The purpose of the course, called "The Kabbalah of Time," is to help individuals cope with the implications of our increasingly high-speed world.
It is an eight-week course offered through the Jewish Learning Institute, the adult education arm of Chabad Lubavitch.
"We live in an age obsessed with time," states the promotional material for the course. "On the one hand, we have managed to speed up many of our mundane daily activities so that they take a fraction of the time they once did. Yet we do not find that we are more serene or happy. To the contrary, there are ever-increasing demands and intrusion on our time, creating an increasingly fragmented existence."
Kabbalah class looks at alternate view of time
Portland is one of 160 locations around the world where a new course in Kabbalah will be offered starting Feb. 8.
The purpose of the course, called “The Kabbalah of Time,” is to help individuals cope with the implications of our increasingly high-speed world.
It is an eight-week course offered through the Jewish Learning Institute, the adult education arm of Chabad Lubavitch.
“We live in an age obsessed with time,” states the promotional material for the course. “On the one hand, we have managed to speed up many of our mundane daily activities so that they take a fraction of the time they once did. Yet we do not find that we are more serene or happy. To the contrary, there are ever-increasing demands and intrusion on our time, creating an increasingly fragmented existence.”
“The Kabbalah of Time” is designed, say its planners, to help individuals harness time effectively by creating an awareness of the two levels on which time exists.
On the first level is our unrelenting measurement of second, minutes and hours.
On the second level individuals can discover larger patterns of meaning that create order and direction in their lives. It is on this level that “The Kabbalah of Time” concentrates.
“The Kabbalah of Time” is intended to foster thoughtful inquiry that will instill in students a different notion of counting the days of their lives. Learning from ancient texts of Jewish mysticism, students will learn to respond to the flow of time.
The course will examine daily, weekly, monthly and yearly cycles, and do so at levels that touch the soul, according to course planners. Students will learn to use their new knowledge to discover meaning in their lives and to live each day to the fullest.
Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm of Chabad Lubavitch of Oregon will teach the course locally.
“It is no accident,” said Wilhelm, “that our language talks of killing time. For the moments of time are the building blocks or our life.”
There will be two sessions of the class in Portland, one on Wednesday nights, the other on Thursday nights. Each class runs 90 minutes
The Wednesday night class will begin on Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. at the new location of the Jewish Learning Institute, 6686 S.W. Capitol Hwy. That’s in the building also occupied by Chabad’s Congregation Beis Manachem and the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.
The Thursday night class will begin on Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. in the offices of the Pearl Health Clinic, 721 N.W. Ninth Ave.
Wilhelm said the best way to register for the course is to visit www.myjli.com. Click on “Courses,” “Kabbalah of Time,” “Find Location” (type in your local Zip code), then click on “Register.”
