If I asked you to consider how you would complete the sentence – “I wish I had more time for...”, how would you answer?
Drawing upon words from The Book of Kohelet, also known as Ecclesiastes, a part of the Megillot, the 5 scrolls in which we read from on various festivals and occasions:
To everything
There is a season
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal3
A time to break down and a time to build up
This Shabbat we read from Parashat Emor of the Calendar of Sacred time – a calendar of the fixed times to observe holidays and festivals, the first to which is laid out of course -- the Sabbath day. A Day in which to make Holy, one in which work is forbidden; yet one would naturally expect that in order to make something Holy – takes work, it takes effort.
So what in fact makes time holy?
I think the first place for us to begin to answer this question, is to understand what is time?
We know there is such a thing of course as (JST) Jewish Standard Time, although many of us who follow and schedule ourselves according to Jewish Standard Time, stereotypically have not really perfected the art because it usually means we are rarely on time.
But in all seriousness, we know that time is a universal metric and measurement that is followed by one and all, around the world.
Time After Time we realize that things can be difficult but perhaps, we come to learn, they are also things worth holding onto.
Time is relative, we learn that with each passing year, time seems to move quicker and quicker as we get older; Where earlier in our lives we may feel like a year is a long time, and then as we gradually grow older, we begin to realize just how short time really is.
As human’s we are naturally hardwired to “Remember the Time” – those moments, all those memories and experiences that become timeless and remain with us for a lifetime.
Time affords us the ability to heal, the ability to grown, an ability to learn, to think, to share, and to come together.
Time is an invaluable gift which we can both give and receive; as it only moves forward not backwards (of course unless we’re attempting to do the Time Warp); time is one of the greatest gifts one can give and receive as we’re giving and receiving a portion of our lives that we’ll never get back.
Time is an invitation. Matter of fact, in Hebrew – the word for Invitation is Haz’manah and the word for time is Zeh’man - both share the same root: z’mahn.
It is written in Pslams that “The life of man is like a breath exhaling; his days are like a passing shadow.” Time is the thread, and we are the weavers. And our lives are the fabric waiting to be woven. The Zhoar teaches that “We can live even a thousand years and still feel like it’s been only a single day.”; “We journey with and within time,” “We ride the waves of time, whether the tides are high or low. We eat time, we drink time, and are shadowed by time. The missing link in it all being the “invitation.”
Time invites the opportunity for each of us to start over, each day, each month, and each year. We get to wipe the slate clean and begin again. And while there may be instances where we feel as if we do not have enough of time, we also experience through the Sabbath day timelessness. A time for respite, a time to re-energize, a time to begin anew. Each Shabbat, we are invited into a holy place beyond the confines of time, so much so we extend it that one extra hour to a 25-hour day.
In his book “The Sabbath”, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel describes the Sabbath as a “palace in time,” explaining that the Sabbath not only offers us an opportunity for weekly spiritual reflection, but it also can shape the way in which we live the other six days of the week. And so, again I ask us to ponder how to finish the sentence “I wish I had more time to…”
Whether your answer was setting aside time for you, or time you would give to someone else, I encourage us all to make the time, allowing ourselves those instances -- so that if ever asked that question again, we can say in fact that we took the time; it helped to make us feel a bit more complete, a bit more whole – that in fact it had become our very own sacred and holy moment in time.
Drawing upon words from The Book of Kohelet, also known as Ecclesiastes, a part of the Megillot, the 5 scrolls in which we read from on various festivals and occasions:
To everything
There is a season
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal3
A time to break down and a time to build up
This Shabbat we read from Parashat Emor of the Calendar of Sacred time – a calendar of the fixed times to observe holidays and festivals, the first to which is laid out of course -- the Sabbath day. A Day in which to make Holy, one in which work is forbidden; yet one would naturally expect that in order to make something Holy – takes work, it takes effort.
So what in fact makes time holy?
I think the first place for us to begin to answer this question, is to understand what is time?
We know there is such a thing of course as (JST) Jewish Standard Time, although many of us who follow and schedule ourselves according to Jewish Standard Time, stereotypically have not really perfected the art because it usually means we are rarely on time.
But in all seriousness, we know that time is a universal metric and measurement that is followed by one and all, around the world.
- 60 seconds to a minute
- 60 minutes to an hour
- 24 hours to a day
- 168 hours in a week
Time After Time we realize that things can be difficult but perhaps, we come to learn, they are also things worth holding onto.
Time is relative, we learn that with each passing year, time seems to move quicker and quicker as we get older; Where earlier in our lives we may feel like a year is a long time, and then as we gradually grow older, we begin to realize just how short time really is.
As human’s we are naturally hardwired to “Remember the Time” – those moments, all those memories and experiences that become timeless and remain with us for a lifetime.
Time affords us the ability to heal, the ability to grown, an ability to learn, to think, to share, and to come together.
Time is an invaluable gift which we can both give and receive; as it only moves forward not backwards (of course unless we’re attempting to do the Time Warp); time is one of the greatest gifts one can give and receive as we’re giving and receiving a portion of our lives that we’ll never get back.
Time is an invitation. Matter of fact, in Hebrew – the word for Invitation is Haz’manah and the word for time is Zeh’man - both share the same root: z’mahn.
It is written in Pslams that “The life of man is like a breath exhaling; his days are like a passing shadow.” Time is the thread, and we are the weavers. And our lives are the fabric waiting to be woven. The Zhoar teaches that “We can live even a thousand years and still feel like it’s been only a single day.”; “We journey with and within time,” “We ride the waves of time, whether the tides are high or low. We eat time, we drink time, and are shadowed by time. The missing link in it all being the “invitation.”
Time invites the opportunity for each of us to start over, each day, each month, and each year. We get to wipe the slate clean and begin again. And while there may be instances where we feel as if we do not have enough of time, we also experience through the Sabbath day timelessness. A time for respite, a time to re-energize, a time to begin anew. Each Shabbat, we are invited into a holy place beyond the confines of time, so much so we extend it that one extra hour to a 25-hour day.
In his book “The Sabbath”, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel describes the Sabbath as a “palace in time,” explaining that the Sabbath not only offers us an opportunity for weekly spiritual reflection, but it also can shape the way in which we live the other six days of the week. And so, again I ask us to ponder how to finish the sentence “I wish I had more time to…”
Whether your answer was setting aside time for you, or time you would give to someone else, I encourage us all to make the time, allowing ourselves those instances -- so that if ever asked that question again, we can say in fact that we took the time; it helped to make us feel a bit more complete, a bit more whole – that in fact it had become our very own sacred and holy moment in time.