Meditations on Time

The first creation was Time. It began and it will end and then it will be no more. Each breath, each tick, each beat of the heart comes only once. None will ever repeat itself precisely. Every instant of life is a raw but precious stone, beckoning, saying, "Unleash my potential, unlock my secret, do with me something to reveal my purpose of being! For I am here only this one time, and then never again."

And so that is our primary mission: To elevate time and make it holy.

In every point of time, all of time is there.

After all, at every moment, as the previous moment and all its history is cancelled into naught, He must regenerate the entire cosmos anew out of the void. And so He must renew along with this moment all of its past and all of time from its beginning to its end.

If so, He has rendered us masters of all of time in a single moment, of the present, of the future, and of the past as well. Wherever we steer this moment now, there rushes all of time.

Something is true, we say, when it actually happened in our physical world.

Some days, however, are even more true than that; so true that they are not limited to a certain year in a certain place. Instead, they occur again and again every year, wherever we are. They are the days we celebrate every year, in a very real way in our physical world.

All too often we are dragged helplessly by the current of Time, mercilessly ripped from our hold on the past that fathered us, forcibly confronting a future with no chance to prepare. We are the intimidated victims, servants and prisoners of Time, forever bowing to the pressures of the moment.

But there are souls that remain beyond the realm of time and place, even while they enter into it. They know Time as one who looks down from the highest mountain, watching as snow becomes creek becomes river becomes sea. To them there is no dissonance, no conflict --only the movements of a magnificent symphony.

Ask the wise men of many cultures, and they will tell you that all is temporal, all will pass, there is nothing in this world to cling to, only to transcend. Ask a sage of the Torah and he will tell you it is not true.

This is the meaning of the thirteenth of the thirteen principles of our faith, the belief that those who lived true lives will live again, in a real and corporeal way. It is a rejection of temporalism, a confirmation that there are things in the world that really matter, that have endless meaning and absolute purpose.

Whenever a G-dly act is performed, all involved are elevated beyond time. Save a life -- you are Noah saving the entire world. Feed weary travelers -- they are the angels coming to visit Abraham and Sarah. And Abraham and Sarah are hosting them with you.

In fact, all those who had truth in their lives are here with us today. It is only that we are so much a part of this river of time, we cannot lift our heads to see above it.

Only when the falseness of the world will be ripped away and all is elevated to a place of truth, then we shall all see each other, together once again.

When you take control of your life, the first place to start is with Time: Where have you placed the hours of your day?

But you cannot control Time until you first take control of yourself: Where have you placed your heart, your mind and your soul? What is important to you? Why have you entered this world?

When your time for study, time for prayer, time for family, time for the world are anchored with all your being, then all the winds of the world cannot budge them.

Wisdom lives in the future, and from there it speaks to us. There is no such thing as wisdom of the past.

Wisdom preceded the world and wisdom is its destiny. With each passing moment, wisdom becomes younger as we come closer to the time when it is born and breathes the air of day.

Our ancient mothers and fathers, the sages, all those from whom we learn wisdom -- they are not guardians of the past. They are messengers of the future.