Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Ya’akov
] derives from the word heel [
‘akev
], namely the lowest part 
of the body;
70
and if this is the level of the Jewish souls, then the gentile souls, 
although admitted to the world-to-come, must constitute a class of souls that is lower 
still. 
The new political balance of power in the redeemed world will result, not 
from any shift in the direction or quality of the divine light itself but rather from the 
eradication of the husks that obscure it and cause the Jews to be exiled among the 
gentile nations. The confusion to which the world is subject in its present exilic state 
allows the gentiles to dominate Israel and thus to create the illusion that they are the 
primary recipients of the divine vitality, while in fact they are driven to access it 
indirectly, through Israel’s “hind side” [
ahorayim
]. In other words, the light that the 
gentiles receive during the exile reaches them only as a consequence of Israel’s 
sins.
71 
But in the messianic era, after the resurrection, the evil husks will be 
annihilated, and the divine light will shine upon Israel with full force. Moreover, 
68
See note 53 above. 
69
Korf, 
Likutei be’urim
, i, 221. 
70
See Shalom Dovber Shneersohn, 
Be-sha’ah she-hikdimu
, ii, 992. On this collection of 
ma’amarim
see Wolfson, “Nequddat ha-Reshimu.” 
71
On the channelling of the divine light to the gentiles through Israel’s sins, which reinforce the state 
of exile, see chapter 2, section 2:1. 

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134 
since Israel will not commit any more sins, the only channel through which the 
divine light could reach the gentiles will be obliterated. Yet even then, they will not 
be illuminated directly; the illumination reaching them would be an incidental by-
product of the overflow of divine light intended for Israel. In other words, the 
gentiles will not be annihilated, but their access to the life-giving energy of the 
divine would remain inferior: they will draw it only from the excess of illumination 
available to the Jews. Notably, this excess will no longer be channelled to the 
gentiles as a consequence of Israel’s sins but rather it will overflow indiscriminately, 
reaching them thanks to God’s unbound mercy. 
However, not all the gentile nations will merit the redemption. While most of 
them will be purified and saved, some will have to be completely destroyed to 
achieve purification. According to Rashaz, one third of the nations will be destroyed 
as punishment for the sin of Noah’s son Ham, father of Canaan [Gn 9:22-27].
72
Canaan’s descendants, whose father had seen the nakedness of his own father, Noah, 
and who allowed it to remain exposed, may be restored to purity only by total 
annihilation. But the descendants of Ham’s two brothers, Shem and Japheth, who 
“took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered 
the nakedness of their father, and their faces were backward” [Gn 9:23], will be 
saved. Rashaz finds an allusion to this in the Biblical emphasis on the two brothers’ 
withdrawal from the scene with their faces turned back [
ahoranit
],” a term which 
links them to the “hind-side” [
ahorayim
], namely, to the source of the divine vitality 
that is available to the gentile nations during the exile, which will be purified at the 
redemption, when its “external aspect is nullified in relation to the internal” 
[
hitsoniyut yibatel el ha-penimiyut
].
73
72
In rabbinic literature, Canaan is identified with the Slavic nations (see Jakobson and Halle, “The 
Term ‘Canaan’”). It is likely, therefore, that Rashaz, too, refers in this