"The concept of time in the Jewish way of thinking is not one of a linear flow.
Time is a process, in which past, present, and future are bound to each other, not only by cause and effect but also as a harmonization of two motions: progress forward and a countermotion backward, encircling and returning.
It is more like a spiral, or a helix, rising up from Creation.
There is always a certain return to the past; and the past is never a condition that has gone by and is no more, but rather one that continually returns and begins again at some significant point whose significance changes constantly according to changing circumstances.
There is thus a constant reversion to basic patterns of the past, although it is never possible to have a precise counterpart of any moment of time."