Shekhinah

Shekhinah, from a Hebrew root meaning “to dwell”, is the rabbinic name for God’s presence in the world: in the Tabernacle and the Temple, among the people of Israel, and wherever people study Torah or pray together. The rabbis taught that when Israel went into exile, the Shekhinah went with them.

In Kabbalah the Shekhinah becomes the tenth sefirah, Malkhut, the feminine aspect of God, the bride of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the gate through which the divine reaches the world. The exile of the Shekhinah is then an exile within God, a separation of the feminine from the masculine, and the purpose of the commandments is to unite them. Many Jewish prayers were prefaced by the Kabbalists with a declaration that they are said for the sake of this union.

Scholars have discussed how far this feminine image of the divine is new in Kabbalah, and how it relates to the figure of Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible.