Talmud Class: Living Without Closure

We all love closure. We would all love to know that a danger we had worried about has passed, that we can exhale. All good. All safe. Peace. Nothing to worry about anymore. Open a bottle of wine. Rejoice.

Sometimes that happens. And other times, perhaps most times, it does not.

How do we do life when the closure we wish for is not to be had? That is a question for us in our personal lives. That is certainly a question for Israel and the Jewish people now.

No Israeli commentator or thought leader that I have heard or read believes that the existential threat posed by Iran’s nuclear regime has passed. The war was begun because Iran’s nuclear ambitions and repeatedly stated desire to destroy Israel were an existential threat. The ceasefire that was announced this week does not resolve that existential threat. How do Israelis, and the Jewish people, and all who would oppose nuclear annihilation of a people, do life without closure—with the threat still unresolved?

For our last Talmud class of the year, we are going to examine the tractate Ta’anit, which deals with an existential threat to ancient Israel: drought. No rain meant no water to drink, no water to support vegetation, no produce, no food. Drought meant famine. Drought meant hunger.

How to handle this ancient existential threat to life? Ta’anit, which means fast (as in Yom Kippur) offers us two models for living when we cannot exhale, for life without closure. The threats (drought/famine and Iranian nuclear ambition) are different. But our limited options for living with them are the same.