyah, this world too being included in it. Rather, the aspect of the supernal wisdom of Atzilut, which is the whole of the Torah that is in the Ten Words, was clothed in malchut of Atzilut and of Beriah (creation) alone. And they alone, united with the light of Ein Sof that is within them, are what are called by the name Shekhinah, the Shekhinah that rested in the Holy of Holies of the First House, by its being clothed in the Ten Words engraved in the tablets in the ark, by a wonder and by the work of the living Elohim, [this is the concealed world, which nests in the world of Beriah, as is known to those who know chen (grace)].
And in the Second House, in which the ark and the tablets were not, our sages, of blessed memory, said that the Shekhinah did not rest in it. The meaning is the level of Shekhinah that rested in the First House, not in the way of the downward chain of the worlds. But in the Second House it rested in the way of the downward chain: the clothing of malchut of Atzilut in malchut of Beriah, and of Beriah in malchut of Yetzirah (formation), and of Yetzirah in the palace of the Holy of Holies of Asiyah. And the Holy of Holies of Asiyah was clothed in the Holy of Holies of the Temple below, and the Shekhinah rested in it, malchut of Yetzirah clothed in the Holy of Holies of Asiyah. And therefore no person was permitted to enter there, except the high priest on the Day of Atonement. And since the Temple was destroyed, the Holy One, blessed be He, has in His world only four cubits of law alone, and even one person who sits and occupies himself with the Torah, the Shekhinah is with him, as it is stated in Berakhot, the first chapter (Berakhot 6a). The meaning of “the Shekhinah is with him” is in the way of the downward chain and the clothing of malchut of Atzilut in malchut of Beriah, of Yetzirah, and of Asiyah. For the 613 mitzvot (commanded deeds) of the Torah, the greater part of them, which stands as all of them, are mitzvot of action. And even those that depend on speech and on thought, such as the study of Torah, the blessing after the meal, the reading of the Shema, and prayer, the rule we hold is (Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 47:4, and in the Biur Halakhah there) that thought is not the same as speech, and one does not discharge one’s duty by thought and intention alone, until one brings it out with one’s lips, and we hold that the bending of one’s lips is an act. And the 613 mitzvot of the Torah, together with the seven mitzvot of the rabbis, are in gematria keter (crown), which is the supernal will, blessed be He, clothed in His wisdom, blessed be He, and they are united with the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, in the utmost union. And “Hashem (God) by wisdom founded the earth.” This is the Oral Torah, which comes forth from the supernal wisdom, as it is written in the Zohar (Zohar, part 3, 258a), that the Father founded the daughter.
And this is what the child said (Zohar, part 3, 187a): the supernal light that burns above his head, which is the Shekhinah, needs oil. The meaning is, to be clothed in wisdom, which is called the oil of holy anointing, as it is written in the Zohar. And those good deeds are the 613 mitzvot drawn from His wisdom, blessed be He, so as to take hold of the light of the Shekhinah in the wick, which is the vital soul in the body, called a wick by way of analogy. For just as in a physical lamp the light shines by the wasting and the burning of the wick, which turns into fire, so the light of the Shekhinah rests upon the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) by the wasting of the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) and its turning from darkness to light and from bitter to sweet, in the tzaddikim (a tzaddik is a righteous person), or at least by the wasting of its garments, which are thought, speech, and deed, and their turning from the darkness of the kelipot (a kelipah is a husk that hides holiness) to the light of Hashem, Ein Sof, blessed be He, clothed and united in the thought, speech, and deed of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah, in the beinonim (a beinoni is the in-between person). For by the turning of the nefesh bahamit, which comes from kelipat nogah (the husk of brightness), from darkness to light, and so on, there comes to be the aspect of raising feminine waters, so as to draw the light of the Shekhinah, which is the aspect of the revelation of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, upon his nefesh elokit that is in the brains of his head. And with this, what is written will be well understood: “For Hashem your Elohim is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24), and as is explained in another place.
The first part is completed, with the help of Hashem, blessed and exalted be He:
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