Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Ein Sof
.
148
A life governed by the 
mitsvot
has the power to transform the body as well as 
the personal space of the individual, but at the same time it also sanctifies the 
dimension of time, since the purpose of both the individual’s lifespan (seventy 
years)
149
and the whole chain of his soul’s incarnations from one generation to the 
next, is to perform every one of the commandments, as is required for the 
redemption to come.
150
In addition, the length of the current exile is understood as 
being determined by the large number of sparks,
151
or by certain aspects of the 
sefirotic
 
tree, that still require purification.
152
It is important to point out that Rashaz’s messianic concept does not seem to 
aim at the restoration of the order that preceded Adam’s sin or the creation. This is 
148
This idea resembles the concept, present in early hasidic teachings, that the six hundred thousand 
souls of Israel combine to form the full stature of the Messiah, each responsible for restoring to its 
source the part it constitutes of the messianic stature, and thus ultimately for bringing on the final 
redemption. See on this Idel’s discussion (“Mystical Redemption,” 50-54) of two passages from 
Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl’s 
Me’or ‘enayim
, 166-7. In the above passage from Tanya, however, 
there is no reference either to the six hundred thousand souls of Israel as the constituent parts of the 
Messiah’s stature or to the Jews of Rashaz’s own time as being the incarnations of those six hundred 
thousand. Rashaz is aware that the total number of Jews living in his own day by far exceeds that of 
the Jews who left Egypt at the time of the Exodus. He therefore considers the souls of his 
contemporaries to be splinters or offshoots rather than incarnations of the original six hundred 
thousand souls that took part in the Exodus. See TO 27d. 
149
Based on Ps 90:10.
150
See also TO 53d, where an individual lifespan is associated with the halakhic precept of saying one 
hundred blessings every day. A Seventy–year lifespan divided into three hundred and sixty five days, 
in each of which one says one hundred blessings, is apportioned so that every person would say 
enough blessings to bring about the disclosure of the light of 
sovev 
in 
memale
, in other words, the 
disclosure of transcendence within immanence. 
151
See note above 117. 
152
See note above 115. 

---

109 
because good and evil were intermingled in the Tree of Knowledge even before 
Adam tasted of its fruit; his sin only complicated the process of purification, turning 
it into a war between good and evil.
153
It was not Adam’s sin but rather the creation 
itself that brought about the state of exile. Moreover, Rashaz views the creation 
positively, as the means of God’s self-expression within His so called “dwelling 
place in the lower world,” namely, as a totality comprising even ostensibly separate 
and self-standing entities. The redemption concludes the process that began with the 
creation of the world rather than aiming to amend and restore it to any primordial 
state untainted by sin.
3.4 The role of the individual in the messianic effort. 
According to Rashaz, some elements of the liturgy,
154
which arouse the “hidden 
love” [
ahavah mesuteret
] residing in man’s divine soul,
155
prompt it to reveal itself 
within the animal soul. Thus prayer results in the subjugation of a certain aspect of 
kelipah
to an aspect of the divinity that exists within every single Jew, and this 
constitutes a particular form of the purification of fallen divine sparks.
156
Similarly, 
Rashaz credits the recitation of blessings with the power to draw down the divine 
influx into the world, or to bring the transcendent light (