Using では

Hey guys,

I see では used everywhere. I can normally suss out the more nuanced meanings of words if I see enough examples, but there are so many and various examples of では being used that I only have a vague sense of maybe some of its capabilities.

I’ve also heard that it’s both a combination of the で and the は particles, which sort of has its own meaning, but also that it’s the て-form of the だ sentence copula+は, depending on where I read. So either one of those isn’t true, or we’re actually looking at two semi-distinct words with the same spelling? Frankly, I don’t often ask, but I really need this cleared up.

I’m not even going to go into what I believe it means at this point, I’m just going to have an open mind and I hope y’all can indulge and enlighten me with your collective linguistic might!

Thank you in advance, よろしくお願いします!