Jews and the Invention of Time

Wherever Jews lived, traces of host cultures became imbedded in many aspects of Jewish life and thought. These influences, for example, are reflected in the Babylonian names for Jewish months, just as today the days of the week carry names of planets, following Roman practices. Some Jewish rituals, like sacrifical offerings (korbanot), are related to Egyptian forms of worship. But Jews added something new.

Jews also emphasized historical memory, embedding significant events in religious practice. Historical events take on meaning as they reveal G-d’s plan. And, once grounded in that vision, one could then make sense out of what may seem random and absurd.

A simple surgical operation on a child may not have significance beyond the physical improvement it brings. Circumcision, linked to a primal event and located in time restrictions, however, is essentially a spiritual change. It’s not just the event itself that’s important, but that it is required to be done on the eighth day.

Adding a time-bound ingredient illuminates the value of human energy, creativity, and intention even in the most mundane aspects of life. Lighting candles can be a routine or simply practical act. But using this to create a ‘romantic atmosphere or to inaugurate the Sabbath makes the event a deeply personal matter. The woman becomes an initiator, her flames coinciding with fervent anticipation, culminating in an experience far beyond the act itself. Facing the lights she stands with the Creator of the world, overlooking all that has brought life to fruition. It is something that she herself has brought into the world, into her realm, where she reigns supreme. And it can only happen within and because of self-imposed restrictions of time. An hour later, there is nothing left to wait for. The yearning of the heart, the voice of G-d has already dimmed. Lost in time, the soul searches for its place, alone.

Time restrictions focus us on priorities. We see this so painfully in women who have not given birth and measure each moment of their life against the clock of desperation, dreading the time when their bodies can no longer produce children.

Part of that grieving is in all of us when we realize what we have lost, when we fail to appreciate what we have, or not taken advantage of opportunities that were given to us. We long for another chance, for another time.

Time is precious when we don’t have enough of it. “I’ll do it tomorrow,” is our banner, and, even though we may get away with it, we are left poorer than we thought.

In this story the rabbis may be trying to teach us that the Ark did not exist in space, but in time. As such, the Ark represented Eternity, the timelessness of Torah. Even the Ohel Mo’ed (Tent of Appointed Time) was a place of restriction and concentration, pre-requisites for encountering G-d. And it was a metaphor.  Each person is a sanctuary, a center of holiness within which resides an ark of truth with an immediate and direct source of inspiration. We balance at an instant of time on the edge of eternity. 

“My G-d, the soul You have placed within me is pure. You created it, You fashioned it, You breathed it into me, You safeguard it within me, and eventually You will take it from me, and restore it to me in Time to Come.”

May we be blessed with the time to accomplish the tasks which we were given by G-d and that shape our destiny.

First Published in Midstream, Sept/Oct 2000.

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Moshe Dann is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem. His new book, As Far As The Eye Can See, is published by New English Review Press.

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