Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

7. Conclusions.
I have attempted to examine the early Habad perspective on the female as it emerges 
from Rashaz’s writings. Aware of the methodological problems posed by the scarcity 
of evidence with which to reconstruct the social reality of women in the Habad 
community of his time, I chose to examine his speculative and homiletical writings 
instead, in order to establish the role of the female in his doctrine. Additionally, I 
tried to ascertain whether a link between the conceptual “female” and flesh-and-
blood women is present in Rashaz’s teaching, as later Habad sources seem to 
suggest.
Although Rashaz’s teachings may seem to reiterate the traditional and 
generally negative characterisation of the female, his temporal discourse enables him 
to underscore the positive features of the female, which also are inherent in the 
kabbalistic sources he draws on. Thus the female facet of the Godhead, with all her 
apparently negative traits, has a legitimate place in the divine plan as a crucial factor 
that facilitates the emergence of separate beings in the process of creation. 
Subsequently, in the future-to-come, through the process of purification, she will 
ascend to (or above) the male facet of the Godhead, in order to bring him the creative 
light, intensified precisely because it is reflected in her materiality.
However, one should keep it in mind that whilst referring to the elevation of 
the female, Rashaz seems neither to anticipate the overturning of the patriarchal 
order in messianic times, nor to attempt to empower women in his own time. The 
role of the female in facilitating the redemption remains dependent on the strength 
she draws from the male, while her ascent in the future-to-come is imagined in terms 
of her reunification with the male in the rite of marriage. It is hard to speak of the 
empowerment of the female in this context: even though she indeed casts off her 
negative traits during the transition from exilic to redemptive times, she does so only 
by virtue of her union with the male, where her role is to delight him. By the same 

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token, in the image of the rite of circumcision as a prolepsis of the redemption, the 
female enters the redemptive event only through the male. 
The elevation of the female in the future-to-come can be seen, on the one 
hand, as the integration of the female in a male-dominated structure. But on the other 
hand, it can be perceived as the masculinisation of the female, where – defined as the 
receiver – she takes on the male function of donor, ascends from the world of the 
feminine to the world of the masculine and is transformed from “female” [
nukba
] to 
“mother” [
ima
], who in turn is described in overtly masculine terms.
Nor does there seem to be an indication of significant changes in the status of 
flesh-and-blood women in the future-to-come. From the scant remarks on this score 
scattered throughout Rashaz’s lore, one can deduce at most that the nullification of 
the barriers between the material and the spiritual realms, followed by the 
transformation of the female from recipient to donor, will reverberate in the life of 
women, freeing them from the limitations of their roles as life-giving mothers. 
Analogously, the special role attributed to the gender category “female” in 
Rashaz’s theosophy does not seem to have an impact on the role and position of 
women in the present. Rashaz does makes use of the theosophical nexus of time and 
the female when he interprets women’s participation in religious life, which is 
particularly conspicuous in his explanation of the halakhic principle that exempts 
women from the time-bound commandments. Remarkably, however, his use of this 
example further reinforces the notion of women’s inferiority to men, which mandates 
that the spiritual task of performing some of the commandments is entrusted to their 
husbands. Similarly, Rashaz holds a rather conservative view of the commandment 
of lighting the Sabbath candles, seeing in it an element of masculine spirituality, 
which women perform as proxy. He disregards the possibility of linking the apparent 
feminine character of this commandment with the particular time at which it is 
performed, namely with the Sabbath, which is defined as the time of elevation for the 
female aspect of reality. In a similar vein, although he recognizes the Sabbath as the 
propitious time for conjugal relations, he does not seem to invest the act with any