Master your time

Rabbi Avraham Vigler

Orange Grove Hebrew Congregation

This kind of experience changes the way we look at life, and the way we look at time. It teaches us that time cannot just be something that passes without our control, but rather we must become a master over our time, over our days, weeks, months and years.

Every moment in life is a gift to be treasured and maximised, and not to be taken for granted. Hashem puts us here for a reason, and if He restores our health, it is obvious that there was more that He wants us yet to accomplish here.

This week, the month of Elul begins, and we start blowing the shofar in preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We begin to work on ourselves, and seek to improve our character and our relationship with Hashem and resolve to rectify that which needs to be fixed, and ask forgiveness from anyone whom we may have hurt or offended.

We make an accounting of the entire past year, a Cheshbon Hanefesh, a reckoning of how well we spent the time Hashem gave us.

Compare Rosh Hashanah to the secular New Year, L’havdil. January 1 is also celebrated by millions annually, but in meaningless revelry without any purpose or goal. It is an excuse to have a party, because we are alive and we can.

While New Year’s Day comes and goes without an impact, Rosh Hashanah asks: “How can I make amends with those whom I have hurt? How can I ensure that next year is better than this one? How can I accomplish more with the time Hashem has given me?”

The mitzvah of keeping a calendar is so fundamental to Yiddishkeit that it was the first mitzvah we were commanded as a nation in Egypt. Rashi opens his commentary on Torah (Bereshit 1:1) by writing that since this is the first mitzvah, in truth the Torah could have really begun with this Pasuk!

Hashem commanded Moshe: “This month shall be to you the head of the months, the first of the months of the year” (Shmot 12:2), which means we must identify the new moon as it re-appears monthly after waning, and to declare that day Rosh Chodesh, starting from the month of Nissan in the Jewish year 2448.

“Since then, we have always counted our months and years. The words ‘This month shall be to you’, can also be read to say ‘make this month yours’, meaning, seize control over your time! Make it yours! Make the most you can out of each day.”

By marking each week with Shabbat, each month with Rosh Chodesh, and each year with Rosh Hashanah, we make sure not to let time pass in a blur, but to set periods of time for reflection and accounting. Furthermore, every day is divided by halachic times, like the time for tefillin and Shacharis, the time for mincha, the time for maariv, and time for the evening shema.

We bring Hashem into each part of the day. This way we can be certain this year’s Elul, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur will be better and more meaningful than last year, and we are better people and better Yidden than we were last year.

I wish you all a meaningful Elul, and Yamim Noraim.