Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

b
Shabat 33b] “all women are light-minded” [
nashim da‘atan kalah
] while 
every man is a mindful person [
bar da‘at
]. Equipped with 
da‘at
, he always strives 
for the main thing, whereas the female tends to mistake the secondary for the 
primary, as is evident in the difference between male and female love: the male’s 
love aims at God himself, whereas the female’s is self-interested and seeks a 
reward.
29
The talmudic notion that women are light-minded creatures reoccurs in 
Rashaz’s discourses to express not only the inferiority of the female but also her 
dependence on the male. The light-minded female needs to be complemented by the 
mind [
da‘at
] drawn down from the male. The process of drawing down 
da‘at 
from 
the male to the female finds its expression in the ritual of waving the four species, 
where the palm tree stands for the six attributes constituting the male constellation of 
Ze‘ir anpin
,
30
while the 
etrog
stands for the feminine 
sefirah 
of 
Malkhut
.
31
28
Seder tefilot
, 113d [Appendix 3]. 
29
LT 
Tazri‘a
20b. 
30
Hesed, Gevurah, Tif’eret, Netsah, Hod 
and
 Yesod.
31
Seder tefilot
261c-264b. On the gender symbolism of the four species, see Wolfson
, Language, 
Eros, Being
, 151-2; idem, 
Circle in the Square
, 118-9. 

---

215 
The drawing down of 
da‘at 
to the female may
 
in turn serve as an example of 
Rashaz’s grasp of femaleness as receptivity. One of the recurrent ideas in Rashaz’s 
teachings is the juxtaposition of the male and the female or, alternatively, of the 
bride and the groom, as donor and recipient (
mashpi‘a 
and 
mekabel
).
32
The female is 
characterized as a passive vessel for the influx bestowed upon her by the male, and 
her weakness [
teshishut koah
]
33
manifests itself in the fact that the influx she 
receives is limited and drawn from the backside [
ahorayim
] and external aspect 
[
hitsoniyut
] of the male, rather than from its innermost parts.
34
Furthermore, in the 
hasidic doctrine of creation by means of the divine word,
35
the female is identified 
with the divine speech
36
while her name is explicated as 
nekev he
– a wordplay that 
alludes to the unlimited voice emerging from the unbounded divine attributes 
through an aperture [
nekev
], and subsequently being dispersed and formed into 
separate words of divine speech, uttered by the five
37
organs of verbal articulation 
[
he motse’ot ha-peh
].
38
These are subsequently identified with five “Judgements” 
[
gevurot
], symbolized by the five final letters: 
kaf
, 
mem
,
 nun
, 
pe
, 
tsade
.
39
Indeed, the 
32
On the zoharic sources of this juxtaposition, see Hellner-Eshed, 
A River Flows from Eden
, 73. For 
examples of its use in Rashaz’s lore, see LT 
Shelah 
47c; MAHZ
 5562
, i, 403; 
5569
, 180; 
5572
, 129.
33
Rashaz uses the expression “fatigue such as a woman’s” [