04 Jan BO: DEPRESSING TIME, PRODUCTIVE TIME, AND REDEMPTIVE TIME

Is Time
a Storm
in Which
We Are
All Lost?
Always Late
Sarah was always late to work no matter
how much she tried to be on time, or how
many times her boss scolded her. She just
could not wake up on time. Her boss said
she would fire her if it did not stop. Sarah
decided to seek the advice of her doctor.
He prescribed her some medication and
told her to take one pill before going to
sleep. She did and she woke up before
the alarm clock sounded and headed into
work feeling well-rested. Sarah told her
boss about the doctor’s prescription and
how well it worked.
Her boss said, “That is great, Sarah, but
where were you yesterday?”
Choosing the World & the Jews
It is a strange Midrash, found in this
week’s Torah portion, Bo. At the surface,
it seems baffling, but upon deeper reflection, it contains an extraordinary meditation on how we live our lives.
The Jewish calendar has twelve lunar
months. The first day of each month is
known as Rosh Chodesh (the head of
the month); the first day of the year (the
first day of the first month of the year) is
known as Rosh Hashanah (the head of
the year.)
Says the Midrash:
שמות רבה טו -, יא: דָּבָר אַחֵר -, הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם. –
הֲדָא הוּא דִּכְתִיב -(תהלים לג, יב) -אַשְׁרֵי הַגּוֹי אֲשֶׁר
– ה’ אֱלֹהָיו, מִשֶּׁבָּחַר – הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא – בְּעוֹלָמוֹ,
קָבַע בּוֹ – רָאשֵׁי חֳדָשִׁים וְשָׁנִים, – וּכְשֶׁבָּחַר
בְּיַעֲקֹב וּבָנָיו – קָבַע בֹוּ רֹאש -ׁ חֳדָשִׁים שֶׁל גְּאֻלָּה.
When G-d chose His world, He established ‘heads of months’ and ‘heads of
years.’ When G-d chose Jacob and his
children, the Jewish people, He established the ‘head of the month of redemption’ (the first day of the month of Nissan,
the month of the Exodus).
What does this Midrash mean? What
does it mean “when G-d chose his
world?” Why does the Midrash not say,
“when G-d created His world?”
And what does choosing a world have to
do with the establishment of the head of a
month and the heads of a year? And what
does the Midrash mean when it says that
“when G-d chose Jacob and his children,
He established the Head of the month of
redemption?”
Delineating time into months and years is
based on the astronomical lunar and solar
orbits. The moon completes its orbit after
one month. The sun completes its orbit
after a year. What does any of this have
to do with G-d “choosing His world,” or
“choosing Jacob and his children?”
An Address to High School Girls
On January 16, 1964 (2 Shevat, 5724),
the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994)
addressed a group of teenage girls, the
graduating class of a NY Jewish girls’
high school, Beis Rivkah. He offered
them a most marvelous insight into this
Midrash. This profound perspective can
teach us volumes about how to view a
one-liner in Midrash, and how to speak
to the hearts of teenage girls.
(This coming Shabbos marks the 70th
anniversary of the leadership of the
Lubavitcher Rebbe, who succeeded his
father-in-law as the leader of Chabad 70
years ago, on the 10th of Shevat 1951.
The following insight is characteristic of
the profundity and richness of his Torah
perspectives.)
Three Types of Time
Aristotle said that time was the greatest
teacher who killed all his students. There
is no “teacher” like time. What we learn
through time and aging is unparalleled
by any class or teacher. The experience
of life is the greatest teacher. The saying
goes: When a man with money meets a
man with experience, the man with experience ends up with the money; the man
with the money ends up with an experience.
And yet the clock stops for nobody.
“Suspect each moment, for it is a thief,
tiptoeing away with more than it brings,”
John Updike said. You may be sleeping,
sipping a coffee, surfing the web, or getting angry at Trump or Biden, the clock
is ticking away. How do we deal with the
merciless reality of time?
There are three ways, suggests the Midrash. There are three experiences of
time: depressing time, meaningful time,
and redemptive time. You choose in
which time-zone you will breathe.
Depressing Time
For some, time is just an endless flow,
a shapeless blob, a random stream that
never ceases. A day comes and a day
goes, and then another day comes and
goes. Each day is the same as the day before, and they all add up to nothing.
Sometimes you watch people who allow their days and years to pass without
goals. Every day is an invitation to squander yet another 24 hours until it too will
bite the dust. If the boredom gets to you,
you find ways to escape and dull the void.
This is an empty and depressing time:
time devoid of any theme. Time as it is
on its own, without human initiative and
creativity. Shapeless and formless. One
set of 24 hours is indistinguishable from
another set of 24 hours.
Productive Time
Comes the Midrash and says, “When
G-d chose His world, He established
‘heads of months’ and ‘heads of years.’”
For the world to become a chosen place,
a desirable habitat, a place worth living
in, a place that G-d not only created but
chose, we must grant the endless flow of
time the dignity of purpose. Every day
ought to have a productive objective,
every month—a meaningful goal, every
year—a dynamic rhythm. The world G-d
chose and desired was one in which humanity learns to confer meaning on time,
to utilize it for constructive and beneficial
endeavors. A meaningful life is a life in
which every day is filled with meaningful choices and experiences, utilized to
promote goodness and justice.
So “When G-d chose His world, He established ‘heads of months’ and ‘heads of
years.’” For time to be utilized purposefully, every month must have a “head,”
which gives the month its tone and direction. Every year must have a “head,”
Rosh Hashanah, the time to put into focus
the year that passed and the year ahead.
For time to be used productively, it must
be delineated. You must take note of a
sunrise and sunset, of a new month and a
new year. Each presents you with a specific energy and calling.
Redemptive Time
You can live a productive life, mark your
days with worthy objectives. Your life
has rhythm. You have a morning, a night,
a lunch break, a weekend, and a vacation.
But you are still confined within the realm
of a mortal, finite and frail universe. As
wise men have said, Men talk of killing
time, while time quietly kills them. Time
is a storm in which we are all lost. Time
is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it,
but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but
you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you
can never get it back
Within the restricted structure of our bodies, life span, and circumstances, we can
compose a ballad from our time. Yet, we
can’t free ourselves from the prison of
mortality. Even when I work hard and
use my time well, it is still cruel to me. It
ages me. At any moment something can
happen which will shake up and destroy
my entire structure and rhythm.
Here is where the Midrash opens us up
to another dimension of time, and this is
where the Jewish story is introduced into
history. “When G-d chose Jacob and his
children He established the head of the
month of Redemption.” G-d gave us the
ability to liberate and redeem ourselves
from the natural, mortal, and finite reality.
He allowed us to align our posture with
infinity; not just to be productive with our
time, but to confer upon each moment
transcendence, to grant it the resonance
of eternity, to liberate it and ourselves
from the shackles of mortality.
You can be productive with your time.
You can use it to shovel the snow, mow
the lawn, fix the garage, read a good
book, shop in Costco, enhance your computer speed, sell a building, cook a gourmet meal, and help society. This is worthwhile. But you are capable of more: You
can make each moment Divine, elevating it to the realm of the sacred, where
each moment, hour, day, week, month,
and year become
infused with Gdliness and are
thus transformed
into eternity. You
can allow your
time to become
a conduit for the
timeless and everlasting.
“When G-d chose
Jacob and his
children He established the head
of the month of
Redemption.”
This is the month of Nissan, the month
when we were set free of Egyptian bondage and were empowered to free ourselves from every form of bondage. Torah and Mitzvos make our time not only
productive but Divine.
When you align your time rhythm with
the Divine, realizing that every moment
of time is an opportunity to connect with
the infinite light vibrating through your
body and the cosmos; when you use your
time to study G-d’s Torah, to connect to
G-d, to perform a mitzvah, and to live
in the Divine consciousness of oneness,
your time is not only productive, but it is
redemptive, uninhibited by the shackles
of nature finitude. You redeem and transform your time—by aligning it with the
divine blueprint for life.
The Choice
When the sun rises, and I declare “Shema
Yisroel” to align my posture with Divine
oneness—the moment of sunrise is now
etched in eternity. When the sun of Friday
is about to set and I kindle the Shabbos
lights, it is a moment transformed into
transcendent peacefulness. When I take a
moment to do a favor for another person,
for tuning into the love of the universe,
for studying Torah or praying, I elevate
the moment into transcendence.
Each of us must choose in which “time
zone” we will live. Do I live in a “depressing time,” letting my days and nights pass
without meaning? Do I elevate my days
into worthwhile experiences? Or, in my
ultimate calling, do I turn each day into
a redemptive experience, into a conduit
for infinity?
How We Study Science and Physics
The Rebbe said one more thing to these
girls about their academic studies. Some
of us study the sciences and see them
merely as interesting data, raw facts.
However, much of humanity has come
to appreciate that when we study biology,
physics, history, or math it must be with a
productive and meaningful purpose—to
make the world a better place, to enhance
life on our planet, and to promote justice
and compassion.
Yet, our ultimate calling is to see all of
our studies, all branches of wisdom, as
an instrument to transform our world and
our lives into an abode for the Divine infinite reality, to infuse all aspects of our
lives with true and timeless meaning,
with everlasting love and holiness, by
revealing that ultimately, we are all one,
and everything is part of that oneness.