Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

3. The female in relation to time. 
The distinctive position of the female in time-related discourse is stressed in the 
following passage from Rashaz’s sermons: 
Now, 
Malkhut
,
 
which is the supernal speech, receives from the aspect of 
Ze‘ir anpin,
that is, from the chest down, for the constitution of the feminine 
[
binyan ha-nukba
] begins there, and that is why it is called [Hos 1:10] “the 
number of the children of Israel,” for the root of the aspect of number 
[comes] from there (as does the root of the aspect of time’s coming to being, 
as is written in 
Likutei Torah
, pericope 
Be-reshit
,
81
namely time, too, is an 
aspect of number and division [
mispar ve-hithalkut
]). But in the future-to-
come [
le-‘atid la-vo
], when 
Malkhut
, which is speech, will ascend to receive 
from the very aspects of 
Hokhmah 
and 
Binah
, which constitute the aspect of 
[Ps 147:5] “his understanding is infinite” [
li-tevunato en mispar
], then it will 
be by way of [Hos 1:10] “the number of the children of Israel (…) which 
cannot be measured nor numbered”. That is to say, even the world of 
disclosure [
‘alma de-itgalya
] which is currently in the aspect of finitude [lit. 
“number” – 
mispar
], will be in the future on the level of secret and the world 
of concealment [
‘alma de-itkasya
], which is in the aspect of infinity [lit. “no-
number” - 
lo mispar
].
82
This passage not only hints at the position of the female in the sefirotic
 
tree and its 
relation to the divine speech, but also at the correlation between the feminine and 
time, and in particular at the function of the feminine in two temporal settings: the 
MAHZ
 Ketsarim
, 178-9: “[
b
Kidushin 9a] ‘He writes on paper or on a shard, [that is to say,] whether 
he studies Kabbalah [and] 
Zohar
or simple 
Gemarah
– she is sanctified unto him.” 
80
Mondshine, 
Migdal ‘oz
, 291-92. A similar concept of the relationship between the “male” 
tsadik 
and the “female” Hasid can be found in the writings of other hasidic masters, including those who 
preceded Rashaz. See Rapoport-Albert, 
Women and the Heresy
, 273-4. In hasidic literature the 
tsadik 
can be perceived as changing gender roles, being male as “donor” in relation to his followers but 
female as “recipient” when in relation to God, see Idel, 
Kabbalah and Eros
, 97.
81
See Vital, 
Likutei Torah
, Hakdamah le-Ta‘amei mitsvot, 34-35
.
82
LT 
Ba-midbar
7d [Appendix 8]. 

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223 
time of creation and the time of redemption. The female aspect of the Godhead is 
identified as the source of time, for time is an aspect of multiplicity, which originates 
in 
Malkhut 
from the influx she receives from 
Ze‘ir anpin
. However, in the future-to-
come, the female shall rise above 
Ze‘ir anpin 
to receive the influx from the higher 
sefirot
of 
Hokhmah
and 
Binah
, and therefore it will transcend the boundaries of time. 
The material world of revelation, linked with femininity, will be elevated and 
transformed to the level of the loftier world of concealment. The transition from 
temporality to eternity, which the created world will undergo in the future-to-come, 
is unequivocally related to the dynamic of the feminine. I shall discuss this relation 
in the next section of the chapter. 
3.1 “A help meet for him.” 
Rashaz’s exposition of the female is deliberately ambiguous and may be seen as an 
expression of a general tendency that is discernible in his teachings to view evil as an 
epistemological rather than an ontological problem, which vanishes if looked upon 
from a proper perspective. In accordance with this tendency, the female as the 
negative factor that brings about separation from God, impurity, and enhancement of 
the power of the external forces, is to be re-examined when looked upon from a 
different, soteriological perspective. 
Rashaz’s soteriology is rooted in his doctrine of creation: the contraction and 
apparent withdrawal of God from the world in the process of creation
83
constitute a 
part of the divine plan to bring into existence separate beings opposed to the divine 
unity, which in time would carry out the task of reinstating cosmic unity and 
bringing about the redemption. Leaning on the maxim that what was “last in 
production, came first in thought,” [
sof ma’aseh ‘alah be-mahashavah tehilah
],
84
Rashaz explains that the creative thought of God above, with which everything 
began, would be completed through actions by Israel below – a power bestowed 
upon the congregation of Israel by virtue of its own origin in the primordial divine 
83
On the contraction in Rashaz’s doctrine of creation, see Elior, 
Paradoxical Ascent
, 79-91 Schwartz, 
Mahashevet Habad
, 86-114. 
84
See chapter 2, n. 21 above. 

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224 
thought.
85
Hence the eschatological state, described as [God’s] “Dwelling place in 
the lower worlds” [
dirah ba-tahtonim
], is to be reinstated through the efforts of the 
congregation of Israel, identified as the female, who is to be elevated to the level of 
its male counterpart:
As Scripture says [Prv 12:4]: “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband”: 
the aspect of 
Malkhut 
of the world of Emanation, [which is] the source of the 
congregation of Israel [
keneset Yisra’el
], is the “crown to her husband,” [that 
is, to] the aspect of 
Ze‘ir anpin
, which is the end of the world of 
Ein Sof
, for 
“their end is fixed in their beginning [
Sefer yetsirah 
1:7].”
86
This passage introduces the topic of the elevation of the female from her lowly state 
to be the crown of the male at the time of the redemption. The female, identified here 
with the congregation of Israel, is lifted out of her state of separateness to be 
reinstated within the unity of 
Ein Sof
, and to rise above the male 
Ze‘ir anpin
, a 
constellation [