Page 42 - HaMizrachi #28 Pesach USA 2021

PESACH READING FOURTH DAY

Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider

Liberation Through

the Medium of Time

he special Pesach emphasis on man’s entry into adulthood, he wished The night preceding my operation I
time continues well beyond Seder to impart that there is nothing more prayed to G-d and beseeched Him to
TNight. The very next night we precious in life than time. spare me. I did not ask for too much.
begin counting the Omer (ר ֶ מֹע ָ ה ת ַ רי ִ פ ְ ס), All I wanted was that He should make
daily marking each passing day and then G-d took the Jewish people out of Egypt it possible for me to attend my daugh-
every week, as time slowly marches to to become His people and observe His ter’s wedding, which was postponed on
Shavuot, nearly two months later. Rabbi Torah. As new masters of their own account of my illness – a very modest
Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l exquisitely schedule, the manumitted slaves had to wish in comparison with my insane
expressed the deeper meaning embed- remember there was a Master expecting claims to life prior to my sickness. The
ded in this count: them not to allow mitzvot “to be leav-
ened.” A Mishnah in Pirkei Avot (2:20) fantastic flights of human foolishness
When the Jews were delivered from the captures this experience of time: “Rabbi and egocentrism were distant from me
Egyptian oppression and Moshe rose to Tarfon said: The day is short, the task is that night. 3
undertake the almost impossible task of great, the laborers are lazy, the reward Being forced to recognize that the days,
metamorphosing a tribe of slaves into is much, and the Master is insistent.”
a nation of priests, he was told by G-d months, or years we have left are finite,
that the path leading from the holiday of This finds clear expression in Halacha perhaps even countable, we rediscover
Pesach to Shavuot, from initial liberation as well. As the Rav put it: their potential and value. This requires
to consummate freedom...leads through A person reads kriyat Shema at 9:05 us to redetermine what we would like
the medium of time. The commandment and fulfills the mitzvah, but at 9:06 his to accomplish in the time we have left. 4
of sefirah was entrusted to the Jew; the performance is worthless. What did he Our goal, therefore, during the 49 days
wondrous test of counting 49 successive miss? It was the same recitation, the of the Omer is to deepen our under-
days was put to him. These 49 days must same commitment, the same dedication. standing of ourselves, our relationship
be whole. If one day is missed, the act of And yet, he has not fulfilled the mitz- with one other, and our attachment to
numeration is invalidated. the Almighty.
vah of kriyat Shema. Time is of critical
A slave who is capable of appreciating importance – not years or months, but
each day, of grasping its meaning and seconds and split seconds. Time-aware- 1 Shapiro, Soloveitchik on Pesach, Sefirat
worth, of weaving every thread of time ness and appreciation is the singular HaOmer, and Shavuot, 147.
into a glorious fabric... is eligible for gift granted to free man, because time 2 Lustiger (ed.), Chumash Mesoras HaRav, 2:86..
Torah. He has achieved freedom. belongs to him; it is his time, and he can 3 Ziegler, Majesty and Humility, 254.v.

As our ancestors learned at the Exodus, utilize it to the utmost or waste it. 2 4 For further thoughts on the “time-experience,”
time is not a blank canvas on which we Once sensitized to the preciousness of see Besdin, Reflections of the Rav, 200.
live out our lives but a wash of distinct time, the Jew must maximize it. Wasting
colors – alternately bold and muted, time (ן ַ מְז לּו ּ ט ִּ ב) is worthy of contempt.
bright and dark – every moment preg- Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider is Editor of
nant with sacred potential. It follows that The pricelessness of time can be felt OU Israel’s ‘Torah Tidbits’ and Coordina-
the importance of the clock for modern especially acutely when we are faced tor of Rabbinic and Leadership Training
Jewish life cannot be overstated. For with our mortality. In 1959, the Rav at Yeshiva University’s RIETS Gruss Kollel.
this reason, Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky was diagnosed with cancer and had to He is the author of the best-selling Hag-
gadahs, The Night That Unites and Layla
(1891–1986), one of greatest luminaries undergo a difficult surgery. He shared Shel Achdut.
of the previous generation, often chose what was going through his heart and
to gift bar mitzvah boys a new watch. head before entering the operating A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau
On this auspicious day marking a young room: mizrachi.org/speakers

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