{"id":70395,"date":"2020-02-19T12:22:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T10:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=70395"},"modified":"2023-10-15T13:52:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-15T10:52:44","slug":"olam-on-the-space-time-continuum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/olam-on-the-space-time-continuum\/","title":{"rendered":"Olam On The Space-Time Continuum"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[361,725,420,1002],"acf":{"old_id":"70395","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64450,"related_cahpter":"420","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"To eternity, and beyond...\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"

The phrase <\/span>harat olam<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is familiar to us from the prayers on Rosh Hashanah. There is it generally translated as \u201cbirthday of the world\u201d, referring to the tradition that God created the world on the first day of Tishrei \u2013 Rosh Hashanah.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if we look at where the phrase was first used, we\u2019ll see that both words in the phrase originally meant something different.<\/span><\/p>\n

The phrase originated in Jeremiah chapter 20, where the prophet curses the day he was born. In a particularly forlorn verse, he says:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause he did not kill me before birth<\/span>
\n<\/span>So that my mother might be my grave,<\/span>
\n<\/span>And her womb big [with me] for all time.\u201d (Jeremiah 20:17)<\/span><\/p>\n

Harat olam<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is the last section of the verse \u2013 which could perhaps be better translated as \u201cand her womb pregnant forever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We can first note that <\/span>harat<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>does not mean birth (as understood above), but rather \u201cpregnant.\u201d The word for pregnancy is <\/span>herayon<\/span><\/em>. And so the use of that phrase in the Rosh Hashanah prayer, means that first day of Tishrei is the day the world was conceived (in God\u2019s plan), following the alternate rabbinic tradition that the world was actually created six months later in the month of Nissan.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, in Jeremiah\u2019s lament, the word <\/span>olam<\/span><\/em>\u00a0doesn\u2019t mean \u201cworld\u201d \u2013 it means \u201cforever.\u201d That is the meaning throughout the entire Bible \u2013 it consistently means \u201ceternity\u201d or \u201calways.\u201d In this way it is related to the word for \u201chidden\u201d \u2013 <\/span>ne\u2019elam<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 meaning, \u201cthe hidden, unknown time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So how did it come to mean \u201cworld\u201d, which is the most common usage in Modern Hebrew? Apparently, between the meanings \u201ceternity\u201d and \u201cworld\u201d, there was a middle stage, where it meant \u201cage\u201d or \u201cera.\u201d This sense is still preserved in the phrases <\/span>olam hazeh<\/span><\/em>\u00a0and <\/span>olam haba<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cthis age\u201d or \u201cthe age to come\u201d respectively. They refer to either the current time we are living in, or a future time which in some way will be very different.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those two eras are so different, that they could be understood to be entirely different worlds \u2013 and in fact, a more common translation for those phrases is \u201cthis world\u201d and \u201cthe world to come.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And so from the Rabbinic period onward, <\/span>olam<\/span><\/em> came to generally mean \u201cworld\u201d, and biblical verses like the one above were refitted to adjust to this new meaning. Another example can be found in Jeremiah 10:10, which describes God as <\/span>melech olam<\/span><\/em>. In the biblical context, that meant \u201cthe everlasting king.\u201d But when it was adopted into the formula of Jewish blessings, it became \u201cKing of the World.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":70396,"id":70396,"title":"jer20-eternity","filename":"jer20-eternity.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer20-eternity.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/olam-on-the-space-time-continuum\/jer20-eternity\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer20-eternity","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":70395,"date":"2020-02-19 10:20:23","modified":"2020-02-19 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