Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

2.2 Four historical exiles. 
The conceptualisation of exile as the presence of the divine vitality within ostensibly 
non-divine beings is exemplified in the historical exiles undergone by the Jewish 
people. Indeed, Rashaz often refers to the historical exile in Egypt, or to the four 
exiles enumerated in the Midrash,
the Babylonian, the Median-Persian, the Greek 
and the Roman,
38
but each of these major historical exiles is de-historicised, as is the 
idea of exile in general. 
Rashaz is not concerned to distinguish between the various historical exiles. 
He often refers to several of them simultaneously, or speaks about them in general 
terms without specifying which particular one he has in mind. The only exception is 
the Egyptian exile, which provides a paradigm for all the following exiles, just as the 
exodus from Egypt [
yetsi’at Mitsrayim
] serves as a prefiguration of the future 
redemption. Only seldom do the remaining exiles display any distinguishing traits, 
and references to particular historical exiles appear only in order to shed light on the 
current state of Israel’s spiritual enslavement. 
Babylonia is psychologised in one of Rashaz's epistles as the state in which 
the individual is unable to serve God from the depth of his heart [
me-‘umka de-liba
], 
namely, from his heart’s innermost point, where the radiance of the divine Wisdom 
[
Hokhmah
] transcends the categories of reason and understanding [
le-ma’lah ma’lah 
mi-behinat ha-da’at veha-tevunah
]. While he is in that state, the innermost point of 
his heart is completely covered by the ‘foreskin” of “exile” – the mundane affairs 
and worldly desires in which he is engrossed, and he cannot access it even when he 
37
See also T3, 6:96b. 
38
See 
Bereshit rabah
16:4; 
Vayikra rabah 
13:5. Rashaz occasionally changes the list of the four 
kingdoms that enslaved Israel by substituting Media with Egypt. See for example MAHZ 
5566
, i, 
232. 

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76 
engages in divine service. Rashaz refers to this immersion in worldly affairs as the 
Babylonian exile.
39 
Although Rashaz does not elaborate on this theme, one can assume that he 
was inspired by the Hebrew word play on the name “Babylonia” [
Bavel
], which 
reads backwards as “heart” [
levav
]. In the epistle, which reiterates the idea of 
symmetry within the created world (“God set the one over against the other one” 
[Eccl 7:14]), Babylonia, representing mundane affairs and desires, is the unholy 
counterpart of the holy innermost point of the heart. The word play mirrors the 
relation between these two entities: 
levav 
read backwards is the ultimate opposite of 
Bavel
.
40
Another plausible source for the idea is the rabbinic depiction of Babylonia 
as the lowest of all lands.
41
Service from the depths of the heart fulfils the words of 
the Psalmist: “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, o Lord” [Ps 130:1].
42
Since 
service from the innermost point of the heart originates in the highest point of the 
sefirotic hierarchy, namely 
Hokhmah
, its opposite must be located in the lowest of 
all worldly realms: Babylonia.
43
When it is not psychologised, the Babylonian exile is mentioned in the 
context of the theosophical counterpart of the sefirotic structure – the world of 
kelipah
or Adam Beliya’al.
44
In such cases, it is set alongside other exiles within a 
chain of exegeses effecting a theosophic transformation of a Midrash on the weekly 
39
T4, 4:105b. Elsewhere, however, Rashaz ascribes similar features to the exile of Edom. See for 
example TO 24a. 
40
Similar motifs can be found throughout the exegetic and the kabbalistic tradition. See for example 
David Kimhi (Radak) on Isaiah 43:19: “'If thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart and 
with all thy souls' [Deut 30:10]: those returning to Babylonia [