Rhythms of Jewish Living - 5770

1. Rhythms of Jewish Living - 5770 Reflecting on the Rhythms of Jewish Life Presented by Ittay Flescher Melbourne, Australia

2. What is Jewish Time? Kohelet’s Questions • Why was the world created? • What is the meaning and purpose of life? • Is there any worthwhile endeavour given the inevitability of death? • If so, what might that endeavour be? • If not, how ought we occupy our time? -- הִנֵּה אֲשֶׁר-רָאִיתִי אָנִי טוֹב אֲשֶׁר-יָפֶה לֶאֱכוֹל-וְלִשְׁתּוֹת וְלִרְאוֹת טוֹבָה בְּכָל-עֲמָלוֹ שֶׁיַּעֲמֹל תַּחַת-הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ מִסְפַּר יְמֵי-חַיָּו אֲשֶׁר-נָתַן-לוֹ הָאֱלֹהִים כִּי-הוּא חֶלְקוֹOnly this, I have found, is a real good: that one should eat and drink and get pleasure with all the gains he makes under the sun, during the numbered days of life that God has given him; for that is his portion. - Kohelet 5:17

3. What is Jewish Time? • Kohelet 3:1-8 To everything there is a season

4. Jewish time is cyclical not linear • “Jewish tradition makes one reminisce about our major events even to feel as though one were somehow a part of them. Yet, even in the midst of experiencing sacred time, the religious Jew does not surrender himself completely to those ancient events.... We remember the past, we participate in it through symbol and thought, but we remain distinctly in the here and now, fully conscious of the unfolding of history.” • - Rabbi Marc Angel

5. New Under the Sun? • Kohelet 1:1-11 • Through which lens does Kohelet see the world? • Unlike Kohelet, most people • experience life through a • personal lens.

6. For some Jews, knowing that what we are doing has been done before and that it will be done again serves to enrich our experience, rather than diminish it, bestowing upon it a greater sense of meaning and purpose. It links us into a chain of tradition spanning thousands of years of Jewish tradition.

7. We are one, but we are many.... • Professor Harvey Goldberg • What does Goldberg mean when he writes: “To celebrate a Jewish life-cycle ritual is to make a statement pointing to the Jews' collective future”?

8. Conclusion • Lea Goldberg, Poem’s of the Journey’s End • As the Rhythms of Jewish Living course comes to a close, it is the hope of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School that students have discovered the great potential that Jewish text-based study can have upon one’s perception of Jewish living. • Text-based study can create powerful paradigm-shifts in the learner, whose interaction with the text can be a source of great satisfaction. In the course of their study, not only have students learned what others have known before them, but they have also contributed to the discovery of new ideas and new interpretations, contributing to that which is “new under the sun.” - Rhythms of Jewish Living, Faculty Guide • Do you agree?

9. What rituals or observances that we studied in this course have had the most profound impact upon the continuity of Jewish life? • Judaism has survived because in every generation, it has responded to history. • What is more important, practicing the traditions authentically, or making sure that what we do is relevant to our time?

11. Rhythms of Jewish Living - 5770 Reflecting on the Rhythms of Jewish Life Presented by Ittay Flescher Melbourne, Australia