1. In addition to the angels who carried out God’s will in the universe, the Biblical and post-Biblical literature recognizes other divine powers which mediate between Him and the world of man. The more a seer or thinker became conscious of the spirituality and transcendency of God, the more he felt the gulf between the infinite Spirit and the world of the senses. In order to bridge this gap, the Deity was replaced by one of His manifestations which could appear and act in a world circumscribed by space and time.(590) As we found in prophecy the direct revelation of God giving way to a mediating angel, so either “the Glory” or “the Name” of JHVH takes the place of God himself. That is, instead of God’s own being, His reflected radiance or the power invested in His name descends from on high. The rabbis kept the direct revelation of God for the hallowed past or the desired future, but at the same time they needed a suitable term for the presence of God; they therefore coined the word _Shekinah_—“the divine Condescension” or “Presence”—to be used instead of the Deity himself. Thus the verse of the Psalm:(591) “God standeth in the congregation of God,” is translated by the Targum, “The divine Presence (_Shekinah_) resteth upon the congregation of the godly.” Instead of the conclusion of the speech to Moses, “Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them,”(592) the Targum has, “And I shall let My Presence (_Shekinah_) dwell among them.” Thus in the view of the rabbis _Shekinah_ represents the visible part of the divine majesty, which descends from heaven to earth, and on the radiance of which are fed the spiritual beings, both angels and the souls of the saints.(593) God himself was wrapped in light, whose brilliancy no living being, however lofty, could endure; but the _Shekinah_ or reflection of the divine glory might be beheld by the elect either in their lifetime or in the hereafter. In this way the rabbis solved many contradictory passages of Scripture, some of which speak of God as invisible, while others describe man as beholding Him.(594)