Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

‘ezer
]. If he is not worthy, she will be against him [
ke-
negdo
]” (Rashi, to Gn 2:18. See also 
b
Yevamot 63a; 
Bereshit rabah
17:3, 11; 
Pirke de-rabi Eli‘ezer
, 
ch. 12, 11a).
By contrast, Rashaz states that even if Adam had not sinned at all, the helpmate would 
have remained in opposition to him, albeit in a more subtle form [
be-dakut yoter
]. See TO 5b. 
91
TO 5a. 

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226 
“gladden the bridegroom and the bride” [
ve-kalah
], while in the last blessing, 
“who created,” one says: “gladden the bridegroom with the bride” [
‘im ha-
kalah
]. This means that the bride stands for 
Malkhut
. In the beginning she 
receives the light from the bridegroom, drawn from the world of the 
masculine [
‘alma di-dekhura
] into the world of the feminine [
‘alma de-
nukba
]. And this is [the meaning of] “bridegroom and bride.” However, later 
he “gladdens the bridegroom with the bride,” because by means of the bride 
he gladden the bridegroom, for she is verily made a helpmate [
‘ezer
] for him 
and an addition of light from the aspect of “opposite him” [
ke-negdo
], as 
mentioned above. And this is what is meant by: she becomes a crown to her 
husband.
92
In Rashaz’s sermons, the different wording of the two wedding blessings is 
expounded in overtly eschatological terms as the reversal of gender polarity at the 
time of redemption.
93
The wording of the first blessing refers to the present time, 
when the male facet of reality [
‘alma di-dekhura
] draws down the divine light to its 
female counterpart [
‘alma de-nukba
], and the primacy of its influx is mirrored in the 
wording of the blessing, where the female follows and is thus secondary to the male 
[
hatan ve-kalah
]. But in the future time of redemption, this relationship will be 
reversed: the female will become the donor, and the male the receiver of the divine 
influx, a configuration reflected in the wording of the final wedding blessing, 
according to which the bridegroom is to be gladdened by means of the bride [
‘im
ha-
kalah
].
Remarkably, Rashaz interprets the reconfiguration of divine powers in the 
end of time by returning to the events of its beginning: the elevation of the female 
above the male marks the completion of the act of the creation of woman, for by 
becoming the donor who brings an additional influx of light to the male she fulfils 
her task of being his “helpmate” [
‘ezer
]. Her opposition to the male is not effaced; 
92
Ibid. [Appendix 11]. 
93
See Wolfson, 
Open Secret
, 206-9; Polen, “Miriam’s Dance,” 6; Rapoport-Albert, “From Woman as 
Hasid,” 444-5.
In some of the discourses, Rashaz talks about the equality of the male and the female 
rather than the supremacy of either at the time of redemption. See Wolfson, 
Open Secret
, 206. For the 
list of relevant sources see Loewenthal, “Woman and the Dialectic,” *65 n. 192. 

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227 
quite the contrary – while the genders are transfigured in the future-to-come, woman 
retains her otherness in relation to man, but in the perfected state, her opposition to 
the male does not function as a limitation; rather it complements and enriches him, 
or in the words of Rashaz’s allegory, the one who opposes the male [