Almost every day I hear the same question from my four year old daughter. When am I turning five? I want to be five already! And every time she asks, I patiently answer her that her birthday is a long way away. It’s after Purim and before Pesach, and so she keeps demanding when Purim is and when Pesach is. Recently my friend celebrated his 42nd birthday. I wanted to honour him with a Kiddush in our shul and a party, but he refused. He explained that as he was still single he wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of aging by a year. He prefers to stay young.
Chassidim often tell the tale of the special clock owned by the famed Chozeh of Lublin. While their primary task is to display the time, regular clocks serve as depressing reminders of the fragility of our existence, casually drilling our mortality into us with a monotonous tick-tock. Every second passed hails another minute of life gone and spent, never to be reclaimed. With each tick of the clock we inch closer and closer to death.
The Chozeh refused to succumb to the ruthlessness of the clock. He gloried in every tick of the clock, for each second passed brought him one step closer to the Final Redemption. The mournful tone of every other clock was absent in the Rebbe’s clock, replaced by the joyous and hopeful melody of salvation.
It wasn’t until this week that I put on a watch for the first time in fifteen years, always preferring to tell the time with my Blackberry. A friend of mine gave me the gift, a beautiful piece with a background of a dancing rabbi. When I noticed the picture I immediately put it on, for it was so alive and positive, recalling to me the legendary clock of the Chozeh of Lublin. Every time I see the dancing rabbi I am reminded of the importance of treasuring time, and most of all viewing it as the greatest source of joy and the ultimate harbinger of redemption.
As time wary adults, there is much to learn from a four-year-old child constantly brimming with life and energy. Keen and enthused, she lives in the fast lane, breathlessly awaiting the thrill of a new day. Each second is utilized thoroughly, not a moment wasted on idle activity. Oh to live like in the world of a child!
It is in this week’s Torah portion of Yisro that G-d entrusts the kingdom of Israel with His Torah and with it, our mission statement. Our purpose both as individuals and as a nation is to accommodate G-d in our world, to build a home for Him in the physical realms. This is achieved through incorporating spirituality in our very material lives: performing acts of goodness and kindness, as well as mitzvot. Each deed forms a brick in G-d’s home, leading us to the pinnacle of our existence. If we each do our part, we can ensure the arrival of Moshiach one moment sooner.
david wrote...