[Avodah] place of shechina

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, September 20, 2006 3:14 pm, R Eli Turkel wrote:
: The gemara at the beginning of succah (recent daf yomi) states that the
: schechina never goes below 10 tefachim.
: Given that G-d is not material and is everywhere what does this mean?

It's funny, because just an hour later, someone asked me the following:
> I couldn't help but notice that ten tefachim is exactly the height of the
> "place of the brit." Is this one of those deeper and more omniconnected
> things, or just an interesting coincidence? I.e., am I the only one
> who's noticed this?

But as I answered him, I think it's about reshuyos and never considered
another explanation. 10 tefachim change in altitude (a platform, a hole,
mashiach atop a donkey, a platform that needs a maaqah) defines a new reshus.
IOW, I think the aggadita is saying that the Shechinah is always above the
reshus of the floor. Just as Moshe Rabbeinu and Eliyahu haNavi were only able
to reach one reshus shy of the usual location of the kisei hakavod.

Thinking about it further, the message *might* be as follows:

We may be able to interact the Divine, but our spheres are forever distinct.
We are within this world, we have a subjective here and now.

There is probably also a nara"n component to explaining this. The story in
Bekhoros 8b, where the Elders of Athens ask R' Yehoshua ben Chaninah to build
a castle in the air, comes to mind. The Gra (Peirush al Kamah Agados, found as
an appendix to "The Juggler and the King" by RAFeldman) explains it as being a
question about the interplay of the nefesh and body with the ru'ach and ego in
the service of HQBH. RYbC could rise above gashmius by saying a sheim Hashem,
but still, you can't build the castle without using olam hazeh and our olam
hazeh forces (the nefesh) to serve Him.

Which in turn does relate to the maqom haberis, and the ability to build a
binyan adei ad...

-mi
http://www.aishdas.org/asp