Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Messianic 
Mystics 
51-53, and “Multiple forms of redemption.” 
117
On the use of this wordplay in Habad thought, see Wolfson, 
Open Secret
, 103-14. 
118
See LT 
Balak 
68d. 
119
Seder tefilot
19b [Appendix 10]. 

---

147 
Thus in contrast to the conditions of exilic reality, in the redeemed world everyone – 
each according to his or her level – will enjoy immediate access to God and perceive 
Him sensually. In order to demonstrate the nature of this anticipated intimacy and 
thorough familiarity with God, Rashaz uses an ostensive definition: the presence of 
God will be so concretely obvious that one could be able to point one’s finger at it 
with no need for further cognition. Elsewhere the difference between cognition of 
God in exile and in the redeemed world is defined as the difference between 
knowledge [
yedi’ah
] and vision [
re’iyah
] of God. Moreover, the tangible, sensual 
experience of God in the redeemed future is the promised reward for the labour of 
striving to know God during the exile.
120 
The totality of cognition in the redeemed world is sometimes presented as a 
synesthetic experience that overcomes the distinction between the senses, which is 
itself a phenomenon of exilic provenance. This is hinted at in the account of the 
Giving of the Torah at Sinai (a prefiguration of the future redemption), where “all 
the people saw the [audible] thunderings” [Ex 20:18]: 
They saw what is heard and heard what is seen,
121
because there was a 
disclosure of divinity without any division to a multitude of levels. Rather, 
they saw only the revealed totality of the life-giving energy and the divine 
influx, and there was no separation between seeing and hearing, heaven 
forefend.
122
Rashaz takes literally the phrasing of the biblical narrative and concludes that the 
Sinaitic experience transcended the division between the senses of sight and hearing, 
which meant that the Israelites enjoyed the Giving of the Torah as a total experience. 
This experience was due to the fact that at 
Matan Torah
they overcame corporeality 
120
See LT 
Shabat shuvah
64b. Notably, the word used here to describe the nature of comprehension 
in the conditions of exile is “knowledge” [
yedi’ah
], which shares its root with the word 
“understanding” [
da’at
]. Although Rashaz does not say so explicitly in this particular passage, the 
visual perception that transcends exilic knowledge is beyond 
da’at 
as well. See a LT 
Va-ethanan 
3c 
on the superiority of vision, which is understood as complete and intuitive cognition as opposed to 
discursive knowledge, and its relation to the future redemption. 
121
See Vital, 
Likutei
Torah
, ‘Ekev, 246. 
122
LT 
Ha’azinu 
77c [Appendix 11]. See also T1, 36:46a 

---

148 
as their souls “took flight with every utterance of the Law,”
123
liberating them from 
the “confinement of the body.”
124
Such an experience, however, is not limited to 
Matan Torah
or to the future redemption: it is also the experience of the penitent in 
the act of 
teshuvah
.
125
The redemption is also marked by a shift to greater clarity of language. As 
mentioned above, Rashaz sees faith in the exile figuratively as an inarticulate cry to 
heaven out of Babylonia, the land of linguistic confusion.
126
The redemption, by 
contrast, will be the era of “pure language” [Zep 3:9]. The transparency of language 
is associated with the idea of redemption as the ultimate disclosure, referred to as the 
“circumcision from above”
127
or “circumcision of hearts”, which reveals the 
innermost part of the heart
128
and allows for the direct experience of the divinity, 
without any mediation. It points, on the one hand, at the purification and preparation 
of the Jewish body for entering the covenant with God while still inhabiting the 
world in a state of exile, and on the other hand, it points at the act of revelation and 
exposure as inextricably tied to the experience of redemption. In Rashaz’s 
interpretation, circumcision [