Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Shekhinah
from the dust” [
hakamat Shekhinta me-
‘afra
].
122
Rashaz follows his master’s dualistic view of reality and occasionally 
119
From the Rosh ha-shanah liturgy. See TO 5d.
120
TO 5d-6a.
121
Heilman, 
Igerot Ba’al ha-Tanya
, 18 [Appendix 19]. 
122
See ibid. 

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100 
compares the complexion of man to a state in which the divine soul is in the prison 
of the body and the animal soul.
123
However, he does not identify the redemption 
with stripping the divine element off materiality, to wit the rejection of materiality. 
As Rashaz explains elsewhere, the separation of good from evil in the lower worlds 
is just the first stage in the process of purification. This stage is akin to the process of 
digestion, in which an energy-giving element of food is separated from refuse, with 
the former absorbed and the latter rejected by the body. At the second, higher stage, 
the impure [
tame
], instead of being rejected is transformed into the pure [
tahor
]. The 
separation of good from evil is effected by the highest 
sefirah
, 
Hokhmah
. 
Hokhmah
organizes reality from within the world, without changing its substrates: good 
remains good, evil – evil, yet they are separated from one another. However, the 
transformation of evil into good or the purification of the impure changes the 
substrates of the world and therefore must be carried out by an entity that is not part 
of it: it can be achieved only by means of 
Keter
– an entity located above the internal 
hierarchy of the 
sefirot
, which precedes the breaking of the vessels.
124
Notwithstanding the processes of separation and transformation effected by 
the supernal forces, Rashaz also emphasizes every individual’s power to purify the 
sparks precisely because he is immersed in materiality: 
Now, the celestial beings do not have the power to purify and elevate that, 
which is in the husk of 
nogah
as a result of the breaking [of the vessels]. 
Only the terrestrial beings [can achieve this], for they are vested in a material 
body [known] as the “hide of the serpent,”
125
which derives from the husk of 
nogah. 
These [embodied souls] weaken its strength by crushing the passions, 
thereby subjugating the 
sitra ahara
, so that “all the workers of iniquity shall 
be scattered” [Ps 92:9].
126
Clearly, for Rashaz, materiality and its particular mode – corporeality – are as much 
a curse as they are a blessing. Indeed, as the product of the husks, the body is 
123
See note 78 above. 
124
See LT 
Hukat
59d-60a. 
125
See 
Tikunei zohar 
xxi, 48b. 
126
T4, 26:144b-145a [Appendix 20]. 

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101 
connected to sin and to the evil side of creation, but it is precisely this connection 
that enables the purifications to take place. One can rectify materiality only by acting 
through and within it, which is why the task of purification has been given to 
“terrestrial beings,” namely, to humans who are made up of an immaterial soul and a 
material body. By contrast, “celestial beings”, such as angels, who are of a more 
subtle composition than humans, as well as souls prior to incarnation, do not possess 
a material body and are therefore incapable of subjugating the Evil Side through its 
materiality. Furthermore, purification is the purpose of the soul’s descent from its 
supernal source to the lower worlds, where it is to be incarnated.
127
Thus the body 
becomes a necessary redemptive tool, to the point where Rashaz states that: “The 
redemption depends on us, who have bodies. We must quell and break all [worldly] 
passions. Through this merit we will be redeemed.”
128
The redemption in this case is 
referred to as God’s “dwelling place in the lower worlds” [