{"id":29174,"date":"2012-09-06T02:15:17","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T02:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=29174"},"modified":"2017-02-13T06:05:40","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T11:05:40","slug":"do-you-make-your-time-count-eliyahu-safran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/do-you-make-your-time-count-eliyahu-safran\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Make Your Time Count?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just as the ticking of the seconds become minutes that become hours and that become days, the days become weeks, become months and become years. \u00a0What is the worth of marking time?<\/p>\n

What makes one day different than the next? \u00a0How do we value the boxes on our calendars that help us to distinguish one day from another, with birthdays, anniversaries, business meetings, doctor appointments and holiday celebrations? \u00a0In an interesting way, we are very much as our calendars present us. \u00a0Do we take \u201cone day at a time\u201d or a full week? \u00a0Do we plan for the immediate, or do we plan long-range?<\/p>\n

I speak not of a \u201ccalendar\u201d in the theoretical, philosophical sense; that is, the lines we place on time so that it progresses in a way that is meaningful and measurable to us. \u00a0Instead, I speak of the physical calendars we carry, or set upon our desks, or hang from our walls. \u00a0Go into any office supply store and you will find many different calendars and styles to choose from. \u00a0There are calendars that display a single day at a time so that, at the end of the day, the day\u2019s page is torn away and it is as if they day is lost, gone. \u00a0At the end of 365 days, the year too, is essentially discarded. \u00a0All that is left is a cover bereft of pages, of days and weeks. \u00a0Of time or substance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are other calendars designed so that an entire month can be viewed \u201cat a glance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such calendars invite the user to take the longer view, and to tear off a page not every day but every month, but tear and discard nonetheless.<\/p>\n

What does it mean to be a person who lives according to these types of calendars? \u00a0How does such a person view his or her accomplishments and events that have occupied their time?<\/p>\n

Their days and months and years fly by, quickly discarded, too often forgotten, and lost to the shadows of ill-defined time. For them, the days and weeks have no more real significance than the paper pages of the calendars that they discard so thoughtlessly.<\/p>\n

For these people, their calendars govern their lives only insofar as they dictate schedules, and impose arbitrary boundaries on the vast sameness of time and experience. \u00a0Their response to their calendars is fundamentally passive, a nod to the passage of time rather than the embrace of the moment.<\/p>\n

If their calendars communicate anything at all, it is that time is passing and fleeting \u2013 and empty of meaning.<\/p>\n

But there are others for whom a calendar is a significant document. \u00a0They are serious and sensitive people who rebel against having time determined by pre-designed calendars. \u00a0For them, time is a physical reality, like the world around them. \u00a0They seek to embrace the beauty of it and so they design their own calendars. \u00a0These are people who recognize that the days of a man\u2019s life are brief, and each moment is too precious to be discarded simply because a calendar leads to the end \u2013 of a day, a week, a year.<\/p>\n

They live their lives actively. \u00a0Their calendars do not determine how time is marked but they determine their calendars. \u00a0They imbue time with meaning, and find the meaning in time. \u00a0Their calendars are unique, quirky, idiosyncratic, special. \u00a0They cannot be mass produced, nor can they be mass mailed by synagogues, yeshivot\u00a0<\/em>(schools of Torah), hospitals or orphanages. \u00a0They are diligently and lovingly handwritten, drawn, measured, and designed by thoughtful and prudent individuals. \u00a0When the days, weeks and years of these calendars are realized, they are not torn or discarded. \u00a0They are treasured and preserved for posterity, to be passed on to future generations as legacies of human fulfillment and achievement.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The Midrash records a conversation between the Almighty and the angels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen is Rosh Hashanah, and when is Yom Kippur?\u201d the angels ask. \u00a0G-d is amazed by the question and responds, \u201cWhy are you asking me? \u00a0Let us go down to the lower [human] court and find out. \u00a0Does it not explicitly say: \u2018Blow the shofar at the new moon, at the full moon for the feast day. For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the G-d of Jacob.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

By his response, G-d is teaching the angels that man has the knowledge and ability to meaningfully create and design his own days of celebration. \u00a0Man has tools, methods and techniques to infuse his days with values, content and meaning. \u00a0While it is true that the seasons of harvest and planting, the pilgrimages and certain holidays are set, it falls to man to use his intellect to celebrate and mark these days with fervor and meaning.<\/p>\n

In teaching Moshe about the celebration of sacred days, G-d says, \u201cThese are the special times that you must celebrate as sacred holidays at their appropriate times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Proper celebration of G-d\u2019s festivals requires the complete and full participation of man; Halachically through Kiddush Ha-Chodesh\u00a0<\/em>(sanctification of the new month), cross examination of witnesses, announcements of the new moon to other distant communities and personally, by infusing the days with meaning, and spirit.<\/p>\n

There was once a little girl who taped a new calendar on her wall. \u201cIt is going to be a beautiful year,\u201d she exclaimed to her mother, who was watching her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you know it is going to be a beautiful year? A year is a long time, and you never know what will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d she answered, \u201cbut a day is not a long time. I am going to take a day at a time and make it beautiful. \u00a0Years are only days put together, and I am going to see that every day in the New Year gets something beautiful into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wisdom of the innocent! \u00a0That little girl was determined to author her own calendar.<\/p>\n

Let us each learn from her wisdom and approach the beginning of this new year with a resolve to be the author and designer of our own calendar. \u00a0Let us not be enslaved to predesigned schedules, programs, timetables and resolutions. \u00a0Let us not simply \u201ctear off\u201d and discard the most precious aspect of our lives \u2013 time. \u00a0May our 5773 calendars be designed with care, adorned with precision and love, accompanied with health, happiness and contentment \u2013 so that our individual and collective accomplishments are many. Shanah Tova<\/em>, wishing you a happy and sweet New Year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Who will stand at your synagogue’s pulpit? Rabbis across the U.S. and Canada exchange pulpits and inspire with a special Kinus Teshuva<\/a><\/em>\u00a0program.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran<\/strong> serves as OU Kosher\u2019s vice president of communications and marketing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New Year is near. Another year past. We must choose to approach our days wisely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":29176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-rosh-hashanah"],"yoast_head":"\nDo You Make Your Time Count? - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The New Year is near. Another year has passed. We must approach our days wisely. 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