Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

sovev kol ‘almin
], shines equally everywhere, so that the lower entities in 
the hierarchy of concatenation receive it in equal measure to the higher entities. 
Effectively, the lower entities can rise above the level determined by their status, as 
the surplus of transcendent light makes up for and supplements the lesser radiance of 
the immanent light. 
The state of confusion in the lower worlds is closely related to the idea of the 
breaking of the vessels, described above as a stage in the process of creation: 
following the breaking of the vessels, the creative divine sparks were scattered 
throughout this world, trapped in the material broken shards of the vessels. The 
world-to-come, by contrast, is “the world of purification, which has already been 
purified, where everything is in its proper place: a head is a head and a foot is a 
foot."
156
The world-to-come is thus the world of the reinstated order of creation, with 
clear-cut borders between different levels within its hierarchy. The difference 
between the transcendent and the immanent light is annihilated there, and the light 
154
LT 
Pinhas
75b-c [Appendix 13]. 
155
See for example LT 
Pinhas
75c. 
156
LT 
Pinhas
75c; see also LT 
Va-ethanan
4d, 
Yom ha-kipurim
70a. 

---

155 
shines by way of 
memale 
only.
157
Effectively, what is fixed at the bottom of the 
hierarchy of the world-to-come can no longer move upwards, an idea which Rashaz 
expresses by resort to the allegory of the soul that suffuses and animates the body: in 
the world-to-come, the head remains the head and the foot remains the foot. 
Paradoxically, then, owing to its firmly fixed order, the world-to-come is associated 
with the restricting powers of 
Gevurot,
a motif that Rashaz links to the classical 
rabbinic notion whereby God created the world-to-come with the letter 
yud 
of the 
Tetragrammaton.
158 
However, the idea that this world is distinguished from the word-to-come by 
the absence of a fixed hierarchy of beings can be approached also from a more 
personal perspective. For the individual who inhabits this world rather than the next, 
both sin and redemption are possible. This is because in this world, good and evil are 
intermingled, and people tainted with evil are able to veer towards the good, thus 
lifting themselves to a higher position in the hierarchy of beings. Here, too, the 
illumination of this world by both types of divine light plays a key role: if the sinner 
was to be sustained in this world by the immanent light alone, he would receive only 
the precise measure of vitality required for his lowly position in the hierarchy, and 
this would never allow him to change his demeanour from evil to good. But since he 
is illuminated also by the transcendent light, which is bestowed upon everyone in 
equal measure of intensity, he is just as able to do good as is the righteous individual, 
and this means that he has the opportunity to fully repent and become good. Thus, 
according to Rashaz, the scope for individual redemption in this world is practically 
unlimited, as one can change oneself in an instant from one extreme to another, 
rising from the lowly status of the wholly wicked [
rasha’ gamur
] to the lofty status 
of the wholly righteous [
tsadik gamur
].
159
157
See also LT 
Re’eh 
33c. 
158
This world was created with [the letter] 
he
, and the world to come with [the letter]