A. G-d dwelling on the Jewish people – Jewish Body versus soul: Torah Or p. 76b-78a

It is well known that the purpose of creation is for G-d to have a dwelling place below in this lower world. This is expressed in Scripture which states “and I shall dwell within you.” Now, the term you in this verse is written in the plural and not the singular. This comes to negate that the location of the dwelling of the divine presence is limited to the vessels of G-d in the temple, and comes to add that G-d dwells within the Jewish people and that the Jewish people are the abode for the divine presence to rest. Now, in today’s times, this residing of the divine presence only takes place within the souls of the Jewish people and not in their bodies. This is due to the impurity that is found in the body ever since the serpent was intimate with Chava and penetrated her with spiritual pollutants. These spiritual toxins have entered into the body of all humanity ever since, and prevent the divine presence from residing on it. Now, although when the Torah was given the body became pure and once again freed of its toxins, the sin of the golden calf, as well as other iniquities of the Jewish people in the desert, caused this impurity to return to the body. It is for this reason that the human body is referred to as the serpents skin as it contains impurity and spiritual toxins passed to it through the serpent. This, however, only applies to the body of the Jew and not to the Jewish soul which is an actual portion from G-d above and does not need any fixing [and does not contain contamination due to the sins].

In the future era, G-d will dwell also on the Jewish body: In the future era, the body of the Jewish people will become refined as it states in Scripture that the spirit of impurity will be banished from the land, and that the glory of G-d will be seen by all flesh. This tends to the fact that in the future era, the course and corporeal body will become so refined to the point that it too will be able to receive G-dliness and merit revelation of G-d. This is in contrast to today in which the revelation is only for the souls alone.