Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

mesirut nefesh
] at the time of uttering the “
ehad
” of 
Keri’at Shema’
, see, for 
example, T1, 25:32b, 46:65a, T4, 128:148a; TO 29b. On the role of 
mesirat nefesh 
in Habad, see 
Loewenthal, “Self-sacrifice,” 463-78. 
160
LT 
Aharei 
26a, based on 
b
Sukah 45b. 
161
LT 
Aharei 
26a. The creative role of blessings is associated with the blessings of the morning 
prayer, supposedly fixed by the Sages in order to ensure that the divine vitality would be drawn into 
the world every morning, namely, at the time when God creates the world anew according to the 
wording of the morning prayer whereby He “renews each day the work of creation.”
162
The kingdom of God established through the vitality drawn down by everyday prayer is related 
here explicitly to the idea that “there is no God without a people,” which in turn appears throughout 
Rashaz’s teachings as the quintessence of 
dirah ba-tahtonim
, the promised redemptive state in which 
God confirms his dominion over ostensibly individual and independent beings in the lower worlds. 

---

111 
function of the Torah in the following interpretation of a biblical verse, which 
establishes an analogy between Torah study and the Egyptian exile, the Giving of the 
Torah, and the final redemption: 
Now, Scripture says: “According to the days of thy coming out of the land of 
Egypt will I shew unto him marvelous things” [Mi 7:15]. This verse draws an 
analogy between the last redemption and the Exodus. […] And thus, what 
was said about the enslavement and exile in reference to the Egyptian exile, 
[namely, the verse] “And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in 
morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field” [Ex 1:14], 
applies also to recent times, [as the phrase] “And they made their lives bitter” 
refers to the Torah, which is our life; [the phrase] “with hard bondage” 
[
‘avodah kashah
] refers to a challenging [talmudic] question [
kushiya
]; “in 
morter” [
be-homer
] refers to [the hermeneutical principle of] 
a fortiori
[
kal 
va-homer
];
163
“in all manner of service in the field” refers to the 
baraita
164
; 
and “and in brick” [
bi-levenim
] refers to the clarification [
libun
] of 
halakhah
. 
For we possess no clear 
halakhah
and no clear ruling, because all the rulings 
of the Torah are in dispute: there are those who deem [something] 
kosher
and 
pure, and those who disqualify and deem it impure. Therefore, just as [the 
Israelites] merited the Giving of the Torah through the Egyptian bondage “in 
morter and in brick”, so also, by means of clarifying the 
halakhah 
in our own 
time will they merit the disclosure of the inner aspect of Torah in the future-
to-come, when “will I shew unto him marvelous things.”
165
The verse in Micah, according to Rashaz, refers to two exiles – one in the past, the 
other in the present – in order to highlight their common features and purpose. Just 
as the purpose of the Egyptian exile was the revelation of Torah at Sinai, so the 
purpose of the current exile is a revelation of Torah. However, while the miracles 
163
For the seven principles of rabbinic hermeneutics attributed to Hillel the Elder, see 
Avot de-rabi 
Natan
, ch. 37, 69a; for the thirteen hermeneutical principles of Rabbi Ishmael, see