Rabbi
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto ("RaMChaL"):
138 Openings
of Wisdom
Opening 137
The Shechinah is complete when all the lower creations - the angels and the souls - are included within her.
It is from the Shechinah that all the lower worlds extend with all the different aspects of service they contain - that of the angels and that of the souls. The function of the angels is to execute the commands of the Shechinah while the souls are to serve the Holy One blessed be He through their free will. She is therefore said to be incomplete and unable to couple except when all these different branches of hers are included within her in accordance with their respective functions. And then through their combined power Coupling takes place with all the worlds repaired.
Having explained that the Shechinah must be repaired with her branches, let us now discuss this repair in greater detail.
The proposition has two parts. Part 1: It is from the Shechinah. This explains the branches that extend from the Shechinah. Part 2: She is therefore. The completeness of the Shechinah depends on these branches.
Part 1: It is from the Shechinah that all the lower worlds extend. The Shechinah - Nukva of Atzilut - is the root of all the lower creations, these being the receivers.
.with all the different aspects of service they contain. The Shechinah is not only the root of the lower creations themselves but of all their different aspects - including especially the task entrusted to them. For since the repair is in their hands, they have to carry out their function - which as part of their essential nature must also be rooted in the Shechinah.
.that of the angels and that of the souls. These are two kinds of branches, each with its own exclusive task.
The function of the angels is to execute the commands of the Shechinah. The angels merely execute the actions of the Sefirot - because the Supreme Thought also wanted this gradation whereby the actions of the Sefirot and the creations subject to them should not issue forth directly from the Shechinah but through these agents that she has. Theirs is not the service of free will but literal servitude.
.while the souls are to serve the Holy One blessed be He through their free will. It is self-evident that men's service is the service of free will - to repair all that exists.
Part 2: She is therefore said to be incomplete and unable to couple except when all these different branches of hers are included in her in accordance with their respective functions. The two kinds of branches become included in the Shechinah in different ways specific to each, depending on their functions, the nature of their tasks and the effects of their carrying them out, as will be explained in the following Opening. (The angels become included in the Shechinah through the ascent of the Chambers - the Heichalot - and the souls through sending up the Female Waters.)
And then through their combined power Coupling takes place with all the worlds repaired. For when all this is complete, all the upper and lower worlds are joined together in one repair. All the upper realms are included in Zeir Anpin in sending influence, while Nukva includes all the lower realms to receive. When they join together through their Coupling, all that exists - the higher realms and the lower realms - come to be joined together in one interconnected whole, and the unity asserts itself and rules as befitting.
At present every Coupling is in truth a revelation of the Supreme Unity, but not a whole and complete revelation. However, after all the Couplings required in the course of the entire six thousand years, God's Supreme Unity will be properly revealed over all that exists in all their parts and this will be the complete repair forever to eternity.