As Rabbi Aba explains, the way the Tabernacle, where the holy Shechina dwelt, was built, was similar to her dwelling place in the spiritual world of Atzilut. The Tabernacle 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 Tabernacle, 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 "kelipot", spiritual powers 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 kelipot and caused divine abundance to flow into the world. (RaMaK)

[So the way the Tabernacle was built was likened] to the physical body. In the same way as a person's consciousness [literally "brain"] influences from within its encasing, so too the holy spirit is made within a body….

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 Tabernacle as a "body" built to receive the "brain" within its shell. This was all done in accordance with Moses' vision.

…like the shells of the walnut growing on its tree.

The holy spirit of the Shechina, became dressed, as it were, in the body of the Tabernacle. This was in order that a different spirit would be infused in it - a higher finer brightness - the light from the name Havayah, 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 Tabernacle. (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 kelipot, 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 [like wood]; this is like the negative spirit [i.e. tendencies] that govern the physical body. Beneath this shell is another, finer, shell - the membrane which covers the brain [the source of the spirit and consciousness in man].

Zohar Page 140b; translation and commentary by Simcha-Shmuel Treister

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