Teach Us to Count Our Days
Tuesdays, August 10-31, 7:30-9 pm, virtual

The psalmist prays, Teach Us To Count Our Days, (then we shall acquire a heart of wisdom) Psalm 90:12.
We Jews have always asked questions about counting our days--about Time. From the time-warp notion that we all personally stood at Sinai to Einstein's concepts of spacetime, ideas of Time are at the center of Jewish philosophy and practices. This Elul, join Rabbi Chaim and Abra as they lead us in four stand-alone sessions about our ideas of Time and what it means for our lives.

Session 1:  Jewish Concepts of Time: How do Jewish texts make sense of Time, from the Creation story through the Talmud,Kabbalah, and modern thinkers? How have our ideas of Time influenced Jewish culture, practices, and indeed our survival as a people?

Session 2: Science and Time: From cosmology and geology to modern physics, what does the study of Time tell us about our place in the Universe? Can the novel Einstein's Dreams open our minds to surprising ideas about different ways Time might work? 

Session 3: Counting: What does counting our days mean and what does it look like in action? How do we recognize the liminal moments when choices can change our lives? How do we live without knowing how many days we have?

Session 4: The Big Ideas: Eternity, Mortality, Redemption, the World to Come. How can our understanding of these ideas lead us to an appreciation of this world and a better life in the year ahead?

A reader will be available at the beginning of August. Participants can download the pdfs or request a printed copy and arrange to come by and pick it up.
Recommended Reading: Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman