Zohar on the Torah
Parshat Terumah - Zohar, Page 140b
Translated and adapted by Mr. Simcha Treister
Rebbi Abba described the way in which the Mishkan (Tabernacle) functioned to cause the manifestation of G-d’s presence:
The way the Mishkan, where the Holy Shechina dwelt, was built, was similar to Her dwelling place in the spiritual world of Atzilut. The Mishkan was like a station built to receive a transmission. This station gathered the force of the Shechina from every side and from above (in the spiritual world) and below (in the physical world). [Until Moses built the Mishkan, the spiritual power of G-d was not openly transmitted to a place on earth. As a result, the world was a dwelling place for the “klippahs”— spiritual power seemingly removed from the presence of the Holy. By building a place for worship and praise of the Holy Presence on earth, Moses broke the power of the klippahs and caused Divine abundance to flow into the world. (RaMaK)]
So the way the Mishkan was built was like a physical body. This “body” was built to include the spirit in it in the same way as a person’s body is the dwelling place for his or her holy soul. This is the secret of the Holy Shechina that contains the above and below, the secret of the Holy Spirit, that is connected in the spiritual world and revealed in the physical world. The Shechina is always drawn down from the spiritual to manifest in the physical; this is the secret of the Mishkan as a “body” built to receive the “brain” within its shell. This was all done in accordance with Moses’ vision.
The Holy Spirit of the Shechina, became dressed, as it were, in the body of the Mishkan. This was in order that a different spirit would be infused in it – a higher finer brightness - the light from the Holy Name that is the “masculine aspect” of G-d. All was united together and included one within the other, entering and dressing each within the other, until the Shechina united with this world, which is the outermost shell from the spiritual world. [This dressing, represents the drawing down of the Infinite into the finite through a series of layers such as those that were the skins over the Mishkan. (RaMaK)]
The shell of this world is the most physically manifested of all the three shells that are the contraction of the spiritual light which seem to create entities separate from their source. These shells, or klippahs, are like the shells of the walnut growing on its tree. The outer, green shell, is not the hardest shell. It is soft and damp, whereas the shell beneath it is hard and dry and just like wood. Beneath this shell is another, finer shell that covers the body of the fruit. It is the same analogy in the shell above this world. The skin is the outside shell of the body, soft and damp. Beneath it is the hardest shell, the skeleton, which is ruled by the strongest of the forces of the klippah. [Perhaps this explains the pirate skull and cross-bone flag, representing that their wildness was empowered by this hardest “unholy” shell, the furthest and hence most dense, from its Holy source— Ed.] Within the hard skeletal frame is a finer shell, the membrane which covers the brain, and that fine membrane covers the source of the spirit in man – the consciousness of the brain.