“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff.”
― Steven Moffat
“Reality is not a matter of our senses. It can’t be visualized.”
― Kim Stanley Robinson, Galileo's Dream
“Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space. If you can bend space you can bend time also, and if you knew enough and could move faster than light you could travel backward in time and exist in two places at once.”
― Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
“All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.”
44
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, 1895
“The time traveller proceeded, "any real body must have extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thicknessa and Duration. But through a natural infirmity of the flesh, which I will explain to you in a moment, we incline to overlook this fact. There are really four dimentions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time.”
45
Mishneh Torah, Foundations of the Torah 1:11
(11) Now that it is clear that He possesses neither body nor form, it will also be evident that events of the body do not happen to Him. Neither connection nor separation; neither place nor measure; neither going up nor going down; neither right nor left; neither front nor back; neither sitting nor standing. Nor is He found within time, or else he would have a beginning and an end, and would have a count of two. And He does not change, since there is nothing that can cause Him to change. And He has neither death nor life like the life of a living body. And neither foolishness nor wisdom like wisdom of a wise man. [And He has neither] sleeping nor waking. And neither anger nor calm. And neither happiness nor sadness. And neither quiet nor speech like the speech of man. And thus the Sages said, "The Almighty has neither sitting nor standing nor back nor weariness" (Chagigah 15a).
Stories of Elijah Compiled and translated by Rabbi Steve Sager
The Leper Messiah at the Gates of Rome
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi met Elijah while the prophet was standing at the entrance to the cave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai. Rabbi Yehoshua asked him, “Do I have a place in the world to come?” Elijah replied, “If the master desires it.” As Elijah spoke, Rabbi Yehoshua looked about in wonderment. Perhaps it was only the echo from the cave before which he stood, but later on when he would speak of this meeting with Elijah, he would say, “I saw two of us but I heard the voice of a third.” Rabbi Yehoshua asked Elijah another question about the future time: “When will the Messiah come? Elijah answered, “Go and ask him, himself.” Rabbi Yehoshua was amazed: “You mean I could find him, talk to him—now? Where is he?” Elijah said, “You can find him at the gates of Rome.” “How will I recognize him at the gates of Rome?” asked Rabbi Yehoshua. Elijah told him, “There he sits among the lepers whom you will find unwinding all of their bandages at the same time and then covering their sores with clean bandages. The Messiah is the only one who unwinds and rewinds his bandages one at a time, thinking, ‘I want to be ready at a moment’s notice if I am called’.” Rabbi Yehoshua traveled from the cave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai all the way to Rome—a journey that seemed to take him only a few steps. He was not frightened by the strong gates of the enemy nor the pitiful condition of the lepers. Keeping in mind Elijah’s advice of how to identify the Messiah in the most unlikely of places among the most wretched of people, he quickly spotted the one poor sufferer who was unwrapping and rewrapping only one sore at a time. Rabbi Yehoshua approached him and said, “Peace be upon you, my master and teacher.” The leper looked knowingly at him and replied, “Peace be upon you, son of Levi.” Rabbi Yehoshua asked him, “When will the master come?” “Today,” said the leper. Rabbi Yehoshua returned to Elijah in the blink of an eye. Elijah said to him, “What did the Messiah say to you?” Rabbi Yehoshua replied, “He said, ‘Peace be upon you, son of Levi’.” Elijah said, “Ah! As to your first question of me, he assured you that both you and your father have a place in the world to come.” Rabbi Yehoshua said, “But he lied to me, saying, ‘Today I will come.’ But he has not come.” Elijah said, “No, he did not say that he would come ‘today’. Rather, he was quoting a Psalm verse to you: Today—if only you will listen to His voice (Psalm 95:7). (from the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a)
The Leaves of Paradise
Rabbah b. Abbuha met Elijah standing in a non-Jewish cemetery…. Rabbah said to him: “Are you not a kohen, a descendant of the Temple priests? Why then do you stand here, in a cemetery where contact with the dead will make you impure and unfit for service in the Temple?” Elijah replied, “It seems as though the learned sage
has not studied the laws of purity. For there it has been taught in the name of Rabbi Shimon b. Yohai that the graves of non-Jews do not make one unfit…” Rabbah replied: “Alas, I cannot even make the time to properly study the most useful parts of the Mishnah that teach me about holidays and everyday life; how could I then
study all six divisions of the Mishnah including the very difficult and less useful division about “Purities”?”
“And why is it that you can not study more?” asked Elijah. “I am too hard pressed to make a living,” Rabbah answered. Elijah then led him into Paradise and said to him: “Remove your outer robe, spread it out and gather some of these leaves”. So he gathered the leaves of Paradise and carried them off. As he was coming out, he heard a voice: “Who would use up his portion in the world to come as Rabbah b. Abbuha has done? When Rabbah heard that, he quickly shook the leaves out of his robe and left Paradise, returning to the cemetery where he had been before. Yet, even so, since he had carried the leaves of Paradise in his robe, it had absorbed their fragrance and so he sold it for twelve thousand denars which he distributed among his children.
(Babylonian Talmud, Baba Metzia 114b)
The Secret
Elijah used to come to the Bet Midrash/study house of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi where he would study with Rabbi Yehudah. One day—it was the new moon—Rabbi Yehudah expected Elijah, and waited for him; butElijah failed to come.
The next day, Rabbi Yehudah said to Elijah: “Why are you here a day late?” He replied,“I had to wait until I awoke Abraham, washed his hands, then I waited while he prayed and I put him to rest again; likewise for Isaac and Jacob.” “But why not awake them together?” asked Rabbi Yehudah. “I feared that they would grow too strong in prayer and bring the Messiah before his time.”
Upon hearing this, Rabbi Yehudah began to hatch a plan. He asked Elijah, “And is there a group like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in this world?” Elijah said, “There is R. Hiyyah and his sons. Thereupon Rabbi Yehudah proclaimed a fast and R. Hiyya and his sons were bidden to lead the prayers. Rabbi Hiyyah, with his sons on either side, began to chant the Amidah. As Rabbi Hiyyah chanted, He causes the wind to blow, a wind blew; when he continued and sang, He causes the rain to descend, indeed, the rain descended. When he was about to say, He revives the dead, the universe trembled.
In heaven it was asked, “Who has revealed our secret to the world?” “Elijah,” the angels replied. Elijah was therefore brought and smitten with sixty flaming lashes. So he went, disguised himself as a fiery bear, entered among Rabbi Hiyyah and his sons and scattered them.
(Baba Metzia 85b)