The act of kiddushin is accomplished when bride and groom enter under the chuppah — a cloth covering that is raised above the heads of bride and groom.1 The commentaries and codifiers discuss at length what exactly is the function of the chuppah and how it accomplishes the act of kiddushin.2
According to Kabbalah and Chassidus, there is a special significance to the chuppah itself as well as its form.
The chuppah is similar to a home3 that wholly and uniformly encompasses all who are found within it from head to toe. Chassidus explains that this characteristic of encompassing is an allusion to a profoundly elevated and lofty degree of G‑dliness; a Divine light that transcends man’s comprehension and grasp. This level of holiness is known as an or makkif, an “encompassing light.”
Two Divine Forces Within the World
There are two degrees of Divine radiance that illumine the world:4
a) Memale kol almin — the Divine illumination and life-force that vests itself within the world in an internal manner and provides it with life. This life-force is, as it were, proportionate to and commensurate with the limitations of man and the world. Because of this internal characteristic, it is known as an or pnimi, an inner and internal illumination and life-force.
b) Sovev kol almin — the Divine illumination and life-force that creates the world but does not adapt or vest itself within the world in an internal manner, rather it encompasses it from above. It is therefore called or makkif, an encompassing illumination.5
Shelter and Food — An Analogy
An example [of these two modes of Divine illumination — memale kol almin and sovev kol almin — are]: A home (and a chuppah), and sustenance:
A home shelters its inhabitants but does not affect them in an inward manner. A home is therefore analogous to sovev kol almin, the Divine illumination that encompasses but does not permeate the world.
Food, however, is ingested and then digested by the person, thereby transforming into the person’s flesh and blood. Food therefore is analogous to memale kol almin, the Divine illumination that is vested within the world, just as food enters the person and becomes part of him.
The Chuppah — A Divine Encompassing Force
In light of the above, we will well understand the connection of the form of the chuppah — encompassing and surrounding — to a wedding:
Since at the time of the wedding the souls of bride and groom meld and unite (and at the time of the chuppah they receive lofty and infinite spiritual powers — the encompassing degree of sovev kol almin) a chuppah is held over them, symbolizing and alluding to the lofty encompassing level that bride and groom now receive.
In the words of the Alter Rebbe: “Chuppah is the degree and level of the ‘supernal enclosure’ emanating from the level of sovev kol almin that enables groom and bride to come together and unite.”