Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

shov
and the 
ratso 
which follows it. This is [the cycle of] disclosure and absence 
of the influx etc. which may be compared to a clock, [where] the movement 
from side to side (of what we call a pendulum), which is comparable to a 
heartbeat, causes a momentary passage of time.
112
110
LT 
Rosh ha-shanah
61a. 
111
Zeman mah
in the Hebrew text. The editors of Rashaz’s 
ma’amarim
inserted inverted commas 
between the letters 
mem 
and 
he 
of the word 
mah
, possibly alluding to a link between the atomic unit 
of time and the divine name 45 (the numerical value of the word 
mah 
is 45), which in turns is 
associated with 
Ze’ir anpin
, the supra-temporal source of time. The author, however, does not 
elaborate on it in the text that follows, and it is possible that the inverted commas were added either 
by the transcriber of the oral 
ma’amar
, or by the editors of the printed edition, and were not a part of 
the original oral communicated from Rashaz. 
112
MAHZ, 
5566
, i, 61 [Appendix 30]. See also MAHZ 
5568
, i, 542-43 and 
5563
, ii, 753 where the 
ratso va-shov 
of a time unit is compared to the cycle of exhalation and inhalation of a breath: “The 

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57 
The opposite phases of 
ratso va-shov
are affirmation and negation, or the disclosure 
and withdrawal of the divine influx. In the phase of 
shov
the divine influx reveals 
itself in order to substantiate the worlds, while in the phase of 
ratso
it returns to its 
supernal source. The duration of the cycle of disclosure of the divine influx in 
shov 
and its withdrawal to the supernal source constitutes a unit of time – a moment 
[
rega‘
], while time’s 
ratso va-shov
is compared on the one hand to the heartbeat, in 
order to underscore the aspect of creation and annihilation inscribed in the rhythm of 
time, and on the other hand to the motion of a pendulum, so as to emphasize the 
connection between the bi-polar dynamics of 
ratso va-shov 
and the progress of time. 
In short, time is measured by the intervals in the flow of the divine life force into the 
world. By means of this intermittent influx of life force the world is annihilated and 
created anew, thus giving the impression of time’s progress. 
The analogy of the pendulum that indicates the flow of time is further used 
by Rashaz to illustrate the relativity of time. He notes that the lower end of the 
pendulum has to cover a greater distance with each of its movements than any other 
point along its arm. For this reason, units of time can have different values, 
depending on the position along the pendulum arm in which they are being 
measured: the higher the position on the arm the smaller the value. So it is with the 
ratso va-shov
motion
 
of the divine influx in relation to time: the further the influx 
descends down the hierarchy of worlds, the longer the distance it has to cover, and 
consequently the higher the value of the time unit.
113
Thus, according to Rashaz, 
when the Psalmist addresses God with the words: “For a thousand years in thy sight 
are but as yesterday when it is past” [Ps 90:4], he tells us literally that the duration of 
meaning of the division of an hour into the number of exactly 1080 moments [See Maimonides, 
Mishneh Torah
, Hilekhot kidush ha-hodesh, 6:2], comes from the measure of 1080 breaths in every 
hour, and each and every breath consists of [two] aspects of 
ratso 
and 
shov
[…] and it is called a 
heartbeat, for the heart beats in [the rhythm of] 
ratso va-shov
, because it beats in
 
double beats: the 
first one is the withdrawal of the life-force, and the second one is the drawing down of it […]. And 
similarly, this is the case of the material breath in man's nostrils, as it is written: “All in whose nostrils 
was the breath of life,” etc. [Gn 7:22], as in the example of a sleeping man's breath, as it is known, 
that the measure of the duration of a breath that consists of the above mentioned 
ratso va-shov
is one 
moment out of 1080 moments of an hour.” MAHZ 
5568
, i, 543 [Appendix 31]. 
113
See also Schwartz, 
Mahashevet Habad
, 37 n. 33; Foxbrunner, 
Habad
, 71. 

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58 
a day in the upper worlds equals the duration of a thousand years in our world below. 
The day here refers to the six 
sefirot
of the World of Emanation (
Hesed
,
Gevurah
,
 
Tif‘eret
,
Netsah
,
Hod
,
and Yesod
; the 
sefirah 
of Malkhut corresponds to Sabbath), 
which are traditionally called “supernal days”,
114
each one of them itself comprising 
six thousand years of the world’s history (whereas 
Malkhut 
corresponds to the 
seventh messianic millennium).
115
To conclude, Rashaz defines time by using the concept of 
ratso va-shov.
Time results from the divine life force’s continuous cycle of descent and ascent. 
With every ascent the life force nullifies the existence of the world, and with every 
descent it creates it anew, thus giving the impression that time itself flows. The 
moment of the life force’s presence constitutes the time unit. In this way Rashaz 
transposes the philosophers’ definition of time as the measurement of the movement 
of heavenly spheres to the theosophic structure, seeing in time the measurement of 
the movement of the divine life force, which in turn results from the movements of 
the 
sefirot.
3.3 The division of time. 
The image of the pendulum is just an application of a common paradigm in Rashaz’s 
teachings, according to which a higher entity in the hierarchy of worlds always 
comprises a lower one, by way of the general comprising the particular. The time-
transcending God encapsulates all temporal aspects and historical developments in 
His one simple thought, which comprises everything “at a glance [
bi-sekirah ahat
], 
with no duration of time, either prior or posterior,”
116
as in the prayer describing God 
114
For the correspondence between the days of the week and the attributes, see for example LT 
Pekudei 
5b; 
Seder tefilot
26d-27a, MAHZ, 
5566
, i, 60. For the sources of this concept in Kabbalah, 
see Scholem, 
Kabbalah
, 100; Tishby, 
Wisdom of the Zohar
, 283 (where he discusses the zoharic 
tradition, according to which 
Yesod
, rather than 
Malkhut
, corresponds to the Sabbath). See also 
Cordovero, 
Pardes
, 333-34. 
115
See for example MAHZ, 
5566
, i, 61; TO 7d. 
116
MAHZ 
5566
, 60 [Appendix 32]. 

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59 
as one who “looks and sees to the end of all generations.”
117
In the course of the 
creation and the development of the hierarchy of worlds, time is formed, 
compartmentalized, concretised and extended, as it grows from an instant through 
six supernal days to the six thousand years in our world. At the same time, one 
should keep it in mind that the creation and division of time is a continuous process, 
which should be seen as a part of the continuous creation of the world. Hence, time 
is re-created constantly in the lower worlds by the supra-temporal divine, or as 
Rashaz puts it, the renewal of time [
hithadshut ha-zeman
] comes from above time, 
when the divine life force returns to its source in 
shov.
118
As will be shown directly 
below, Rashaz employs several hermeneutical models to explain this process. 
The first model explains the division of time in terms of the potentiality that 
pre-existed in the instantaneous divine thought. This is said to be comparable to the 
rabbinic exegetical method of following a general statement with a particular claim 
[
kelal u-ferat
],
119
which in turn becomes the general statement on which the next