[3][4][5] The concept of a divine dwelling is attributed to a statement in the Midrash Tanhuma, Nasso 16: "Rabbi Samuel bar Nahman said, When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, He longed to have an abode below just as He had on high.
'"[6][7][8] The concept of the possibility of the manifestation of the divine presence in the "lowly realms" is taken up by the kabbalist Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla, who associated this idea with the construction of the Tabernacle, which was built by Moses and the Israelites after The Exodus.
[11] The idea was subsequently advanced and developed by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Chabad rebbe, as a guiding principle for social action,[4][12] and is linked to the concept of the sublimation of physical aspects of existence to divinity.
The divine presence in Atzilut is thought to be especially profound; dirah betachtonim is presented as the attempt to mimic that manifestation within the World of Assiah, the lowest sphere of existence as theorised in kabbalah.
[16] Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson utilized the concept of dirah betachtonim to provide theological justification and purpose for the relocation of the Chabad movement to the United States in the wake of World War Two.