Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

particular spiritual meaning for women; quite the contrary, for him, the role of 
women remains solely to facilitate their husbands’ spiritual fulfilment. It appears, 
therefore, that although Rashaz did create the conceptual framework for the re-

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evaluation of women’s spiritual capacity, he refrained from drawing any conclusions 
from it. This was to be done only by his most recent successors in the leadership of 
Habad.

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C
ONCLUSION
 
This study set out to explore the significance of the temporal–historical discourse in 
Rashaz’s teachings, and to establish its implications for the everyday religious 
experience of his followers. It sought to discover whether messianic tensions, so 
prominent in contemporary Habad, were present already in the teachings of the 
movement’s founder, and to examine the worldly dimension of these teachings, 
which is often overlooked in the scholarship on Habad.
The argument pursued in the thesis is that temporality was one of Rashaz’s 
main concerns on all fronts – as a mystic, as a thinker, and as a fully engaged leader 
to a large community of Hasidim. Contrary to the common depiction of his teachings 
as a mystical doctrine focused primarily on transcendent realities, this study 
assembles the textual evidence that shows Rashaz to have been equally concerned 
with the concepts of worldly time, temporality, and history. As demonstrated in the 
chapter devoted to the practice of setting times for Torah study, his engagement with 
the idea of time enabled him to transform his following into a large and broadly 
based movement. Moreover, while Rashaz’s teachings are commonly portrayed as 
being devoid of messianic tension, the thesis shows messianic awareness to be 
inherent in his concept of both individual and communal divine service. 
Rashaz does not attempt to provide a systematic exposition of his concept of 
time, yet throughout his teachings, he tackles such questions as the nature of time-
flow, its relation to the supra-temporal God, and its role in the lives of the ordinary 
Hasidim who are all subject to temporality and yet are aiming at union with the 
infinite and timeless God. 
Chapter One discussed these theoretical underpinnings of Rashaz’s concept 
of time. It showed that he harmonised the kabbalistic concept of 
ratso va-shov
with 
the philosophical definition of time as a measure of movement, this resulting in the 
notion that time is a rhythm of the constantly alternating descent and ascent of the 
divine life-giving energy, which amounts to a continuous cycle of creation, 
annihilation and recreation. Locating the source of time in the 
sefirah Malkhut
, the 
chapter proceeded to explore the various means by which Rashaz connects 

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temporality with the supra-temporal God so as to solve the enigma of the apparent 
flow of time prior to the creation of the world and of time itself. 
Having set the theoretical framework of time and its origin in Rashaz’s work, 
the thesis proceeded to consider Rashaz’s understanding of history as the period that 
has elapsed since the beginning of time at the very moment of the creation, and its 
progress towards its end at the final redemption. The second and third chapters thus 
explored Rashaz’s interest in instances of exile and deliverance throughout Jewish 
history, which he uses to highlight his sense of the current exile, and to present both 
individual and communal worship as the path leading towards the messianic future. 
Messianic redemption, albeit fragmented as a project to be accomplished by all Jews 
and suspended in the protracted transitional period of the “heels of the Messiah,” 
underpins Rashaz’s concept of worship in the era of exile. Admittedly, there is no 
evidence of acute messianic tension among Rashaz’s followers, yet his teachings 
clearly convey the message that not only does every righteous act bring the 
redemption closer, but the fulfilment of the commandments specifically of prayer 
and Torah study enables everyone to attain to the state of redemption even within the 
unredeemed world. 
Rashaz saw the final redemption as the transformation of the world in the 
messianic era as well as in the subsequent time of the resurrection of the dead. This 
is the time when the Jews, having purified their bodies during the exile and become 
capable of receiving the full revelation of God, will delve into the secret levels of the 
Torah, and be sustained by direct exposure to the divine light. Moreover, the divine 
illumination, due to God’s unbound mercies, will be so abundant that even the 
gentile nations will be resurrected and sustained by it. 
For Rashaz, time and timelessness, or exile and redemption, were not abstract 
ideas but tangible realities woven into the fabric of his own and his followers’ 
everyday lives. The fourth chapter showed that Rashaz’s interest in time helped him 
make his model of spirituality accessible and meaningful to a broad mass of 
followers, whose occupations did not leave them the time required for total 
commitment to study. Rashaz encouraged them to set special times for Torah study 
as a means of drawing the supra-temporal divinity down to their temporal reality. He 
showed that not only could everyone subjugate temporality to the Torah through this 

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relatively simple and undemanding halakhic precept, but also that study at set times 
was equally, if not even more important to his Hasidic project than the full-time 
study of the scholarly Hasidim. This awareness of time, and the control exercised 
over it by means of nomian ritual, allowed him to include in his quest for the infinite 
God even ordinary people who are engrossed in worldly affairs. 
Rashaz’s temporal discourse also displays gendered characteristics, which are 
discussed in the fifth and final chapter of the thesis. Following in the footsteps of the 
kabbalists, he associated the source of time, 
Malkhut
, with the feminine aspect of 
divinity, and foresaw the elevation of the female at the end of days – an idea that 
served his 20
th
-century successors as a doctrinal basis for re-thinking the role of 
women in the Habad movement of their day. Unlike them, however, Rashaz did not 
translate the overturning of the gender hierarchy at the end of days into any actual 
change in the role or status of women within his own community. He employed the 
nexus of femininity and time to explain the exclusion of women from some 
commandments in the unredeemed world, and he commented occasionally on 
women’s elevation to a higher status than men in the future-to-come, but his ideas of 
the messianic future only reinforce the traditional role of women in the present, 
where their spiritual capacities are entirely subordinate to those of their husbands. 
Study of Rashaz’s concept of time enables us to look at his whole body of 
teachings from a new perspective. It shows the early Habad doctrine to have 
recognized the path that leads to God above all in worldly action that is temporally 
bound rather than in pursuit of timeless transcendence by means of an acosmistic 
doctrine that is completely detached from worldly concerns.
Certain elements of this doctrine, such as the messianic idea, or the nexus of 
women and time, are echoed in the acute messianism of 20
th
century Habad. The 
present study can therefore serve as the starting point for a thorough analysis that 
would trace the development of these ideas in the Habad teaching from its inception 
to the present. Furthermore, the scope of the present investigation could be expanded 
by exploring the extent to which Rashaz’s concept of time may have shaped other 
elements of his unique model of spirituality, or by comparing my findings on his 
conception of time to the perception of time in the teachings of some of his 
contemporaries. It would be particularly interesting to examine Rashaz’s notion of 

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setting times for Torah study in light of the Torah Study ideology and practices of 
other Hasidic groups, as well as the 
mitnagdim
. This would help determine whether 
or to what extent Habad’s spiritual inclusivity was unique.
Habad scholarship still awaits a broad, comparative analysis as well as a full 
study of the phenomenology of Habad’s relationship to time. 

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