Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

bitul bi-metsi’ut
] that the revelation 
entailed.
76
Accordingly, only the creation of the sanctuary—a suitable vessel for the 
divine revelation—made it possible for union with God [
yihud
] in the world to take 
place without the annihilation of existence.
The creation of the human temple follows the very same pattern. Full 
disclosure of the Torah is to come about only in the future.
77
Yet even before this 
happens, it is possible to draw the divine down to one’s personal temple through the 
ritual of Torah study. Admittedly, in terms of the position of the 
Shekhinah 
in the 
order of concatenation, there is a difference between divine revelation in the 
Jerusalem Temple and the revelation within its human counterpart during the exile. 
In contrast to the time of the Temple, the 
Shekhinah
in exile descends to the lowest 
sefirah
within the lowest of the four worlds: 
Malkhut 
of 
‘Asiyah
. Nonetheless, what 
apparently can be taken as the degradation of the 
Shekhinah
is given a rather positive 
characterisation in Rashaz’s writings. In the Temple, only the high priest was 
permitted to enter the Holy of Holies in order to commune with the divine, yet in the 
74
LT 
Be-har
43a. See also T1, 53:74b; TO 90d; LT 
Va-yikra
1d, 
Balak
74d, 
Va-ethanan
10a. 
75
T1, 34:43a-b. 
76
On different types of nullification in the Habad tradition, see Wolfson, 
Open Secret
, 75-6. 
77
On the complete disclosure of the Torah in the future-to-come, see for example LT 
Matot
84a-b. 

---

188 
exile, where a person’s heart is the Holy of Holies,
78
this experience is open to every 
halakhah
-abiding Jew able to recite the words of Torah.
79
Elsewhere Rashaz stated 
explicitly: 
Therefore, after one has meditated deeply, according to his abilities, on the 
subject of this above-mentioned self-nullification [
bitul bi-metsi’ut
], let him 
reflect in his heart as follows: “The capacity of my intelligence and of my 
soul’s root is too limited to constitute a chariot and a sanctuary [
merkavah u-
mishkan
] for God’s unity in perfect truth, for my thought cannot grasp or 
apprehend His unity at all with any degree of comprehension in the world, 
not an iota, in fact, of that which was grasped by the patriarchs and prophets. 
This being so, I will make Him a sanctuary and an abode [
mishkan u-
makhon
] by studying Torah at fixed times by day and by night, to the extent 
of my free time, as stipulated by the law governing each individual’s 
situation, set forth in 
Hilekhot talmud Torah
, as our sages say, “Even one 
chapter in the morning 
]
and one at night
[
” [
b
Menahot 99b].
80
 
Rashaz states unequivocally that God’s abode on earth is not created by a scholarly 
or pneumatic elite, but rather by anyone who sets times for Torah study, even if he 
fulfils only the halakhic minimum of reciting one chapter in the morning and one at 
night during the morning and evening prayers. Obviously, a scholar differs from the 
ordinary person in the way in which he grasps the divine, yet it is beyond question 
that both of them, according to their degree of comprehension, constitute the abode 
for God. This difference is illustrated by the verse “How goodly are thy tents, o 
Jacob, thy dwellings, o Israel!” [Nm 24:5], where tent, or casual abode [