Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Razal
315-6. 
160
On the paradox of 
yedi’ah u-vehirah
see Jacobs, “Divine Foreknowledge.” 
161
LT 
Pinhas
75b-c. 
162
See Foxbrunner, 
Habad
, 265, n. 75. 
163
On the transformation of the two divine lights, and the question of the transcendent and the 
immanent in the redeemed world, see below. 

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157 
level, determined by the immanent light, that they occupied while still inhabiting this 
world. 
2.2 Gehinom and Paradise. 
In some cases Rashaz speaks figuratively about living in this world as clothing the 
soul in garments, whether the pure garments of Torah and commandments or the 
impure garments of worldly existence. Clothed in these garments, the soul enters the 
world-to-come, where she can no longer change them. This places Rashaz's notion of 
the world-to-come in the rabbinic context of reward and punishment. The fixed 
hierarchy of the world-to-come preserves the pure garments of Torah and 
mitsvot
as 
the reward of the righteous, while preserving the garments of worldly pleasures as 
punishment for the wicked, keeping every individual “separately, each in his place, 
with every righteous person having his own section.”
164
He writes: 
Now, it is written: [“Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the 
statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee] today, to do them” [Dt 
7:11]. “Today” specifically, for in this world [
ba-‘olam ha-zeh
], which is 
called the world of doing [
‘olam ha-ma’aseh
], one can repent, which is not 
the case in the world-to-come. There, one will remain as he is, for one has no 
power to change oneself from what one is, unless his impure clothings are 
removed from him by means of the hollow of a sling [
kaf ha-kela’
], etc.
165 
As in the classical rabbinic sources, in Rashaz's 
ma’amarim
the world-to-come 
features as the world of the promised reward for the commandments performed in 
this world.
166 
This world is distinguished from the world-to-come as the domain of 
“doing,” in contrast to the domain of rest, where individuals reap the fruits of their 
actions.
167
When depicting the punishment of the wicked, Rashaz refers to the 
164
LT 
Shemini 'atseret
86a [Appendix 14]. 
165
LT 
Re'eh 
33b-c [Appendix 15]. 
166
See note 153 above. 
167
This idea is related to the concept of the future-to-come as the everlasting Sabbath, which will be 
discussed in section 2.3 below. 

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158 
rabbinic depiction of the sinner’s soul in the world-to-come being cast from the 
hollow of a sling – an image based on Abigail’s cursing of David’s enemies [1 Sm 
25:29]. The rabbis envisaged this as the angels casting the souls of the sinners from 
one corner of the earth to another,
168
or as God shaking them out of the redeemed 
Land of Israel “as a man who shakes his garment,”
169
while according to the 
Zohar
, 
the image refers to the banishment of sinful souls to this world, where they are 
doomed to suffer endless wanderings through countless incarnations,
170
even as 
demons.
171
In one place, the 
Zohar
explains that the cord of the sling is formed out 
of all of man’s deeds which have not been entirely devoted to divine service.
172
Rashaz clearly draws on this idea. Even though he sees man’s mundane 
actions as his garments rather than the cord of the sling, as described above, he still 
considers them a yoke, which must be carried over to the world-to-come, where it 
attracts appropriate punishment. In Rashaz’s interpretation, the hollow of the sling is 
a procedure that shakes off the impure, worldly garments of the soul
173
rather than 
the punishment of transmigration. Thus, for example, the zoharic understanding