Likutay Moharan - Volume 2 - Torah-teaching 61

Hashem, blessed be He, is above time.

Hashem [Hashem – the Name, referring to G-d], blessed be He, is above time, as it is brought. And this matter is truly a wondrous and exceedingly hidden thing, and it is impossible to understand this with human intellect. But know, that the essence of time is only because we do not understand, namely, because our intellect is small. For the greater the intellect, the more time diminishes and is nullified. For in a dream, when the intellect is withdrawn, and one has only the power of imagination, then in a quarter of an hour, one can pass through all seventy years, as it seems in a dream that one passes and goes through many, many times in a very short time. And afterward, when one awakens from sleep, then one sees that all these times and the seventy years that passed in the dream are, in truth, a very short time. And this is because afterward, upon waking, then the intellect returns to him. And with the intellect, all those seventy years that passed in the dream are only a quarter of an hour to him.

But seventy years in reality, they are seventy years also to our intellect. And in truth, in the higher intellect above our intellect, even what is considered to us as seventy years in reality is also only a quarter of an hour or less. For just as we see that one can pass through seventy years in a dream, and in truth, we know afterward with our intellect that it is only a quarter of an hour, so too exactly, what is considered according to our intellect as seventy years in reality is in the higher intellect above only a quarter of an hour. Only that we do not understand this, because even in a dream, if someone came to him during the dream and told him that all this that seems to him, that days and years pass, that in truth they are nothing, and it is all only a quarter of an hour, certainly he would not believe him at all. For according to the imagination in the dream, it seems to him that days and years pass in reality. So too exactly, even though to us, according to our intellect, it seems that this is a time of seventy years, in the greater intellect, it is only a quarter of an hour.

And so too, higher and higher, that in the intellect that is even higher above, even that time that in the intellect higher than ours is not considered there, in the intellect even higher, only as a very short and much lesser time. And so too, higher and higher, until there is an intellect so great that there all time entirely is not considered at all. For because of the greatness of the intellect exceedingly, all time is utterly nothing and naught. Just as to us, the seventy years that pass in a dream are only a quarter of an hour in truth, as mentioned above, so too there is an intellect above intellect, until time is utterly nullified.

Therefore, Mashiach [Mashiach – Messiah], who has passed through what has passed from the day of the creation of the world and suffered what he suffered, and after all this, in the end, Hashem, blessed be He, will say to him: “You are My son, today I have begotten you” (Psalms 2:7). And the matter is very wondrous and astonishing, seemingly. But all this is because of the greatness of the essence of Mashiach’s intellect, according to the greatness of his level that he will attain then. And because of the exceeding greatness of the essence of his intellect that will then grow exceedingly, very exceedingly, therefore all the time that passed over him from the day of the creation of the world until that time will be utterly nothing and naught. And it will be exactly as if he was born today. For all the time will be nullified in his intellect, which will be exceedingly great. And therefore, Hashem, blessed be He, will say to him, “Today I have begotten you,” today exactly. For all the time that passed is utterly nothing and naught, as mentioned above.

And so too, we see regarding place, also, that one who has strength can pass through a great place in a short time. It is found that to him, all that place is small. And for those of weak strength, that place is considered great, and they need to walk many hours until they pass through that place. And so too, higher and higher, the greater the strength, the more the place diminishes to him. And so too, higher and higher, until the place is utterly nullified. Only that with our intellect, it is impossible to understand all this, just as it is impossible to understand in a dream the truth that all that time that seems in the dream is nothing in truth. So too, also we cannot understand that all our time is nothing above in the higher intellect, as mentioned above.