An Important Principle regarding Time and Place 61. It is important to know, with regard to all expressions in the wisdom of Kabbala relating to time and place, that they do not refer to the conceptualized time and place that operate in the material reality. Here, in discussions of Kabbala, everything is above time and above place. Rather, every occurrence of the terms “before” and “after” means cause and effect. We call the cause “before” and the effect “after” because every cause precedes its effect.