Time in the Teachings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi

seder ha-zeman
or 
seder ha-zemanim
]. 
Admittedly, this notion remained marginal for Rashaz, possibly on account of its 
highly theoretical character. However, it was discussed extensively by his grandson 
75
Musaf for Rosh ha-shanah. 
76
See MAHZ 
5565
, i, 323 [Appendix 24].
77
On the notion of 
Adam kadmon
in the Lurianic Kabbalah, see: Scholem, 
Kabbalah
, 137; Fine, 
Physician
, 133-34. 

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48 
and third leader of the Lubavitch branch of Habad, Menahem Mendel Schneersohn 
(the Tsemah Tsedek), who among his halakhic and mystical teachings, produced also 
a strictly philosophical book, 
Sefer ha-hakirah
, which contained an exposition of 
time in Jewish philosophy from the Habad perspective.
78
The concept of the order of the time, or a quasi-temporal order of events that 
precedes the coming into being of time, appears already in the literature of the Sages: 
Said rabbi Yehudah bar Simon: “Scripture does not say: ‘there shall be 
evening,’ but rather ‘and there was evening’ [Gn 1:5], for there was a prior 
order of time [
seder ha-zemanim
]. Rabbi Abbahu said: “this comes to teach 
that He was creating worlds and destroying them, until he created these 
[worlds].
79
The two Amoras in the Midrash question the significance of the 
vav
consecutive in 
the Hebrew account of the creation, where the presence of this 
vav
changes the 
meaning of the verse from the anticipated “there shall be evening” [
yehi ‘erev
] into 
“and there was evening” [
va-yehi ‘erev
]. The former would have meant that evening 
and morning were to follow the creation of light, whereas the latter suggests that 
they had already passed before light was created. Rabbi Yehudah resolves the 
difficulty by saying that even though time had not yet come into being, there must 
have already existed a certain “order of time,” whereas according to Abbahu, the 
creation of the world as we know it was preceded by any number of abortive 
creations.
Both these resolutions reverberate in Habad teachings. However, the 
sequence of created and destroyed worlds that preceded the creation of our world is 
substituted, under the influence of Kabbalah, by the sequence of emanated upper 
worlds that preceded the creation of the world we inhabit: 
78
On 
Sefer ha-hakirah
, first published in 1912 in Poltava, see: Loewenthal, "'Reason' and 'Beyond 
Reason,'” 123-126; idem, “The image of Maimonides,” 290-92; Stamler, “Sekhel,” 203-10. 
79
Bereshit rabah
, 3:7 [Appendix 25]. 

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49 
And behold: in truth, “I am the Lord, I change not” [Mal 3:6], for there is no 
change in Him, blessed be He […] for “He, with His name alone existed”
80
for several thousands and myriads of years before the creation of the world 
(and similarly, before the coming into being of time, for time, too, is created. 
But there was an order of time before the creation of this world, that is, from 
the time of the emanation and coming into being of spiritual worlds, as is 
written in 
‘Ets hayim
, Sha‘ar ‘igulim ve-yosher [Sha‘ar 1, ‘anaf 1, 25]. But 
prior to this, even the order of time was not applicable, for He, blessed be He, 
is completely above time).
81
The main message communicated in this passage is the immutability of God in the 
face of creation, which is a recurrent idea in Rashaz’s teaching. Much more 
interesting is the difficulty that Rashaz faces when explicating this idea, as it 
involves the use of temporal notions, for example, in the description of God who 
remained unchanged during the thousands of years preceding the creation of the 
world. This stands in obvious contradiction to Rashaz’s belief that time itself is a 
created entity, and forces him to provide an additional explanation: the gap between 
God and the creation is measured by the order of time rather than by time proper.
In order to explicate the midrashic idea of the order of time, Rashaz utilizes 
the very same passage from Vital’s