Rabbi Greenberg addressing our group:
"In retrospect, we can see that in all of Jewish history, there have been two grand fusions of basic condition, theological message, institutional performance and leadership group. Despite continuing shifts in local situations, institutions, practices and self-understanding, these four elements were so coherent that one may characterize the overall era as a unity. In each case, it took a fundamental change in condition to motivate the kind of trans-formation which led to a new synthesis. Yet the resolution was seen as a continuation of the previous pattern and the new Jewish equilibrium that emerged was perceived as a station on the way to the final goal. These two historical syntheses correspond to the Biblical and the Rabbinic eras. Each era oriented the Jewish way in the light of a major event. In the Biblical Age, the event was one of great redemption, the Exodus; in the Rabbinic Age, it was an event of great tragedy, the Destruction of the Temple. Remarkably enough, in this age the emergence of a new synthesis is taking place before our very eyes. The third era is beginning under the sign of a great event of destruction, the Holocaust, and a great event of redemption, the rebirth of the State of Israel."
Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, “The Third Great Cycle of Jewish History”Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, “The Third Great Cycle of Jewish History,” in Perspectives, CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, 1987.
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