One Hundred And Four Dimensions of Time During Passover
April 19, 2024 version, confidential Bryan Schwartz
Every year, year after year, from start to finish, the Passover Seder is about time. At the outset of the Seder, we thank the Creator for separating and blessing different times: ordinary days, holy days, the Sabbath. Yet in the rituals, prayers, and thoughts, we also connect to other times, from remembrances of our most distant past as a people, long before the Exodus, to hopes for a future time of perfect peace. The Talmud says the Torah has seventy faces – seventy levels of interpretation. Reader after reader, generation after generation, looks at a passage, and there is always one more thing to say. One part of the Tradition – the teachings and practices of the Jewish people – is the Passover festival. Almost every Jew in the world has attended a Passover Seder. Perhaps many are far more familiar with the “Bible” of the Seder, the Haggadah, than with the original Bible or the Talmud. It occurred to me in looking at a Haggadah that it contains some references to times and time. Just how many? I looked and looked
…and reflected on not only explicit references but also words, rituals, and historical background….
… I believe I have found one hundred and four. That is seventy… plus eighteen, the good luck number… plus ten for the commandments… plus four, for the cups of wine at the Passover seder– plus one, because of the Passover song, “one, who knows?” … plus another one, because there is always another one… Anyway, that is all I have found so far. I am sure that others will find even more. One day, I hope, I will too. As the Talmud suggests, we are not expected to complete the task of studying the Torah, but at least we can make a beginning.…
Written by : Bryan Schwartz
Bryan Schwartz is a playwright, poet, songwriter and author drawing on Jewish themes, liturgy and more. In addition to recently publishing the 2nd edition of Holocaust survivor Philip Weiss' memoirs and writings titled "Reflections and Essays," Bryan's personal works include two Jewish musicals "Consolation: A Musical Meditation" (2018) and newly debuted "Sacred Goof" (2023). Bryan also created and helps deliver an annual summer program at Hebrew University in Israeli Law and Society and has served as a visiting Professor at both Hebrew University and Reichman University. Bryan P Schwartz holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Queen’s University, Ontario, and Master’s and Doctorate Degree in Law from Yale Law School. As an academic, he has over forty years of experience, including being the inaugural holder of an endowed chair in international business and trade law, and has won awards for teaching, research and scholarship. He has been a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba since 1981. Bryan serves as counsel for the Pitblado Law firm since 1994. Bryan is an author/contributor of 34 books and has over 300 publications in all. He is the founding and general editor of both the Asper Review of International Business and Trade Law and the Underneath the Golden Boy series, an annual review of legislative developments in Manitoba. Bryan also has extensive practical experience in advising governments – federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous –and private clients in policy development and legislative reform and drafting. Areas in which Bryan has taught, practiced or written extensively, include: constitutional law, international, commercial, labour, trade, internet and e-commerce law and alternate dispute resolution and governance. For more information about Bryan’s legal and academic work, please visit: https://bryan-schwartz.com/.
