Atzmuss and the Status of the Torah in the Messianic Era

M.A Jewish Studies final Dissertation (Summer 2000) In Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s view of redemption, the normative duality and distinctions between God and the world are swept away by a revelation of God, which is beyond traditional definitions. This new and monistic aspect of God is called Atzmuss. In the revelation of Atzmuss these apparently divergent realms become indistinguishable; Man, God and the world become one thing, and the role of the commandments therefore become questionable, if not unnecessary. It is the function of both the Messiah and the new Torah to reveal Atzmuss and therefore transform Judaism into its ultimate eschatological conclusion from a ‘doing’ religion, which attempts to fix a broken world, into a ‘being’ non-religion which accepts the world as it is as being perfect.