Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Sefer teshu’ot hen
, in which the Besht 
is said to have described the collective mode of redemption (followed by the advent of the Messiah) 
as the sum total of numerous individual redemptions. For a discussion of personal redemption in other 
schools of Hasidism, see Faierstein, “Personal Redemption,” 214-24. See also Idel, 
Messianic 
Mystics
, 244; Wolfson, “Walking as a Secret Duty,” 183-4 n.10. 
99
b
Pesahim 116b. 
100
See 
Tikunei zohar 
xxi, 48b. 
101
T1, 47:66b [Appendix 7]. 
102
See above, chapter 2 note 122. 
103
As Rashaz states elsewhere: “Egypt exists in every person and at al times [
be-khol adam uve-khol 
zeman
],” TO 62b. 

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143 
Moreover, the experience of personal redemption from the confinement of 
physicality is achievable by no other means than the normative rituals of daily life. 
While the final redemption will come about only once good and evil have been 
completely separated, during the exile, the experience of redemption is achievable 
“in the microcosm [
‘olam katan
], i.e. [in] man, at every ‘time when thou [God] 
mayest be found’ [
le‘et metso
, Ps 32:6] – namely [during] prayer.”
104
And in 
addition to prayer, other standard elements of worship, such as Torah study and the 
performance commandments (in particular the commandment of charity) make it 
possible for the individual to experience the redemption after prayer. The rituals 
provide a practical way of separating good from evil in order to clinging to good, and 
as such they constitute an internalization of the redemption. It is important to note 
that for Rashaz, time-bound rituals such as prayer, which is the “time when thou 
mayest be found,” or Torah study at set times, have the power to effect a personal 
Exodus, to which Rashaz refers as the experience of transcending the limitations 
[
metsarim
] of time and space.
105
Thus the route to the domain that lies above time 
leads through the subjugation of time to the divine by means of the time-bound 
rituals of divine service.
106
Rashaz ascribes great significance to the proclamation of faith in the 
Shema’,
which in his view is not a purely declarative statement but a performative utterance: 
it bestows the proclaimed unity upon the person who proclaims it. The proclamation 
of God’s unity is thus an ecstatic experience of ultimate freedom in God. After 
explaining that Egypt [
Mitsrayim
] stands for the spatio-temporal world, Rashaz adds: 
A bond with this material and limited world is called the Egyptian exile, and 
the mind that is preoccupied with the vanities of the world is called the king 
of Egypt. When a bond with this world is established so firmly that it is 
completely devoid of mind, lacking reason and understanding, it is called 
“The king of Egypt died,” and then “the children of Israel sighed by reason of 
the bondage, and they cried” [Ex 2:23]. This means that “their heart cried” 
104
T4, 12:118b. 
105
See for example TO 64a. See chapter 2. 
106
On prayer and setting time for Torah study as a means of transcending temporal reality, see chapter 
4 below.

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144 
[Lam 2:18] in the recitation of the 
Shema’
by way of “with all thy might” [Dt 
6:5], which means, [to cry] without limit, namely, to go out of the darkness 
and limitation called “Egypt” in order that their heart would cry for the very 
essence and being [of God], and this is the Exodus.
107
By strengthening the bond with the material world to the point of emptying it of all 
reason and understanding, the cry of the