Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Elohim
on the one hand, and by 
Adonai 
on 
the other hand, is not maintained rigidly in Rashaz’s texts. In another 
ma’amar
, 
Rashaz infers the occurrence of time and space from the integration of the 
Tetragrammaton within 
Adonai
rather than within 
Elohim
.
48
Two possible ways of 
integrating the Tetragrammaton with 
Adonai
reflect the two-fold relation between 
God and spatio-temporal reality. The integration of 
Adonai 
within 
YHVH 
reflects the 
nullity of the creation in the face of the divine wholeness, whereas the integration of 
YHVH
within 
Adonai
shows that the divinity permeates the spatio-temporal reality:
Time and space, too, are from Him, blessed be He, and they are not a thing 
that is separate from Him […]. Only from the point of view of the recipients 
it is an individual thing and a real opposite [to God], whereas in truth, [even 
His mode of] surrounding all worlds [
sovev kol ‘almin
] fills the dimensions 
of time and space.
49
47
The
 
Hebrew word for nature, 
ha-teva‘,
and the name 
Elohim 
have the same numerical value of 286. 
See for example T2, 6:80a-b. Nigal (
Ledat ha-hasidut
, 24 n. 8.) points to Yosef Gikatilla’s 
Ginat egoz
as a source of this gematria. On the two contractions in Rashaz’s teachings, see Schwartz, 
Mahashevet 
Habad
, 86-114. 
48
MAHZ 
‘Inyanim
, 92. 
49
Ibid. [Appendix 18]. 

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40 
Rashaz employs zoharic terminology to describe these two aspects of the relation 
between God and creation, naming them upper and lower unity [
yihuda ‘ila’ah 
and 
yihuda tata’a
]. The “upper unity” represents the unity of the divine as the only true 
being, as opposed to all the apparent beings of the world, whereas the “lower unity” 
means that the world, perceived by human as a separate entity, is also permeated 
with the divine reality.
50
Although from the perspective of the created beings, time 
and space are non-divine entities, in fact they both are permeated by 
sovev kol 
‘almin
, the transcendent aspect of God. 
In sum, the dynamics of the divine names enable Rashaz to depict the 
transition from a supra-temporal God to an infra-temporal reality. It presents time as 
a side effect of the contraction of the ineffable four-letter divine name into its 
euphemistic substitutes. From this perspective, time becomes an expression of God’s 
lordship in the world, and a framework wherein individual beings can exist by God’s 
will. 
2.4 
Malkhut
 as the source of time.
The two-fold unity of God and the world finds its expression in the first two verses 
of the 
Shema‘ 
prayer. The first verse, “Hear o Israel, 
YHVH
is our God [
Elohenu
], 
YHVH 
is one”, corresponds to the upper unity, while the second verse, “Blessed be 
His name, whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever”, corresponds to the lower 
unity.
51
The words of the prayer not only explain the two unifications and the 
relation between the two divine names mentioned in it; they also make it possible to 
locate the source of time and space within 
Malkhut
– the lowest level within the 
sefirotic
structure. 
Rashaz discerns in the 
Shema‘
prayer several parallels between the upper 
unity and the lower. Firstly, the divine transcendence expressed by the word “one” 
[