Daily Tanya

As [this wisdom] came down by progressive descents from World to World, the Shechinah, too, came down and clothed itself in it in each World.

This is the shrine of the “Holy of Holies,” which is contained in each World.

So also has it been stated in the Zohar and Etz Chaim, that the Shechinah, which is malchut of Atzilut (6being the manifestation of the light and vitality of the blessed Ein Sof, which illumine the worlds, wherefore i.e., since it is a revelation it is called “G-d’s speech” and the “breath of His mouth,” as it were, for the purpose of speech is to reveal that which was concealed in thought,

as in the case of a person, by way of example, speech reveals to the hearers the speaker’s concealed and hidden thought),

clothes itself in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of Beriah, namely, the chochmah, binah, and daat of Beriah. Through the fact that [the latter sefirot] clothe themselves in the malchut of Beriah, the souls and angels which exist in the World of Beriah have been created.

And from there also—from malchut of Beriah, in which is enclothed the Shechinah, i.e., malchut of Atzilut, which previously had clothed itself in the chochmah, binah, and daat of the World of Beriah, after which the latter are clothed in malchut of the World of Beriah—derives the Talmud that we possess.8

And as has previously been explained in the name of the Tikkunim,

that in the World of Beriah, there shine and flow forth the chochmah, binah, and daat of the Ein Sof in a powerfully contracted manner in order that the souls and the angels, which are finite beings, shall be able to receive influence from these categories of ChaBaD.

Therefore, the Talmud (not the Mishnah but the Gemara) also originates from there—from the World of Beriah, for it (the Talmud) is also of the category of ChaBaD, for the Talmud is i.e., it consists of the clearly defined reasons of the halachot, and the reasons being rational are from the category of ChaBaD (“intelligence”).

And the laws themselves found in the Mishnah derive from the middot (the emotive attributes) of the Ein Sof, namely, kindness, severity, mercy, and so on,

from which originate permission and prohibition, permission deriving from kindness and prohibition from severity, ritual validity and invalidity, liability and blamelessness, ritual validity and blamelessness originating from the attribute of kindness, and ritual invalidity and liability originating from the attribute of severity,

as is explained in the Tikkunim.

By virtue of the clothing of malchut of Atzilut in malchut of Beriah,9 it then clothes itself in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of Yetzirah, this being the ChaBaD of Yetzirah—the chochmah, binah, and daat of Yetzirah. It is in this manner that the Shechinah of malchut of Atzilut ultimately comes to reside in the World of Yetzirah.

When later on the latter (malchut of Atzilut, together with the sefirot in which it is enclothed—in malchut of Beriah and in ChaBaD of Yetzirah) are clothed in malchut of Yetzirah, the souls, which are called ruchot, are created,

and the angels, which are of the World of Yetzirah.

From there, too, from malchut of Yetzirah, comes the Mishnah that we possess, which comprises the legal decisions that are likewise derived from ChaBaD of the blessed Ein Sof.10

Only that the categories of ChaBaD, that is, the reasons and interpretations of the halachot, are clothed and hidden within the laws themselves and are not in a revealed form,

while the elements of the halachot, which are in a revealed form in the Mishnah, are the very reflection of the middot of the blessed Ein Sof in their revealed form.

Thus, it has been explained above in the name of the Tikkunim that six sefirot nest in Yetzirah. They, the six sefirot or middot, comprise, in general, two extensions—right and left, right representing kindness and left severity—

acting with forbearance deriving from the aspect of kindness, which results in adjudicating leniently, that is to say, to permit [a thing] to ascend to G-d,

or acting in a stringent manner, and so on, declaring the object to be forbidden for use and thereby precluding its elevation to holiness. This is an act of severity. These two traits, kindness and severity, represent the two general directions of the emotive attributes as they exist Above and from which the halachot of the Mishnah derive.

And all this, both the Mishnah and Talmud, is according to the supernal chochmah of Atzilut, and binah and daat are comprised in it (i.e., in chochmah),

and they (the Mishnah and Talmud and the illumination of ChaBaD and middot found in them) are united with the blessed Ein Sof, for in all of them are clothed ChaBaD of Atzilut, with which the light of the blessed Ein Sof is united in a perfect union.

In like manner, i.e., in the same manner that the Shechinah first clothed itself in the level of malchut of Yetzirah, the Shechinah then descended and clothed itself in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of Asiyah.

And each of these three Worlds, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah, is subdivided into myriads of gradations, which are also called particular worlds,

and malchut of Atzilut (the level of Shechinah) is clothed in (a) the level of malchut of each particular World; (b) moreover, through the abovementioned enclothing it descends and (c) enclothes itself in the shrine of the Holy of Holies, namely, the ChaBaD, which is in the World below it in rank.

It is from the Shechinah, which is clothed in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of each and every general or particular World, that light and vitality are extended and diffused to that whole World and the creatures contained therein—the souls, angels, and so forth,

for they were all created by the ten Divine utterances of creation,12 these being G-d’s speech, which is termed the Shechinah.