Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

sovev kol ‘almin
], 
which is above time and space, with the aspect of time and space,”
36
is supported by 
an invented etymology, whereby the Hebrew word for ‘command’ in “I command 
thee” [
anokhi metsavekha
] derives from the root 
tsade-vav-tav
(to join) rather than 
tsade-vav-he
(to command).
37
The expression “this day” in the Deuteronomy verse can be approached from 
yet another perspective. It may also point to the eternity of the Torah. As Rashaz 
says: “It has already been three thousand years since the Torah was given, but to you 
35
MAHZ 
‘Inyanim
, 93 [Appendix 13].
36
MAHZ 
‘Inyanim
, 265 [Appendix 14].
 
On the two modes of the divine lights, Surrounding [
sovev
kol ‘almin
] and Filling all Worlds [
memale kol ‘almin
], see Elior, “HaBaD”, 171-72; Foxbrunner, 
Habad
, 65-66, Hallamish, “Mishnato ha-‘iyunit,” 50-55, Schwartz, 
Mahashevet Habad,
62-3 and 68-
75 
37
See MAHZ 
‘Inyanim
, 265. Rashaz derives the word “commandment” [
mitsvah
]
 
from the word 
“company” [
tsavta
], namely, he understands it as something that joins things together. See for 
example TO 6b, 18b, 82a; LT 
Be-hukotai
45c, 47b, 
Hukat
57c-d, 58c, 
Pinhas 
76a, 77a-b, 
Mas‘ei 
92c, 
Va-ethanan
8c, 
Nitsavim 
85d, 
Shemini 'atseret
83c. Wordplays based on invented etmologies can be 
found throughout the traditional Jewish sources. See Greenstein, “Wordplay, Hebrew”; Heinemann, 
Darkhei ha-agadah
, 110-12, 117; Barr, 
Comparative Philology
, 44-50. 

---

36 
it should be as if it was given today [
ha-yom
].”
38
In other words, despite the fact that 
the Torah was given at a certain moment of history, it has lasted unaffected by the 
passage of time, providing access to the Sinaitic experience to every Jewish person 
through the ritual of Torah reading.
The presence of the eternal Torah in the temporal world results from the 
divine will to bring God’s wisdom into the lowest domain of reality. This reality, in 
Rashaz’s teachings, is the spatio-temporal world, described as a “contrary thing” to 
God, on account of its separateness and ultimate distance from the divine unity. The 
presence of the divine wisdom in the spatio-temporal world is established through 
rituals and ritual objects prescribed by the Torah. Indeed, objects such as the 
tefilin
, 
the ritual fringes or the parchments of 
mezuzot
are subject to spatiality, while the 
Sabbath and festivals are subject to temporality, yet since they are commanded by 
the Torah, they also belong in the eternal divine wisdom and will.
The significance of Torah, commandments and ritual objects, will be of great 
importance in the discussion of the divine service of the individual in the next 
chapters of the present thesis. Here it is important to stress the role of the Torah as 
the intermediary between eternity and temporality, a relationship which Rashaz 
expresses in even stronger terms when he pronounces the Torah the very reason for 
the existence of the world. As he explains, it was God’s will that His wisdom (the 
Torah) should extend down to the spatio-temporal reality, and to make His will come 
true, he created and sustained time and space. Consequently, the Torah is what 
causes the life force to be drawn into the worlds. 
Furthermore, if the Torah is the cause of the existence of the world, it must 
have preceded the creation. Rashaz explains the eternity and pre-existence of the 
Torah, not in the simplistic terms of the Midrash, which speaks of two thousand 
years that separated the Torah from the world,
39
but rather by transposing the idea of 
the Midrash to the sefirotic scheme: the Torah, being God’s will and wisdom, 
originates in 
Keter
, that is in an entity that transcends the sefirotic tree, and in 
38
MAHZ 
5570
, 10 [Appendix 15]. 
39
Bereshit rabah
8:2. 

---

37 
Hokhmah
, that is in the highest of all the 
sefirot.
40
Hence, the Torah precedes the 
lower worlds in the ontological rather than the temporal order.
2.3 Time and the divine names.
Another interpretative strategy, which Rashaz adopts to tackle the problem of the 
supra-temporal God’s involvement in temporality, relates to the dynamics of the 
divine names that represent different aspects of God’s relationship, whether 
separateness from or involvement in temporal reality, and in more general terms, 
aspects of God’s transcendence and immanence.
The juxtaposition of the Tetragrammaton and the names 
Elohim 
and 
Adonai
plays a prominent role in Rashaz’s model of the creation, of which the discourse on 
time constitutes only a part. Used as a hermeneutical model for the contraction of the 
divine light in the process of creation, it makes its way to the second part of the book 
of 
Tanya
: Sha‘ar ha-yihud veha-emunah,
41
as well as to some of Rashaz’s 
ma’amarim
: 
Now, Scripture says that “the Lord [
YHVH
] God [
Elohim
] is a sun and a 
shield” [Ps 84:11]. Just as the sun has its covering that can bear its radiance 
[…], so, by way of allegory, [the name] 
Elohim
is the covering for the name 
HVYH, 
which conceals [the name] 
HVYH
. This is [the meaning of the verse] 
“
HVYH
is 
Elokim
” [Dt 4:39], for the coming into being of the worlds is due 
to [the name] 
Elohim
, that is, on account of the contraction [
tsimtsum
] […], 
and since the radiance [
ziv
] is unlimited, two contractions, general and