Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Shekhinah
– 
Malkhut
, the 
feminine divine presence who enclothes herself in the husk of 
nogah
in order to give 
life to this world. Finally, the bridegroom who comes down every night to his bride’s 
humble residence represents the masculine facet of the Godhead that is beyond the 
world of nature, yet it bestows its attributes upon the female.
135
This allegory in its original context serves to provide an explanation for the 
incidence of miracles in the exile, and in particular for God’s miraculous acts 
described in the Scroll of Esther, in spite of the fact that this biblical book does not 
mention God’s name. However, together with the previous example, it shows very 
well the parallel between the descent of the male to the female, on the one hand 
during the six days of the week and the Exile, and on the other hand at the promised 
elevation of the female in the future-to-come. This analogy is further corroborated by 
the correspondence between the six 
sefirot
of 
Ze‘ir anpin
(or the six supernal days), 
the six thousand years of the exilic world, and 
Malkhut 
on the one hand, and on the 
other hand, the six attributes of 
Ze‘ir anpin
,
 
the six working days of the week
 
and the 
132
See above, chapter one, note 47. 
133
LT 
Balak 
72d. See also MAHZ
 5664
, 184-5.
134
Ziii, 115b. 
135
TO 100b. See also MAHZ 
5564
, 266, where the descent of 
Malkhut 
to the husk of 
nogah
is 
interpreted as “the distancing of the impure blood” [
rihuk de-dam nidot
], which echoes the medieval 
concept of the exile of the menstruant 
Shekhinah
. See Koren, “The Woman from whom God 
Wanders,” 171-205. 

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239 
Sabbath on the other hand.
136
Therefore, the Sabbath for Rashaz, as for many others 
before him,
137
functions as a prolepsis of the redemption, a foretaste of the future-to-
come, which is indeed described as a day that is “entirely Sabbath,”
138
or as the 
supernal Sabbath, for the process of purification will be completed by then, and there 
will be no need for the days of work, while 
Malkhut 
will transcend the level of the 
lower Sabbath, the one she occupies on the regular Sabbath day that occurs every 
seven days.
139
4.2 Circumcision. 
According to Rashaz, the elevation of the female on the Sabbath by means of the 
male potency occurs in one of two ways: either when the male descends to the 
female during the six weekdays in order to provide her with the strength required for 
the purification that enable her to rise on the Sabbath above the impurity of the 
husks, or else in the eschatological dimension, once the rectification of the world has 
been accomplished, on the day which is “entirely Sabbath”. At the same time, 
however, Rashaz points to an utterly masculine ritual that surpasses the feminine 
Sabbath – the ritual of circumcision. 
Circumcision derives from a source which lies above the polarity of 
weekdays and Sabbath. Its supremacy over the Sabbath has already been hinted at by 
the Sages, who claimed that “circumcision and all its preliminaries takes precedence 
over the Sabbath”
140
and is performed on the eight day in order to ensure that the 
new-born baby would experience the Sabbath before being circumcised.
141
Rashaz 
weaves these classical rabbinic notions into a theosophical structure. According to 
him, circumcision is located in