Literally, "dwelling" (the act, not the building) or "presence." In early rabbinic literature, "Shechinah" refers to God's presence: that 'aspect' of God, or of our experience of God, that seems near and accessible to us. In the later mystical tradition, the Shechinah was considered the tenth and last of the divine emanations called " sefirot" that form a divine bridge between the absolutely transcendent and unknowable Godhead and the created world. The Shechinah is, in the mystical tradition, a female aspect of God.