Steps toward loss and restoration of Salvation

Since God cannot be confined to any place or said to be in any one place, the rabbis devised a way of talking about the presence of God without it implying the totality of His Being. This is the Shechina, the presence; literally it means "The Dwelling" or "Where She is", the place where God has chosen to have an impact. It does not have an independent reality or function in the way that "The Holy Spirit" is often thought of.

As Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan explains, "When we say that G-d 'dwells' in a certain place or situation, we really mean that a person can have an additional awareness of G-d there. Wherever the Shechina rests, there is an enhanced ability to experience the Divine" (Innerspace by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, p. 222, footnote 81.) One of the strongest manifestation of Shechina in Jewish history was in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. This was because it was the site dedicated solely to the sacred services the Jewish people were required to perform there. G-d's Holiness was so clear to the people who visited there that they were inspired to greater and greater levels of commitment to G-d. In our present day, we can experience some of the Shechina by meeting righteous individuals. The Shechina surrounds them because of all the mitzvohs and self-perfection they have achieved, and in turn, these people are models for us.