Table Of ContentClepsydra
Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture
edited by Aron Rodrigue and Steven J. Zipperstein
Clepsydra
Essay on the Plurality of Time
in Judaism
Sylvie Anne Goldberg
translated by benjamin ivry
stanford university press
stanford, california
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
English translation ©2016 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior
University. All rights reserved.
Clepsydra: Essay on the Plurality of Time in Judaism was originally published in
French in 2000 under the title La Clepsydre: Essai sur la pluralité des temps dans le
judaïsme ©2000, Albin Michel, Paris.
This book has been published and translated with the assistance of the Jewish
Federation of Greater Hartford, the French Ministry of Culture—National Center for
the Book, the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, and the Centre de recherches
historiques (CRH—CNRS) de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of
Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Goldberg, Sylvie Anne, author.
Title: Clepsydra : essay on the plurality of time in Judaism / Sylvie Anne Goldberg ;
translated by Benjamin Ivry.
Other titles: Clepsydre. English | Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2016. | Series: Stanford
studies in Jewish history and culture | “Originally published in French in 2000 under
the title La Clepsydre: Essai sur la pluralité des temps dans le judaïsme.” | Includes bib-
liographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015048592 (print) | LCCN 2015049042 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780804789059 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780804797160 (electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Time--Religious aspects--Judaism--History. |
History--Religious aspects--Judaism.
Classification: LCC BM729.T55 G6513 2016 (print) | LCC BM729.T55 (ebook) |
DDC 296.3--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015048592
Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10.5/14 Galliard
For my children and grandchildren,
who give meaning to time.
To the historian Bernard Lepetit,
whose life did not leave him the time . . .
Contents
Acknowledgments from the French Edition ix
Preface xi
Scriptural Abbreviations Cited xvii
Introduction 1
Part I Narrated Time 13
1. Ad tempus universale . . . A Time for Everyone? 19
2. Where Does Time Come From? 29
3. Where Is Time Going? 53
4. God’s Time, Humanity’s Time 64
5. The Time to Come 75
Part II Time Counted Down, or the World Order 97
The Course of Eras and Calculations of Time 99
6. Temporal Scansions 103
7. Eschatological Scansions: Jubilees and Apocalypses 116
8. Historiographical Scansions:
Between Adam and the Present Time 119
9. Mathematical Scansions: In What Era? 130
10. Directed Time 135
viii Contents
11. Exercises in Rabbinic Calculation 154
12. Exercises in Rabbinic Thought 173
13. A Fleeting Conclusion 201
Afterword to the English Translation 221
Appendix 225
Approximate Chronology 231
The Alphabet and Numerical Values of Letters 235
Notes 237
Select Bibliography 313
Index 355
Acknowledgments from the French Edition
This book would never have seen the light of day without the gen-
erous help lavished upon me in countless ways by loyal friends and
charitable souls, who contributed to the life of this work by encour-
aging me, making documents available, reading and rereading draft
after draft, making relevant suggestions, and providing information.
My thanks especially go to Hélène Monsacré, who welcomed the book
enthusiastically. I also owe thanks for assistance with my research to
Alain Boureau, Albert Ogien, Alessandro Guetta, Alex Derczanski, Alex
Szalat, Arnaud Sérandour, Bernard Goldstein, Chayim Milikowsky, Eli
Yassif, Éric Vigne, Étienne François, Floriane Azoulay, François Hartog,
Gad Freudenthal, Israël Goldberg, Marc Bregman, Maurice Kriegel,
Michael Riegler, Morgane Labbé, Moshé Idel, Nancy Green, Nissan
Rubin, Nurit Shahar, Olivier Munnich, Perrine Simon-Nahum, Pierre
Vidal-Naquet, Reuven Bonfil, Sacha Stern, Tony Lévy, Véronique
Gillet-Didier, Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, and Zeev Harvey. Each one
knows how much I remain beholden to them. Those who attended
my seminar at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales deserve
special mention for their patience and attentiveness, and my family like-
wise put up with my inaccessibility, absences, and constant “running
out” of time. This research also benefited from support from the Lady
Davis Fellowship Trust, which made my stay as visiting professor at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem all the more valuable by allowing me
time to immerse myself in the National Library of Israel.
