[Avodah] time as a spiral

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 02:48:37PM -0400, Sholom Simon via Avodah wrote:
: An Aish article notes:
:> The Jewish model of time is a spiral...

: There are lots of examples of this (Lot served matza, Rashi says it
: was Pesach, etc.).  Moed meets "meeting" -- where we meet H', etc.
: The 10th of Tishrei has "forgiveness" somehow embedded in that time
: (which is why H' forgave us on that day), etc.

: I've also been told: there's no source for this notion in Chazal.

There is no source, but it's a pretty compelling conclusion given
Chazal's description of mo'eid, or chayav kol adam lir'os/lehar'os es
atzmo repeating yetzi'as Mitzrayim annually OT1H, and yet OTOH speaking of
history as inexorably running from Adam to the messianic era (and beyond).

We might be the first generation consciously aware enough of the issue
to think about our use of both language that implies circular time and
that of linear time to want to make a synthesis "helical time".

(True YU alumni would insist there is no helical time. Meaning comes from
the tension of the dialectic; there is no syntheis. <grin>)


I don't question the value of lomdus, even though it is utilizing patterns
in halakhah or halachic dialectic that weren't made explicit. Yes, that
creates a change of error, but when the explanation is strong enough,
do we reject the whole concept because the Rambam never spoke about
gavra vs cheftza on topics other than oaths?

Think how much hashkafah, or specifically Qabbalah, is drawn from just
this kind of finding a theory to explain existing statements. This
helical time is typical.

So, is it a modern chiddush? That isn't a boolean question... to the
extent you find this intepretation muchrach, it's inherent in what
came bafore. And the the extent you don't, v.v.

GCT!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Every child comes with the message
micha at aishdas.org        that God is not yet discouraged with
http://www.aishdas.org   humanity.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                   - Rabindranath Tagore