Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Russia’s First 
Modern Jews
, 102-03), compared a man who studies Torah intermittently [
ha-lomed Torah li-
ferakim
] to an adulterer (see 
b
Sanhedrin 99b), for one who comes to join with the Torah occasionally 
treats it as a harlot, not as a wife with whom one should be joined continuously (Avraham Ragoler, 
Ma‘alot ha-Torah
, 8). The Habad tradition refers to the same talmudic passage in quite a different 
way: “The Tsemah Tsedek said: This world is a world of falsity. Therefore, even good is adulterated 
with chaff and must be purified 'from below upward' as well as from ‘above downward.’ The Coming 
World is the world of truth. In Torah there are discussions of matters which may appear negative, yet 
the same matters, as they are studied in Gan Eden — are actually positive qualities […]. In This 
World the statement ‘He who studies Torah 
li-ferakim
,’ refers to one who studies Torah 
intermittently; in Gan Eden they interpret the statement to mean that he studies Torah and the Torah 
'takes him apart,' [namely,] the words of Torah possess him.” (Menahem Mendel Schneerson, 
Ha-yom 
yom
, entry for 11
th
Elul, 86) [Appendix 14]. 
139
Etkes, 
Ba‘al ha-Tanya
, 47. 
140
Ibid., 70-80. 

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203 
possibility of full spiritual involvement for every follower, without the need for his 
permanent, or even temporary, presence at the rebbe’s court. 
One can surmise that Rashaz’s style of leadership was to a great extent 
determined by the fact that his constituency of followers consisted predominantly of 
middle-class businessmen and householders, people whose everyday duties allowed 
only limited time for study, prayer, or visits to the rebbe’s court.
141
The re-evaluation 
of their limited daily Torah study was one of the means by which Rashaz included 
them in his spiritual project. Other means were the re-evaluation of their prayer,
142
and in connection to this, Rashaz’s direct instructions not to appoint as 
shelihei 
tsibur
men who overly prolong the prayers. All this was intended to accommodate 
the needs of many congregants, who “have to get up early and leave for their daily 
travail,”
143
and who therefore cannot afford to stay in the synagogue for longer 
services. Finally, frequent visits to Rashaz’s court were replaced with guidance 
through pastoral letters and emissaries, as well as with the transfer to local leaders of 
some of the functions usually performed by the rebbe during the private audiences he 
granted his Hasidim on an individual basis [
yehidut
].
144
One can only speculate about the factors that shaped Rashaz’s unique 
doctrine and style of leadership. The Habad tradition has preserved an image of 
Rashaz as a reluctant rebbe, who even considered immigration to the Land of Israel 
in order to avoid taking on the mantle of leadership.
145
It may have been this 
reluctance that prompted him to construct his ideal of the distanced hasidic leader, 
who guides a decentralised network of autonomous congregations of followers by 
means of letters and emissaries rather than direct involvement with a central court. 
The personal example of Rashaz’s mentor, Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk, who 
continued leading his followers in a similar way over many years following his 
141
Ibid., 168. 
142
Ibid., 86. 
143
Ibid., 103. 
144
Ibid., 99. 
145
Ibid., 30. 

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204 
immigration to the Land of Israel, must have had an impact on Rashaz.
146
During the 
years preceding his ascent to leadership, Rashaz was responsible for maintaining a 
network of fundraisers for the hasidic settlement in the Land of Israel.
147
After his 
emergence as an independent Hasidic leader, this network was used to spread and 
enforce his hasidic doctrine and lifestyle.
148
Hence it comes as no surprise that in 
Rashaz’s Hasidism, so much attention is paid to the spirituality of middle-class, 
independent, and relatively well-educated householders and businessmen; these 
people had constituted the core of Rashaz’s successful fundraising network, and 
when he became a rebbe in his own right, they formed the core of his hasidic 
community. The implications of Rashaz’s transition from chief regional fundraiser 
for the hasidic settlement in the Land of Israel to full-fledged hasidic leader still 
await thorough research. It seems reasonable to assume that emphasis on the spiritual 
efforts of businessmen and householders was closely related to this transition. 
Rashaz’s teachings have reverberated in the traditions of all subsequent 
Habad leaders. It is thus plausible that Rashaz’s re-evaluation of Torah study at set 
times laid the conceptual basis for the rejection of the so-called “
kolel
-culture” by 
the seventh leader of Habad-Lubavitch, R. Menahem Mendel Schneerson.
149
The 
relation between the conceptual and the historical contexts of Torah study in 
twentieth-century Habad demands further investigation.