Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

ex-nihilo
[
yesh me-ayin
], a 
creation which brings into existence ostensibly non-divine entities constituting part 
of the domain of the husks [
kelipot
] – the shattered pieces of the vessels that could 
not bear the intensity of the divine light, which Lurianic Kabbalah associates with 
impurity, sin and evil.
28
Moreover, creation 
qua
exile is a manifestation of the 
27
T1, 6:10b [Appendix 6]. 
28
Rashaz overtly calls this world “the world of husks and the other side” [
‘olam ha-kelipot ve-sitra 
ahara
], making a pun on the “hind-side” of the life energy that sustains it [
ahorayim
] and the “other 
(evil) side” to which it belongs [
sitra ahara
]. See T1, 6:10b-11a. Even the worldly entities that are 
not outwardly impure belong to the 
sitra ahara 
and the 
kelipot
. Nonetheless, Rashaz divides the husks 
into two categories. The higher one, 
nogah, 
consists of a mixture of good and evil, and all the entities 
that may or may not be purified by means of divine service belong there. This includes the animal 
soul and the body. The lower category consists of three impure husks: 
ruah
se’arah
, 
‘anan gadol
, and 
esh mitlakahat 
(the names are borrowed from Ezekiel’s vision [Ez 1:4]), and it is a domain of 
complete impurity, associated with gentile bodies and souls, with unclean food, and with the 
forbidden parts and mixtures of clean food. These three husks will be purified at the end of days.

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73 
inherent materiality and corporeality of the separate entities, and this, too, associates 
them with the realm of evil.
29
The concept of exile as a confinement of the life-force in non-divine, material 
beings has its parallel in the concept of what a person is. As a blend of divine and 
non-divine elements, spirituality and corporeality, a human being embodies the exile: 
For the faculty of Wisdom [
Hokhmah
] that is in the divine soul, together with 
the spark of Godliness [that comes] from the light of the blessed 
Ein Sof
in 
which it is clothed, are in [a state of] exile within their body, [namely], within 
the animal soul that comes from the husk [
kelipah
] within the left-hand-side 
of the heart, which reigns and holds sway over their body by way of the 
esoteric doctrine of the exile of the 
Shekhinah
, as mentioned earlier.
30 
Man reflects the processes of creation, as within him, good and evil, the holy spark 
and the profane husk, spirituality and materiality are juxtaposed. The divine soul, 
which is “the portion of God from above” [
helek eloha mi-ma’lah
, Jb 31:2]
31
is 
exiled into the realm of the husks, the animal soul. Moreover, the body itself is 
explicitly called “the exile of the soul”.
32
In the exile, that is, during the time when 
the divine life-force resides within both divine and non-divine entities, every person 
has the opportunity to draw this life-force down from the “palaces of holiness” and 
to direct it either to the “three garments of the soul” (though, speech and deed 
[
mahashavah
, 
dibur, ma’aseh
])
33
or, conversely, to the “palaces of 
sitra ahara
.”
34
It 
29
See, for example, TO 100b, where the exiled 
Shekhinah
is presented allegorically as the bride 
waiting for her groom in the tanners’ market; the tanner’s market, a despicable place exuding an 
unpleasant odour, represents the world of nature [