Tick, tick, tick – each day, the clock chimes, counting the twenty four hours, one thousand four hundred forty minutes, eighty six thousand four hundred seconds. The days pass and suddenly we awake wondering where all the time has gone and how it passed so quickly. I am reminded in this of the lyrics of the famous Steve Miller Band song which speaks of the passing of time:
Time keeps on slipping
Into the future;
Time keeps on slipping,
slipping, slipping
Into the future
Over the past century, many have searched for an answer to the passing of time through what has become an entire discipline of management, and even self-help, focused on the idea that time can be managed. Remarkably, in a recent search on one of the popular bookseller websites, I found over 7300 hits for books on the topic of time management. One after the other, these resources boast lists, systems, guides and training programs, each of which promises to help inpiduals manage time.
The irony, of course, is that we all know that no matter what we do, the clock continues to tick. Time can't be managed; time is uncontrollable. Time moves forward and the future becomes now, with or without us.
This Shabbat, as we approach the end of the reading of the book of Leviticus, our attention remains on another model for the passage of time. As Shabbat begins this week, we continue our counting of the omer, the 49 days between the holiday of Pesach and the holiday of Shavuot. As we light our Shabbat candles, we conclude the marking of Lag B’ Omer (the 33rd day of the Omer) and begin counting the final 15 days.
The Torah instruction for the omer, found earlier in the book of Leviticus, teaches: “And from that day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering – the day after the Shabbat – you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete: you must count until the day after the seventh week – fifty days; then shall you bring an offering of new grain to the Lord.”
For twentieth-century philosopher, Joseph Soloveitchik, the counting of the omer introduces the dimension of time into religious consciousness: “When the Jews were delivered from the Egyptian oppression and Moses rose to undertake the almost impossible task of metamorphosizing a tribe of slaves into a nation of priests, he was told by God that the path leading from the holiday of Passover to Shavuoth, from initial liberation to consummate freedom leads through the medium of time.”
While the Torah commandment focuses on sacrifices offered for the omer, the rabbis extend the mitzvah of sefirat ha’omer (the counting of the omer). With very specific demands for verbal nightly counting during an ideal time (the onset of evening), each day is announced through reference to the previous day using a precise formula and blessing. We do not merely measure time as it passes us by; we determine the passage of time by counting the days. Taking this a step further, the Talmud Menachot tells us: “Abaye says there is an obligation to count the days of omer and there is also an obligation to count the weeks."
The ability to look towards the future, working towards the fulfillment of personal goals and objectives, celebrates autonomy and personal discretion that only one who is free can exercise. This is the vision of counting the weeks. Nevertheless, if one’s focus centers only on the future, there is a danger of missing the vitality and necessity of the present. Considering the needs of the hour, the moment in which one is in; this is the counting of the days. And so, Jewish time management calls on us count forty nine days and to also count seven weeks; to recognize both our present and our future, to usher time into the future and avoid slipping. It is then that we are truly ready to enter into Shavuot as free people, ready to receive God’s revelation.
May we all be blessed to count today, tomorrow, and all the remaining days and weeks of the omer. May the counting of time remind us of our freedom to live in the moment and plan for our future; and may we all stand together at Sinai this Shavuot ready to receive God’s Torah anew.
Shabbat Shalom!