Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

mitsvah tants 
– the customary dance in 
which the groom dances in front of his bride, drawing near and withdrawing from 
her again and again, until he finally holds her hands.
101
Similarly, the male and the 
female aspects of the Godhead draw near to each other only to be subsequently 
separated, until finally, in the end of days, they will be permanently united. The 
reference to Eccl 2:13 points to one of Rashaz’s main topics, the idea that greater 
power comes from transforming evil into good than from the good itself.
102
It 
provides justification for the distance between the male and the female in the 
present: the final return of the bride to the house of her father, namely, the 
reunification of the female and the male facets of the Godhead at the end of days, 
will bring about greater light and more intense delight than when both these aspects 
were one. Moreover, the verse from Jer 31:22 – “The woman will compass the man” 
– may be read as well as meaning that “The woman will court the man.”
103
101
On the custom of the wedding dance, see Friedhaber, “Dance with the Separating Kerchief,” 65-9. 
For an overt use in hasidic sources of the 
mitsvah 
dance as an allegory of the purifications of the holy 
sparks on the way to redemption, see 
Keter Shem Tov
, par. 179, 23a, noted by Fishbane in “To Jump 
for Joy,” 378 n. 18. 
102
See for example T1, 39:52b, 49:69a; TO 8d, 9a, 71c, 80c; LT 
Va-yikra 
2d, 
Naso
28c, 
Shelah 
47a, 
Hukat 
48d, 
Balak 
74c, 
Tetse 
38b, 
Rosh ha-shanah
55b, 
Shemini ‘atseret
90b.
103
See for example the commentary of David Kimhi (Radak) on Jeremiah 31:32: “‘For the Lord hath 
created a new thing in the earth.’ In the future a new thing will be created after you have sat for many 
years in the exile. What is the new thing? That the woman shall compass a man, for it is the custom of 
the world [
derekh ‘olam
] that the man woos [
mehazer
] and courts [
mesovev
] the woman, as the Sages 
said [
b
Kidushin 2b]: “The loser goes in search [
mehazer
] of the lost article.” But when the woman 
shall court her man, that is to say, when the children of Israel return to the Lord their God, he will 
redeem them, as is stated in the prophecy of Hosea [3:5]: ‘Afterwards shall the children of Israel 

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231 
Considering that Rashaz refers to the present as the times when [
b
Kidushin 2b]: “It 
is the way of man to go in search of (or: to woo) a woman, but it is not the way of a 
woman to go in search of (or: to woo) a man,” and [
b
Yevamot 65b]: “It is the nature 
of man to conquer, but it is not the nature of woman to conquer,” his use of the 
passage from Jeremiah to depict the future-to-come suggests a future reversal of the 
traditional setting, in which the male is active and the female is passive. Nonetheless, 
in the present time, the active role decidedly belongs to the man. During the lengthy 
process of purification that still lies ahead, as in the image of 
mitsvah tants
, the 
masculine and feminine aspects draw near to each other at certain times, only to be 
separated again, until the process is finally completed at the end of days and they are 
permanently united as bride and groom under the canopy. 
3.1.1 Nocturnal purifications. 
The Lurianic concept of the breaking of the vessels, which effects the falling of the 
holy sparks into the world of husks, is integrated into Rashaz’s teachings. According 
to these teachings, the present time is devoted to the process of purifying the sparks 
from the impure husks, and the completion of the process will mark the transition to 
the time of redemption. The process of purification features in the Lurianic discourse 
on the four divine names derived from the Tegrammaton: the name of 72 letters 
corresponding to the constellation of