27 Mar TIME IS LIFE

The centerpiece of Pesach
is certainly the matzah and
the villain of Pesach is the
chometz. The difference
between chometz and
matzah is a mere moment.
One of the great themes
of Pesach is the value of
a moment in a Jew’s life. If we had stayed
for another moment in Mitzrayim, we would
have sunk to the 50th degree of contamination
and we wouldn’t have been worthy to be
redeemed. We got out at the very last moment.
What a difference a moment can make. In
Hebrew, the word for a moment is rega.
Reish, gimel, ayin. It is the same letters as
gara (gimel, reish, ayin) as in the phrase used
by the Jews who asked for Pesach Sheini,
“Lama yigora? – Why should we lose out?”
We don’t want to waste our precious moments.
The Gemara tells us that the wicked Bilaam
knew how to calculate the moment that
Hashem got angry. It further informs us
that Hashem didn’t get angry all the days
of Bilaam for otherwise Bilaam would have
cursed us when Hashem got angry and we
would have been destroyed.
The Gemara then asks, “How long does
Hashem’s anger last?” The Gemara answers,
“Rega – A moment.” The Gemara persists
and asks, “How long is a moment?” and the

Gemara answers, “Rega, k’memrei – Rega,
the way it sounds.” Now, we all know what
a moment is. What’s the Gemara’s purpose
of the further question, “How long”? I
believe that the Gemara is teaching us that
Hashem gets angry when He sees His children
misusing their moments.
Pesach, the birthday of the Jewish people, has
a scripted “Table of Contents” for the Seder
night. The fifteen steps of Kadeish, Ur’chatz,
etc., plot out every moment of this holy
night’s ritual. This is a fundamental lesson
for Jews throughout the year. We should have
a plan, a course of action for our daily lives.
The verse extols the virtue of the holy tribe of
Yissachar saying, “Uv’nei Yissachar, yod’ei
bina l’itim – And the children of Yissachar,
who had an understanding of the times.”
Although the simple meaning of this verse
is that they grasped the complex calculations
to intercalate the Jewish year, homiletically
it means, “Yissachar, the tribe of Torah,
understood how to use their time wisely.” As
the pasuk teaches us, “Limnos yameinu kein
hodah, v’navi l’vav chachmah – If you know
how to properly count and value your days,
this will bring to a heart of wisdom.”
Let’s talk practical. There are 168 hours in a
week. If we deduct 56 hours for 8 hours of
nightly sleep, we’re left with 112 hours. If we
deduct another 12 hours for breakfast, lunch
and supper, and another 3 hours for personal

care, we’re left with 97 hours. To my
incredulity, the word for time, zman,
has the gematria of 97. How we use
those hours determines who we are
and what our eternity will be like.
I always wondered about the
significance of the nezem, the nose
ring mentioned in the Torah. But
isn’t it interesting nezem has the
same letters as zman, and we put a
nezem on the nose which is the organ
of spirituality since Hashem blew the
neshamah through the nostrils, and it’s very
hard to sin with the nose. So, the nezem was
an ancient reminder that time should be used
for spirituality.
I know people who, when they’ve retired,
said, “I used to work 8 hours a day. Now,
I’ll try to learn 8 hours a day.” If you learn
8 hours a day, that comes to 56 hours weekly,
which remarkably is the gematria of yom,
how to spend your day. Perhaps this can be
a reason for the expression ‘nu,’ or, ‘What’s
gonna be?’ which is also the gematria of 56.
The Rambam says that night was created for
learning. If a person learns 6 hours a night,
that’s 42 hours each week which would be
alluded to in the commandment to learn,
“V’dibarta bam – To speak about them,” for
bam is numerically 42.
Time is so precious to a Jew that we have
a name for a time-fragment of 3 1/3
seconds. It’s called a cheilek, the word the
gabbai uses when he calls out the molad.
Perhaps we can say that this is another
interpretation of the request, “V’sein
chelkeinu b’Sorasecha,” that Hashem
should let us use every one of our 3 1/3
seconds profitably for Your Torah.
The great word master, the Chofetz Chaim,
zt”l, zy”a, champions the use of minutes.
He said he looked at the second hand of
a watch and discovered that it’s possible
to say 200 words in a minute. He then
went further: In 5 minutes, one can say a
thousand words of Torah. Since the Vilna
Gaon says that every word of Torah is a
separate mitzvah, that means that one can
fulfill 1000 mitzvahs in five minutes!
What an opportunity! But, also, what a
responsibility! The Hebrew word for sin
is cheit. The word cheit has an alternate
meaning. It also means ‘to miss,’ as in
the verse that testifies that the slingshot
experts of Dovid Hamelech lo chata, they
never missed. The Baalei Mussar tell
us that the worst thing about a sin is the
missed opportunity because during that
time we could have been doing a mitzvah.
Similarly, in the future, we are taught we
will face, in our final judgment, a din and
a cheshbon. The din, judgement, is for the
sin. The cheshbon, calculation, is for what
we could have been doing properly at the
same time.
The Torah testifies that both Avraham
Avinu and Dovid HaMelech were bah
b’yomim, they came to Hashem with all

their days. Pesach, our national birthday, is
a great time to speak to our family about how
we use our 97 weekly hours. How many of
them do we devote to sincere prayer with
concentration? How much of them do we
commit for learning? How much time do
we use for acts of kindness for others? How
much do we reserve for life’s mission of
shalom bayis? How many hours do we give
to our parents? What measure do we give to
our descendants?
The Kozhiglover Rosh Yeshiva says that the
word for time, zman, also means zimein, to
prepare. The smart person makes preparation
for the use of his or her time. It says that in
the future Hashem will ask us, “Kovata itim
baTorah? – Did you fix times for Torah?” Our
Torah learning should not be haphazard, left
for when we get a chance. Neither should
the time that we dedicate to our spouse be
random. The attitude of, “If everything works
out, I’ll have some time for her,” is not the
way Hashem wants us to lead our lives. Time
is life and strategies of how to use it wisely is
a great subject to bring up with our families
throughout Pesach.
In the merit of using our time wisely, may
Hashem bless us with long life, good health,
and everything wonderful.