Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Torato keva’ u-melakhto ‘ara’i
]. The 
opposite situation – occasional study and permanent work—makes studies futile: one 
6
Sefer ha-hinukh
, 419; Maimonides, 
Mishneh Torah
, Hilekhot talmud Torah
, 
1.8.
7
Shmuel Eidels (Maharsha), 
Hidushei agadot
, 18b to 
b
Shabat 31a: “And he said: did you fix times 
[for study]? Two times: one during the day and one during the night.” See also Horovits, 
Shenei luhot 
ha-berit
, Masekhet shavu‘ot, ner mitsvah, 11: “
‘Itim
in the plural, because one should set as many 
times as possible, whenever he is free from his occupation.” 
8
Ya‘akov Ben Asher, 
Arba‘ah turim
: Orah hayim, par. 155; Karo, 
Shulhan ‘arukh
,
 
Orah hayim, par.
 
155; for the talmudic source informing the codices, see 
b
Berakhot
 
64a. 
9
See Foxbrunner, 
Habad
, 137. 

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171 
ends up forgetting what one has learned before managing to memorize the entire 
Oral Torah.
10
Rashaz was aware of the fact that to devote most of one’s day and night to 
study was an ideal that not many could realize. He maintained, rather pragmatically, 
that only a scholar [
talmid hakham
] who has prior experience of study, or someone 
who has a “fine mind” [
she
-
da‘ato yafah
], which renders him capable of becoming a 
scholar in the future, could make Torah study his permanent occupation. In every 
other case, to sacrifise most of one’s time to learning would be pointless, as such a 
person’s lack of disposition would prevent him from grasping the entire Torah, no 
matter how much time he would be able to invest in study. Therefore, full-time 
Torah study was an occupation restricted to the intellectual elite. 
Such an elitist approach to full-time study should not be read as the 
relegation of Torah learning to a secondary role in divine worship, as has been 
argued by Norman Lamm;
11
on the contrary, Rashaz held Torah study in very high 
esteem.
12
Instead, his approach should be viewed as pragmatic: even though the 
religious ideal dictated that everyone should master the entire Torah, reality showed 
that only a few gifted individuals were predestined to do so, while the vast majority 
of the Jewish people were doomed to remain “ignoramuses” [
burim
] as a result of 
their limited intellectual disposition.
13
The term 
bur
, used by Rashaz to denote the 
unscholarly class, may be misleading, as in this context, it refers to people who study 
the Torah yet do not stand up to the very high standards of
talmid hakham
. These 
standards include the ability to memorise the entire Oral Torah
14
and to master the 
“rationales and sources of the commandments” [
ta‘amei ha-halakhot u-mekoran
].
15
10
HTT 3:2, 846a. 
11
Lamm, 
Torah Lishmah
, 152. 
12
For arguments in favor of the centrality of Torah study in Rashaz’s doctrine, see Foxbrunner, 
Habad
, 137-39. 
13
Rashaz refers to 
Kohelet rabah
7:28 on Ecclesiastes 7:28 to illustrate the relation between these two 
groups: “
One man among a thousand have I found
. Usually if a thousand men take up the study of 
Scripture, a hundred of them proceed to the study of Mishnah, ten to Talmud, and one of them 
becomes qualified to decide questions of law” [Appendix 1]; HTT 3:4, 846b-847a. 
14
HTT 3:1, 841a. 
15
HTT 3:4, 446b. 

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172 
As a result of setting such high standards, Rashaz sometimes counted among the 
burim
even people who had mastered the Pentateuch and the Mishnah but had not 
been trained in the Talmud.
16
For this reason, 
bur 
in this contect should not be 
understood as a pejorative reference to those who are actually ignorant,
17
but rather 
as a loosely defined term that covers a broad range of people who do not fall into the 
category of scholars. For this class of people Torah study still plays a highly 
important role in religious life, but this is based on setting special times for study as 
opposed to full-time study, and on being orientated towards the practical laws as 
opposed to aiming at a comprehensive knowledge of the entire Torah.
18
Consequently, Rashaz’s