Tazria-Metzora: Time Out!
Dear readers,
The joke is told of the Jew who was once challenged to a duel. When the appointed day arrived, he sent a telegram to his opponent, “If I’m late, start without me.”
The oft-used expression “Jewish time” describes the Jewish ease with time, in which coming late is not uncommon. The current season on the Jewish calendar, however, seems to be G‑d’s therapy to cure this ailment of (h)ours.
For the forty-nine days between Passover and Shavuot, we have a mitzvah to count the Omer, simply counting the passage of time until Shavuot. Each evening, the Torah instructs to count how many days have accumulated since the second day of Passover, when the Omer sacrifice was brought in the Temple. All that’s necessary is to recognize this and say, “Today is so many days, which comprise so many weeks to the Omer”—and the mitzvah has been done.
The most obvious effect of this practice is that it makes us aware of the passage of time, and drives home the need to value it. As the old chassidic adage teaches, “we must always be keeping count.”
And so, it is aptly said in the name of the Rebbe, “The world says that time is money; I say that time is life.”
Baruch Davidson,
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
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