The Shape of Jewish Time

Yesterday, we continued our discussion begun last Sunday about  the Rabbinic teachings relating to "tikkun olam" (literally, reparation of the world), using the focus of the Rosh Ha'shana holiday and the shofar, its major symbol (RAMBAM's alarm clock).

I began the lesson by asking the entire class a series of questions which were very easy to answer. Ella, my very able TA, wrote the answers to the questions on the board in two columns.

The answers in the left column were "day, week, month, year, spring, summer, fall, winter and lifetime." Those in the right column were a bit more involved: "Creation, Noah's Ark, Abraham Moves to Canaan, Sarah gives birth, Jacob marries Leah, Joseph is Sold into Slavery, Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dreams, and Joseph is Reunited with his Brothers."

Once all the answers were written on the board, I asked the class, "If you were asked to draw a geometric figure which described the words written in the left column, what figure would it be?" It didn't take long for most of the students to realize the periods of time in that column could be described by a circle. I asked the same question about the phrases written in the right column.Very quickly, several students came up with "a line" (and, indeed, one very clever "geometrist" in our group said, "a line segment").

I shared with everyone that most ancient cultures saw time as an ever-repeating cycle. No matter what they did or believed, time would continue in this circular pattern. About the time of the Biblical prophets (ca. 1000-500 B.C.E.), a revolutionary concept of time developed which described time as a human progression of events which was superimposed upon the circular pattern of natural time. The prophets taught that every action undertaken by humans had moral consequences; every historical event that befell the Jewish nation was a result of whether or not we fulfilled God's commandments.    This Jewish "linear" concept of time was adopted, through Christianity and then Islam, by western civilization. It was God, the Rabbis taught, who created time. Since everything God creates must have a purpose, these Rabbis taught, then time must have a purpose. What is that purpose? Tikkun Olam. God created the universe, but now our role is to act as God's partners to bring justice to the universe.

The Talmudic Rabbis envisioned a "timeline," if you will, upon which we all must balance. How do we balance on it? By following the commandments and doing good deeds. They believed it was the responsibility of the Jewish nation to be role models for all the peoples of the Earth. And they believed and taught that when every individual, every community and every nation was perfectly "balanced on this timeline," time will end and we will enter the dimension in which God exists - they called this dimension "Absolute Time." We also refer to this period as the Messianic Era.

Now it was time to connect what we had learned last week about Rosh Ha'shana and the shofar to our original question:  WHY did the Jewish Diaspora communities, the Edot, maintain their Jewish national identity so fervently for at least two millenia?  They all assumed the responsibility for upholding the words of the Biblical prophets to be "a light unto the nations." They all believed each Jewish individual and community had a moral obligation to follow the commandments and pursue justice - "tzedek, tzedek teerdof" ("justice, justice shall you pursue").

As for HOW these Diaspora communities did so - well, that's what we'll be learning during the coming year as we study the history and cultures of four representative edot (Jewish Diaspora communities): the Beta Yisrael of Ethiopia, the Babylonian Jews of Iraq, the Jews of Spain, and the Jews of Yemen.

We ended our lesson about the "shape of Jewish time" by making our own individual timelines. These will be kept in each student's folder, and as we learn about specific events and eras in history, we'll note these on our timelines. I introduced the terminology used by most historians today of B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era), and to give it context, I shared the Christian belief that Jesus is the Messiah, but that his appearance on Earth about 2,000 years ago was temporary, to remind people to continue our efforts to bring about tikkun olam. I shared the Christian belief in the "Second Coming" and how Christians began counting the years all over again from Jesus' birth, to help the students understand why those years before Jesus was born (B.C.E.) are counted backwards from "year 0" when Jesus was born, and why they are counted "forwards" after his birth (C.E.).

Yesterday, I introduced the historical novel I'll be reading this semester at the start of each Sunday and weekday session, called "The Storyteller's Beads." We'll be starting to learn about the Beta Yisrael of Ethiopia next week, and this story provides wonderful background history and descriptions of this edah's unique culture.

 And, of course, we continued to have lots of fun with our Hebrew Through Movement commands. This time, I reviewed what we had learned about the sounds of the shofar last week, by introducing commands to blow the different sounds we learned about.

First, I introduced the command "leetko'a ba'shofar" ("blow the shofar").

Then I asked for volunteers to model the same command.

Lots of volunteers to choose from!

Then it was time to put the shofar through its paces (not to mention the boys!). "David, la'seem shofar al ha'rosh shel Brody; Brody, la'seem shofar al ha'rosh shel Myles; Myles, la'seem yad al ha'rosh shel David. Achshav, la'shevet al ha'reetzpa b'yachad." ("David, put a shofar on Brody's head; Brody, put a shofar on Myles' head; Myles, put a hand on David's head. Now, sit on the floor together.)

Using the same formula as I had for the boys in the photo, I gave a series of commands having the students put their hand or a shofar on the head of the student next to them, then asked individual students in the group to blow certain sounds - in the video snippets above and below, I commanded them  "leetko'a tekiah g'dola" ("blow a big or great tekiah). I can now say with full confidence that all our students are familiar with all the sounds of the shofar blown on Rosh Ha'shana and Yom Kippur!

During the coming weekday sessions, we'll be finding out what happens when we "lose our balance and fall off the timeline." Stay tuned!

G'MAR CHATIMA TOVA L'CHOOLAM.

MAY WE ALL HAVE BEEN SEALED (IN THE BOOK OF LIFE).