Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

hokhmah shel ma‘lah mamash
] and is identified with 
Torah
li-shmah
, while study 
without preceding prayer brings down merely shades of the supernal wisdom [
novlot 
hokhmah shel ma‘lah
].
106
103
See for example TO 45c; LT 
Tsav
15c, 
Shir ha-shirim 
5c-d; MAHZ
 5564
, 238; 
Seder tefilot
, 116a, 
132c, 237d. See Ornet, 
Ratso va-shov
, 229-1 
104
According to Rashaz, all created things are divided into four categories: inanimate [
domem
], 
vegetative [
tsomeah
], animate [
hai
], and speaking [
medaber
]. Only the human being comprises all the 
four categories. See T1, 38:50b; TO 3d. 
105
LT 
Shir ha-shirim
20d. 
106
LT 
Berakhah
96b-c; see also LT 
Va-ethanan
4a. On self-sacrifice in prayer as the condition to 
Torah study, see also LT 
Shir ha-shirim
41a, 
Emor
33c, 
Be-har
40d, 
Ba-midbar
19d; MAHZ
 5570
, 8;
 
Ethalekh
, 90. 

---

195 
5.2 Temporal prayer and eternal Torah. 
Discussion of ecstatic prayer leads to another significant aspect of the obligation to 
study directly after prayer: the self-nullification and unity with the divine achieved 
by means of prayer are only temporary; while the spiritual achievements attained 
through Torah study are eternal. Contemplation of the words of 
Pesukei de-zimra 
and the 
Shema’ 
stands for accepting the yoke of Heaven. Therefore, whoever does 
so: 
will always be bound in contemplation, i.e. nullification of the worlds, to the 
one who brings them to life and constitutes them [
mehayeh u-mehaveh
], and 
it is only in his corporeal body he will not be able to achieve true 
nullification, so during the recitation of
 
the
 Shema’
, he shall direct his mind 
to Torah study in the words ‘thou shalt talk of them’ [
ve-dibarta bam
; Dt 
6:7]. Namely, through Torah study his divine soul [
nefesh elokit
] will become 
truly unified [
na‘aseh yihud amiti
] with the Torah, and the Torah and the 
Holy One blessed be He are verily one [
Orayta ve-Kudsha berikh hu kula 
had mamash
].
107
According to the hasidic worldview, corporeality separates human beings from the 
divine and prevents them from true unity with God. One possible path of breaking 
this barrier leads through prayer, culminating in the nullification achieved by 
pronouncing God’s unity in the first passage of the 
Shema’
. Such nullification, 
however, is only temporary, for the ecstatic state achieved during prayer ceases when 
the recitation of the 
Shema’
is over, and the ecstatic love of God is transformed into 
its opposite, the love of corporeality.
108
One can sustain the ecstatic state so long as 
one undertakes Torah study immediately after the prayer.
109
In Rashaz’s writings, the 
Torah emerges as the third way that transcends the duality of divinity and 
107
TO 16b [Appendix 10]. On the principle of unity of the Torah and God, see Tishby, 
Hikrei 
kabalah
, 3.941-953; Tishby, 
Wisdom of the Zohar
, 3.1085-86; see also LT 
Sukot 
79c: “A man can 
have the impression [