Spark of Jewish Experience

I felt it was a pressing need to write about this topic for the Rosh Hashana holiday is already upon us. How can that be?  How did it come so fast?  It sneaked up on us rather quickly.  I’m still paying back tuitions!!  Did seven weeks of camp really end? What’s the old expression – “In the blink of an eye”? I didn’t have a chance to have my cherry flavored Marino ices, which is my ritual every summer. Late at night, on a hot summer night, after everyone’s asleep I would go to my old childhood neighborhood and have my ices. Goodness gracious, I just looked out my back porch and saw my neighbor preparing the walls to putting up his Sukkah….YIKES!!

 What is the most precious commodity in life?  Is it gold? It would make sense. Money makes the world go round. Perhaps, it’s oil? If the Arabs didn’t have oil, they would be just a bunch of schlemiels. What about food?  Every Jewish neighborhood has a late night sandwich bar, fried schnitzel and all. I guess it’s a pressing need. However, intriguingly, many of us, at one point in our lives, have said “If I had to do it all over again, I would change this, I would change that.” This is a key expression in life which is inevitable. Often, we have such regret that the moment escaped us. Often we envision a different scenario.

 It’s a shame, for one often never has the opportunity to do it again. The moment is gone. Time has come and gone, and now it’s just a memory. It’s the spilled milk on the New York street, no way is it going back in the bottle. Can one imagine if a time machine would exist? It would be priceless!! Has anybody found the fountain of youth?

“Time is money!” we are told, but a wise man once turned this expression around and said, “Money is time!” Time, not money, is the fundamental currency by which the value of all things is measured.

After 120 years when a person leaves this world, Rabbi Ariyeh Kaplan writes a mind boggling concept that in the Heavens there is no concept of time. Past, present and future are all the same. Everything happens at once. It always hurts to think, perhaps it’s off limits to his creation, of the notion that G-d lives forever and was never born. When we stand to be judged and the prosecutor accuses the individual “why did you sin?’ He will be too ashamed to answer for his sin is right in front of him… He cannot say “well, I don’t remember that one” for past, present and future are one.

 However, it’s different here, in our existence in this world. Time is a big part of the picture. Why the world is structured this way?  Why do we need time in this world?

 There are two aspects of time which should be addressed.

Firstly, let us reflect for a moment on one of the more notorious features of our society – the mad rush that characterizes our daily existence. The rhythm of our lives is driven by the tictacking of the clock. Our jobs, our schedules, our appointments, rush hour traffic, all the aspects of our contemporary lifestyles are measured and regulated by the inexorable clock. But this is not really a new phenomenon. The accelerated pace of society has simply highlighted one of the fundamental truths of the world – that the most precious commodity by far is time. G-d gave mankind a tool to accomplish and that is time.

 We learn the purpose of time from the Hebrew word. The Hebrew word for year is “shana,” which is linked to the word “shinuy,” meaning change. For time to be used productively, it must be accompanied by growth and change. In another allusion to the concept of time being linked to accomplishment, the Hebrew word for time, “Zman,” is connected to the word “Zimun,” prepared, for every moment of time is embedded with a built-in potential for greatness and achievement.

 So we are given time for it is a measuring stick to prepare for the next world. We are on the clock and we have to use company time wisely. So we see time which is part in parcel with change and is for our benefit.

Rosh Hashana is about repentance – teshuva and one is on a time limit to accomplish it. We have to realize that life is moving very quickly and we have to ask what I accomplished so far. What can I show the heavens, how many brownie points did I accumulate? How much time is left? Did we live up to the best of our ability?

 There are incidences where we overanalyze time. We pull the trigger and say it’s “not time” or take the nuttiest incident and say it’s a sign from heaven.

Rabbi Yossi Bilus was once at a wedding where, at the chuppah, the Chattan was given the ring and as he was about to place the ring on the Kallah’s finger it dropped to the floor. The Chattan tried again and again for the second time it dropped to the floor. The crowd was stunned. The guests were indicating by their frightening sighs AHH and OHH that perhaps this couple is doomed. Then the quick thinking Rabbi performing the ceremony bends down picks up the ring and raises it above his head showing it to the guests. He then proceeds to give it to the nervous Chattan and firmly orders him to place it on the Kallah’s finger. As he placed the ring securely on his Kallah’s finger the Rabbi said to the guests “a few minutes ago it wasn’t time, however, at this moment it’s the right time!! MEKUDESHET- she is betrothed!”

The second aspect of time is the cycle of weeks and years. We learned earlier that G-d and the heavens are not governed by time. Interestingly, G-d’s first commandment which He gave to the Jews, after they left Egypt, was associated with “time”, the mitzvah of establishing the calendar. One might have expected a loftier ideal, such as the commandment of Emunah, faith in G-d, or perhaps, a commandment of personal refinement, such as loving other Jews as oneself. After all, the world is built on kindness. But no! It was the very practical mitzvah of establishing a lunar calendar to regulate the annual cycle of festivals and observances. This is really quite baffling. Why this particular mitzvah? Would it not have been more appropriate perhaps to initiate the Jewish people with a mitzvah that represents transcendent spiritual concepts? Coming out of bondage, the Jewish people were presented with a sudden wealth of time. As slaves, their time had been stripped away from them. This is freedom and now they have time to live.

When designating the new month, the Beth Din – Jewish high court declares, “Mekudash, mekudash! Sanctified, sanctified!” G-d gave the Jewish people the power to sanctify time by what they say and do, not only to give it worth but to imbue it with holiness. Rosh Chodesh, the first day of the new month, has the status of a minor festival, reminding us that we can consecrate all the moments of our lives. By living in a way consistent with Torah values and ideals, we consecrate our time and preserve it for all eternity. This mitzvah, therefore, does indeed represent some of the most transcendent spiritual concepts in the Torah. This mitzvah, delivered with the gift of time, was indeed a most fitting beginning for the special relationship between G-d and the people He had chosen as His own.

 Why by sanctifying time are we building a special relationship with G-d? What is so special to commemorate a holiday? Why is it so important to know precisely when a holiday begins? Jews can be funny that way. It’s humorous how they rush before Shabbat. What’s the big deal if they’re a little late?

 We were not privy to have left Egypt. However, G-d heard our cries and felt, at that moment, a tremendous degree of compassion and with kindness took us out of slavery.  We commemorate the holiday of Shevuot – receiving the Torah because G-d felt it was the right time for us to have it.  Rosh Hashana is a time of repentance. The Torah describes all these holidays by the word “zman – it’s time for” introducing these special events in that manner… The reason why it was so important to establish the Jewish calendar was to figure out G-d’s exact moment of that compassion, kindness. The Seder night, which we commemorate on Pesach, we sit around and recreate the exodus from Egypt on the grounds that in essence since G-d’s not governed by time and for 3000 years and every Seder night since on the same night. Similarly, that night, we can arouse G-d’s compassion and kindness the same exact way as our ancestors did. We then are ready to ask what we wish for whether good parnassa in our financial quest, a good mate, if one is single, children, if one doesn’t have.

 Rosh Hashana is a time where we ask for forgiveness that is the zman to accomplish repentance. The calendar repeats itself year after year; we have another opportunity to make our case for this is the time HE listens with a compassionate ear.

 As King Solomon said there is a time for everything. We are headed towards the repentance time. Let us hope all our prayers will be accepted and this time and all the times till 120 we will be written in the book of life!