28 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:
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 G-dliness 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.