In Kabbalah, Shechem is identified with the sefirah of knowledge (da’at), specifically Da’at between the shoulders (דעת דבין כתפין), since Shechem literally means a shoulder. Just as the flow of seed extends from the Da’at between the shoulders to foundation through the spinal cord, there is indeed an aspect of foundation that is drawn down from Shechem. However, it is Hebron that corresponds with foundation.
Hebron is also called Kiryat Arba (the City of Four), named for its connection to the four couples buried there: Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah. This is tied to the secret of the letter Shin. The shin is found on the exterior of the head tefillin. The shin is called “the letter of the Patriarchs” (אֲתָא דַּאֲבָהָן) because it has three heads, corresponding to the three Patriarchs. On the head tefillin we also find a shin with four heads corresponding to the Matriarchs. On the head tefillin, the four-headed shin is on the left, representing the sefirah of understanding (binah, or the Mother Principle), while the shin with three heads is on the right side, representing wisdom (chochmah, or the Father Principle). These need to be united and drawn into a single point at the bottom—the point of foundation at the base of the shin, when it is written in a Torah scroll.
This drawing down and coupling were accomplished by King David during his seven years in Hebron. In that time, he immersed himself in the secret of the shin. When the shin is joined to the two letters, dalet (ד) and yud (י), whose value is the save as David (דִוָדּ), it forms the holy Name Shakai (ׁש-דַּי), the name associated with foundation in Kabbalah.
Thus, David rectified the Name Shakai, and through this, he was able to “rectify the world in the kingdom of Shakai,” by drawing from foundation into kingdom—from Hebron to Jerusalem.
In modern times, the first large Chasidic aliyah to the Land of Israel was lead by Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk. He and his chasidim first settled in Tzfat and then moved to Tiberias. So they had already rectified victory and acknowledgment, the so-called “two halves of the body,” and the first two habitual sefirot. To continue moving towards Jerusalem and kingdom, the Rebbe’s of Chabad placed great emphasis on strengthening the Jewish community in general, and the Chasidic community in particular, in Hebron. By focusing on Hebron, the place of foundation, the rebbe’s wanted to continue drawing Godly revelation down from the Patriarchs, the three emotive sefirot until eventually rectifying kingdom.
All the while that Rebbe Mendel Vitebsker was rectifying Tzfat and Tiberias, the Jewish community in Jerusalem pleaded and begged for them to relocate to Jerusalem, Rabbi Mendel and his followers refused and remained in Tiberias.
This also offers us an explanation on why the Alter Rebbe (Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi), who had wanted to join his teacher, Rebbe Mendel Vitebsker was turned down by him. It was likely because, in the Land of Israel, the Alter Rebbe's destined place was not the same as that of the other Chassidim. While they belonged in Tzfat and Tiberias, the place for Chabad until the coming of the Mashiach (our generation) is Hebron. From Hebron, the Divine abundance is drawn down through the secret of the name Shakai into kingdom.
