Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

5. Between theosophy and life praxis. 
5.1 Time, the female, and the time-bound commandments. 
Rashaz identifies the female [
Nukba
] with the coming to being of time in 
Malkhut
. 
The attribution of time to 
Malkhut 
reoccurs throughout Rashaz’s writings and is 
related to the definition of 
Malkhut 
as the transition point between divine unity and 
created multiplicity, hence its name “the number of the children of Israel” in the 
passage from 
Likutei Torah
quoted above.
155
The consequent juxtaposition of the 
temporal female (
Nukba
, 
Malkhut
) and the eternal male (
Ze‘ir anpin
) reverberates in 
Rashaz’s interpretation of prayer as “temporal life,” for it elevates 
Nukba
, and Torah 
study, as “eternal life,” while bringing 
Ze‘ir anpin 
down.
156
Moreover, Rashaz uses 
this juxtaposition to justify the exemption of women from the time-bound 
commandments:
157
153
Seder tefilot
114a [Appendix 19]. 
154
See for example Wolfson, “Min u-minut,” 232; idem, 
Circle in the Square
, 98-106. 
155
LT 
Ba-midbar
7d. 
156
See MAHZ
 Ketuvim
, i, 233; 
Boneh Yerushalaim
, 80 (77); MAHZ
 Ketsarim
, 251. For the talmudic 
distinction between the temporal life of prayer and the eternal life of Torah, see 
b
Shabat
 
10a. See also 
above, Chapter 4, section 5.2. 
157
m
Kidushin 1:7; 
b
Kidushin
 
29a, 34a;
y
Kidushin 1:7 (19a);
Sifre
, Shelah 115. 

---

243 
This is to explain what is written in 
Likutei Torah
158
 
about the meaning of the 
exemption of women from the positive time-bound commandments and their 
obligation by those that are not time-bound. Since the root of women’s souls 
derives from the world of the feminine [
‘alma de-nukba
], [namely from] 
Malkhut
, which is within the dimension of time by way of “reigned, reigns 
and will reign etc,”
159
and since 
Malkhut
is clothed up to the chest of 
Ze‘ir 
anpin
, that is, up to the mind [
da‘at
] of 
Ze‘ir anpin
, which contains 
Hesed
and 
Gevurah
, and in which is the source of the five Kindessness
 
[
Hasadim
] 
of the 288 positive commandments and the five Judgements [
Gevurot
] of the 
365 negative commandments, the mind of the female is included in the mind 
of the male. For this reason women are exempted from the positive time-
bound commandments, which is the aspect of 
Malkhut
enclothed up to the 
chest only. For this is where she is included in, and taken care of by the mind 
of the male,
and this is why women fulfil their obligation by the positive 
commandments performed by their male husbands. But they are obliged to 
perform for themselves the positive commandments which are not time-
bound, whose source is above the chest [of 
Ze‘ir anpin
], where 
Malkhut 
is 
not enclothed, and they do not fulfil their obligation by means of their male 
husbands, for [at that level] they are not included in their husbands.
160
This elaborate interpretation of the halakhic principle that excludes women from the 
positive time-bound commandments is at variance with numerous blunt references to 
this halakhic principle, which occur throughout Rashaz’s sermons, where he simply 
takes the exemption to be a self-evident consequence of the association of the 
feminine with the source of time, and refers his readers to the Lurianic corpus.
161
Here ontology intertwines with