Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Shir ha-shirim
7b [Appendix 12]. 
31
See TO 116d. 

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34 
and immanence, or the supra- and infra-temporal realities, were dissolved. In sum, 
time, space and the divine life force are perceived as transcendental notions that 
permeate all finite created beings while their source is incorporated in the divine 
infinity.
2.2 The eternal Torah.
The Sinaitic revelation, mentioned above as the moment of the disintegration of 
boundaries between the transcendent and the immanent, points also to the role of the 
Torah as a bond that ties the eternal God to the temporal world. Already the Sages 
maintained the eternity of the Torah, which existentially preceded the creation
32
and 
served as a blueprint for the creation of the world.
33
Rashaz, too, makes use of the 
idea of the eternal Torah. In his teachings it is an epitome of God’s will [
ratson
] and 
wisdom located within the sefirotic structure in 
Keter 
and 
Hokhmah
,
34
which 
penetrate the spatio-temporal reality. In a sermon elaborating on the words of the 
Shema’ 
prayer, Rashaz says: 
[After the 
Shema‘ 
and 
ve-ahavta
, God] said [Dt 6:6]: “and these words which 
I command thee this day.” That is to say, the Torah, which is His wisdom, 
[…] descends from a high to a low place […]. The low place is time and 
space, which are a contrary thing [to God]. […] And this is His true will, for 
even though He Himself is above time and space […], nevertheless His 
wisdom, blessed be He, is within time and space, that is to say, the entire 
Torah is [subject to time and space] like the [commandments of wearing the] 
fringed garment [
tsitsit
], [laying] the phylacteries [
tefilin
], reciting the 
Shema‘ 
and [observing] the Sabbath and festivals at set times. Therefore the 
32
Bereshit rabah 
8:2; 
b
Pesahim 54a. 
33
Bereshit rabah
1:1. 
34
On the identity of 
Keter 
and the divine will, see for example LT 
Shelah
38c, 
Balak 
68a, 
Shir ha-
shirim
26d; 
Seder tefilot 
161c. See also Hallamish, 
Introduction
, 129. In Rashaz’s theosophy, 
Keter
is 
not included in the count of the ten 
sefirot
but plays the role of an intermediary between the sefirotic 
world and its transcendent source above (see Hallamish, “Mishnato ha-‘iyunit,” 70-4; Schwartz, 
Mahashevet Habad
, 64-5 n. 142). 

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35 
Torah is the source of the life force of all the worlds, for His wisdom, blessed 
be He, required that His will should be within time and space. This is how all 
the worlds were revealed at the point at which [the divine will] entered time 
and space.
35
The biblical verse with which Rashaz opens his exegesis bears several meanings. 
Firstly, “words” are taken to be a reference to the Torah, whose descent from its 
transcendent divine source to the people of Israel in the lower world is an effect of 
the arbitrary divine will, expressed by the word “command.” Secondly, “this day” 
[
ha-yom
] introduces a temporal perspective: the fact that God, supposedly 
unbounded by time, is associated in the verse with such a short period of time as a 
day, underscores the role of the Torah as the intermediary between supra- and infra-
temporal realities. In addition, the idea of the Torah as the link between God and the 
world is reinforced elsewhere in Rashaz’s sermons, where the notion that the Torah 
“binds two opposites: the aspect of [God] surrounding all worlds [