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Q&A: Time in Judaism

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This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

Time in Judaism

Question

Hello Rabbi,
I was at a Torah class, and the rabbi there gave an interpretation of one of the verses in Ecclesiastes (sorry, I don’t remember the verse) in which he said that King Solomon meant that time does not really exist, and that we have no reason to worry about the future because even what has not yet happened from our perspective has actually already happened.
I also saw an article by a certain rabbi that says the following:
Motion, change, causes and effects are what prove that time is real and exists in reality. But this is still not proof that time moves in stages the way we perceive it.
It may be that in true reality, all changes and all motions already exist in a single moment, similar to a film made up of millions of frames that all already exist on one disk; only we, as limited creatures, have to watch the frames in sequence, in a slow and logical way that we can grasp. The time of the universe is real, because it is defined as “the sum total of all changes in matter,” but that alone does not prove that our “sense” of time is real. It may be that the past, present, and future exist simultaneously, and we are watching a film that has already taken place. The sense of time that we feel may be only a planned illusion stemming from our very limitations.
Just as our field of vision is limited and does not allow us to see what is behind our back or what is at the edge of the world, so too our sense of reality may be limited only to the present before us, and not to the past and future. Science still has no clear answer to this question. However, various theories in physics, such as relativity, raise the theoretical idea of returning to the past or traveling to the future by means of a spaceship that would exceed the speed of light. This theory cannot be put to the test, since no object can exceed the speed of light, which is the highest speed known in the universe.
Is it possible that at this very moment the past is taking place, in which God is still bringing the Jewish people out of Egypt, and at this very moment the future is also taking place, in which the Messiah has arrived and redemption has come to the world?
I wanted to know how the Rabbi relates to these ideas, because I remember that the Rabbi argues that time is real and substantial.
Thank you very much.

Answer

There are all kinds of such ramblings from people who don’t know how to define their thoughts properly. It has no meaning whatsoever. Complete nonsense.

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