Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Mitsrayim shel ma’lah 
and 
Mitsrayim shel matah
]:
77
the 
theosophic level, on which the exile stands for the concealment of the divine vitality 
behind the veil of materiality, parallels the personal exile, understood as the inability 
to serve God whole-heartedly, on account of one’s corporeality or immersion in 
mundane affairs. The limits and boundaries encoded in the Hebrew name of Egypt 
refer also to the “prison of the body” [
ma’asar ha-guf
] and of the animal soul, in 
which the divine soul is confined.
78 
73
Ibid. Rashaz associates the name Haran with the verse from the Psalms: “My throat is dried” [Ps 
69:3], as Haran is the anagram of 
nihar 
(is dried). See for example TO 21c-d; Vital, 
‘Ets hayim
, 
Sha’ar 28, ch. 5, 68. 
74
On the role of divine speech in Rashaz’s doctrine of creation and its sources in the teachings of the 
Besht, see Idel, “Le-‘olam ha-Shem,” 239-243. See also
Foxbrunner, 
Habad
, 105.
On the role of 
speech in the manifestation of the divine in Kabbalah, see Scholem, 
Kabbalah
, 99. 
75
See TO 57.
76
TO 22b-c. 
77
See for example LT 
Ba-midbar
10c. 
78
See T1, 47:66b; TO 35b, 67a; LT 
Ba-midbar
2b-c, 10c. On the body as the confinement of the soul, 
see Wolfson, 
Open Secret
, 140.

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85 
To recap, the exile in Egypt occupies a conspicuous place in Rashaz's 
teachings. It is the first exile in the historiography of the Jewish people, it features 
prominently in the Bible, it is associated with the festival of Passover, and it is 
recalled in daily prayers. Moreover, its Hebrew name of Egypt points to the nature of 
exile in general, namely, to the entrapment of the divine vitality within the 
limitations of plurality, materiality, and corporeality. Egypt encompasses both the 
macro- and the microcosm, as it refers both to the dynamics within the sefirotic 
worlds and to the construction and conduct of the individual. Many of the Egyptian 
exile’s features overlap with those of other historical exiles, as Egypt is not only the 
paradigm of exile, on which all subsequent exiles are modelled, but it is also a 
continuous state, in which the world in general, and every individual in particular, 
exist as long as they remain subject to the limits of time and space. 
2.4 The Exodus. 
The Exodus mirrors some of the characteristic traits of the exile. Just as the exile 
traps the divine vitality within the spatio-temporal framework, so the Exodus frees it 
from the boundaries of time and space. Thus to come out of Egypt means to cross the 
boundaries and limits (exemplified by temporality and spatiality) that conceal the 
true character of the creation by giving the impression that it is a separate entity 
rather than an inherent part of the divine. In the Exodus, one transcends these 
boundaries and limits, clinging instead to the supra-temporal and infinite God. This, 
in turn, is reflected in the change from one form of the divine name to another: exile 
is associated with the name 
Elohim
,
79
 
whereas the Exodus is associated with the 
Tetragrammaton (which stands for God’s supra-temporality, as it comprises all three 
tenses: “He was, He is, He will be [
hayah, hoveh, yihyeh
]).
80 
79
On Elohim as the symbol of God’s concealment within nature, see chapter one, note 47. 
80
See LT 
Emor 
35c. Rashaz refers here to Pharaoh's words: “I know not the Lord [YHVH]” [Ex 5:2] 
as a proof that the Four Letter Name of God was not known in the Egyptian exile but was revealed 
only later. Elsewhere (TO 56d), Rashaz quotes Ex 6:4, where God explains that He revealed Himself 
to the Patriarchs by the name of 
Elohim
, and only to Moses at the Exodus by the name YHVH. This 
distinction between Elohim and YHVH as referring respectively to the natural and the supra-natural 

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86 
The overcoming of the spatio-temporal dimensions of the created world in 
the redemption from exile does not, however, mean that these limiting dimensions 
are to be annihilated and the creation overturned. If the exile was earlier likened to 
the narrow strait of the throat, in which the divine words of creation are obstructed 
and cease to be audible, then the exodus is the time when the divine voice is heard 
loud and clear as it is being revealed throughout the lower levels of creation: 
The coming out of Egypt refers to the brain as it emerges out of the strait 
[