Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

partsuf
]
 
which somewhat paradoxically marks the limit of the world of 
limitlessness - 
Ein Sof
. 
The eschatological elevation of the female above the male will be discussed 
further below. For the time being, it is important to emphasize the negative function 
ascribed to the female at the time of the creation, which is to be reversed at the time 
of the redemption. The dialectic character of the female is exposed in Rashaz’s 
exegesis of Gn 2:18: “I will make him a help meet for him” [
‘ezer ke-negdo
].
87
In 
Rashaz’s exegesis, Adam and Eve allegorically represent God and the 
Shekhinah
, 
hence the verse [Gn 2:18] “It is not good that the man should be alone” is interpreted 
as referring to God and explained as meaning that it is not desirable for there to be 
nothing other than God, with everything else being annihilated in relation to Him 
[
ha-kol be-vitul elav yitbarakh
]. Therefore, God created woman as a help [
‘ezer
], 
who would be opposed to him [
ke-negdo
], namely:
As an aspect of contraction and concealment [
tsimtsum ve-hester
] opposing 
the expansion of the [divine] illumination [
hitpashtut he’arah
], […] because 
85
See 
Bereshit rabah 
1:4: “[God’s] thought of Israel preceded everything else.” 
86
Seder tefilot
109b [Appendix 9]. 
87
TO 5a-b. 

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225 
of which the body and the animal soul, which are separate beings [
yesh ve-
nifradim
], come into existence […]; and it is precisely this that will be “the 
help,” for from this concealment there will later be made the reflected light 
[
or hozer
] far higher [
le-ma‘lah ma‘lah
].
88
Rashaz reads the expression 
ke-negdo
, used in the biblical narrative in reference to 
the woman, as referring to the constraining force that opposes [
menaged
] and limits 
the unbounded expansion of the divine light, and consequently leads to the 
emergence of beings that are separate from the divine unity. Indeed, in Rashaz’s 
sermons, as in the Lurianic Kabbalah, the alterity of the female stands for the 
“principle of transformation and shaping.”
89
The process of creation, however, is not finished with the emergence of non-
divine beings, and consequently the role of the feminine is not limited to it. Unlike 
the commentators on whom Rashaz bases his exegesis, who considered 
‘ezer 
and 
ke-
negdo 
as referring to two mutually exclusive possibilities of what woman can 
become for man,
90
Rashaz sees these two terms as complementary. Not only has the 
female helped in the process of creation, but she has also brought out of concealment 
the reflected light [
or hozer
], which “returns and ascends to a far higher level than 
that of the source of the illumination [
le-ma‘lah ma‘lah mike-fi ‘erekh koah mekor 
ha-he’arah
].”
91
In other words, it is precisely the materiality and limitedness of the 
feminine that intensifies the flow of divine light, to the point of its full revelation in 
the future to come, when it will be brighter than its source. Thus Rashaz says: 
From all this we may understand what one says in the wedding blessings, 
where in the blessing “grant perfect joy” [
sameah tesamah
] [one says]: 
88
TO 5b [Appendix 10]. 
89
See Jacobson, “The Aspect of the ‘Feminine,’” 244. See also ibid., 246 n. 17: “The emphasized 
speculative presentation of the 
Malkhut
as a metaphysical principle is a late stage in the course of a 
long development of the early Lurianic allusions concerning the appearance of the female principle.” 
90
“If he is worthy, she will be a helpmate [