Shekhinah

Shekinah, Shechinah, or Schechinah (Biblical Hebrew: שכינה‎‎), is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning "dwelling" or "settling" and denotes the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God. This term does not occur in the Bible, and is from rabbinic literature.

Shekinah is derived from the Hebrew verb שכן. The Semitic root means "to settle, inhabit, or dwell". This abstract noun is not present in the Bible, and is first encountered in rabbinic literature.^, The root word is often used to refer to birds' nesting and nests. ("Every fowl dwells near its kind and man near his equal.") and can also mean "neighbor" ("If two Tobiahs appeared, one of whom was a neighbour and the other a scholar, the scholar is to be given precedence."

The word for the Tabernacle, mishkan, is a derivative of the same root and is used in the sense of dwelling-place in the Bible, e.g. Psalms 132:5 ("till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.") and Numbers 24:5 ("How beautiful are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling places, Israel!" where the word for "your dwelling places" is mishkenotecha). Accordingly, in classic Jewish thought, the Shekhinah refers to a dwelling or settling in a special sense, a dwelling or settling of divine presence, to the effect that, while in proximity to the Shekhinah, the connection to God is more readily perceivable.

The concept is similar to that in the Gospel of Matthew 18:20, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in their midst." Some Christian theologians have connected the concept of Shekhinah to the Greek term Parousia, "presence" or "arrival," which is used in the New Testament in a similar way for "divine presence".

The Shekinah is held by some to represent the feminine attributes of the presence of God (Shekinah being a feminine word in Hebrew), based especially on readings of the Talmud.

The Shekinah is referred to as manifest in the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem throughout Rabbinic literature. It is also reported as being present in the acts of public prayer. In the Mishna the noun is used twice: once by Rabbi Hananiah ben Teradion (c. 135 CE): 'If two sit together and the words between them are of the Torah, then the Shekinah is in their midst'; and Rabbi Halafta ben Dosa: 'If ten men sit together and occupy themselves with the Law, the Shekinah rests among them.' So too in the Talmud Sanhedrin 39a, we read: "Whenever ten are gathered for prayer, there the Shekinah rests"; it also connotes righteous judgment ("when three sit as judges, the Shekinah is with them." Talmud tractate Berachot 6a), and personal need ("The Shekinah dwells over the headside of the sick man's bed." Talmud tractate Shabbat 12b; "Wheresoever they were exiled, the Shekinah went with them." Talmud tractate Megillah 29a).

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