Time in Our Hands | Rabbi Shmuel Goldin

at the beginning of this class we are at the moment of yat MIT we're standing with Moshe rabenu and cl Israel Israelites and Jewish nation is about to be born we are born as a nation through and mat T beforehand the patriarchal era the matriarchal era we we've mentioned before is a prehistorical era in terms of our national story we begin as a nation right now in this case and Rashi is the one to raise the question but anyone can raise the question why does the Torah start this way when we become a nation take a look mosha turns to turns to MOS and this month is for you the head of months the first of months for you of the entire year this is the first Mitzvah given to us as a people why why don't why doesn't begin with something more lofty why doesn't or do you know how you're supposed to deal in in business or whatever it is something that is more uplifting than what seems to be this technical technical law the fact is that there are two laws in that pule I have to identify them both one ises and that means is in other words God is saying we have a partnership the partner ship is that I make the cycle of the moon and you determine you determine when it is roses based upon testimony Etc which occurred in the days of the son hedrin and today does not occur today we don't have that same Mitzvah Nissan is the first of the months that's the second commandment so you have two Commandments here and both of them require elaboration both of them require our understanding so again take a look at the bottom of the page Kesh layer upon layer the first layer is partnership is turning to the slaves and saying to them understand who you are you will be partners with me in the creation of time in the determination of what your calendar is and by the way once we'll see in a in a little while that this is becomes dramatic IC once you establish the the beginning of the month what else are you establishing all of the days of the holidays you're determining when rosh is you're determining when yipper is ETC it's and we'll see that in just a moment take a look at the next page page number two the talud they has a wonderful way of expressing what we're saying all right this is the town withi inash the ban says today is Ros based upon testimony Etc in the heavens turns and says get everything ready put up the stage have the prosecuting attorney there and the uh the defending defendant fending attorney there because my people my children have said that that's it's now rosashana so we've got to be ready if for some reason the bezdan then says no well maybe whatever how it happens is not clear but they decide no it's not rosashana today it's rosashana tomorrow what happens in the heavens take away the stage take away the the defendants take away the lawyers because my sons my children have determined that this isn't rosashana that tomorrow is rosashana now this concept of partnership with God and this is one of the reasons I think that this is the first Mitzvah this concept of partnership with God which is so clear in this particular Mitzvah is really one of the foundations upon which the process is based one of the what we call the oral law can be divided into a number of categories have any of you been with me for that class all right if not then I'm going to give it all right they the the oral law can be divided into a number of categories we'll talk about it in more depth when we get to that that that session but one of the one of them is the determination the handing over of Divine Law to man the fact that says these are the principles these are the ways to interpret them and now go do your best and that concept that concept that God is handing the law over to us or to the rabbis to experts that concept and we'll see that expertise is necessary that concept is fundamental to Jewish thought Einstein zal one of The Luminaries of the of the 20th century says in the hak to Moshe OSS Moshe is is a work that contains some of the responses that he's given to questions that he received it's really a Jewish an Landers all right but what it's in other words it's it's basically you're mosha rosha is is responding to various questions and you'll see the question it'll take up two lines and then the the answer will take up five pages six pages where he traces back and in the introduction to that work rosha says I don't want to do this this is too big a responsibility I don't want I don't want it on my shoulders to determine what the Jews should be doing and not but what gives me Solace is that a kades who tells me that whatever answer I come up with as long as I enter into the process with loyalty whatever answer I come up with will be right for us and that's that is a huge concept that is an unbelievable concept and it's one that really makes the Hal different from other religious laws laav the pope that's I don't have to the pope lail right speaks for God it's not the the a number of years ago Time Magazine of the states had uh an issue where they dealt with religious lead world leaders and they had the Daly llama standing on the uh Mountaintop looking out right and they had the pope standing before the Vatican with all his robes and they had the rabbi standing there with a book now I don't know if they realized what they what they were saying but that's it we when the someone asks us what Thea might be whether it's a communal Rabbi or he then has to go to aake perhaps the expert who is providing the information doesn't get it from divine inspiration he hits the books he goes back to the gamarra he goes back to the Kish he goes back to the gamarra he goes to the um Ram to the etc etc etc and what happens is he'll give you the and as long as he is entering into the process with intent to find the truth then whatever answer he comes up with becomes part of Jewish law I have a book in my um in my library which I got from my my grandfather which um is called oim hug it's a encyclopedic work of denim of laws and customs and in this uh and it's done in alphabetical order and in this book is is the word telephone right this was written kind of at the turn of the century and in this book it says most authorities say you can use the telephone on chabas right now what happened was there was a debate and at that point perhaps the overwhelm but the majority of post eventually learning what the telephone was gave a different answer but that's that's what happens in fact what happens is that in any generation I believe you'll have the debate by the Next Generation it's been decided all right and you're moving on from there it it it should we the Hal process really originally depends on having a son hedrin which we don't have so we have individual post differences of opinion and we'll talk about that uh in another session now so that's one number one KES is one perhaps one of the clearest examples of the hakik process and of our partnership with God number two kesak kodesh is the start of Jewish time time and if you take a look at the quote from R salic he says as only he can say time awareness is a singular faculty of the free man who can use it or abuse it to enslave it it is a curse or a matter of indifference it is not an instrument which he can harness to his purposes the free man wants the free man wants time to move slowly because presumably it is being employed for his purposes the distinction the r goes on to talk more about this the distinction between a slave and a free man says the RV is time is how the fact that the slave is burdened with time time and the free person has the ability the capacity to harness time and to use time for your benefit but but the problem is that time is very hard to harness isn't it in fact it's very interesting time is the one thing that really defies us and almost taunts us when you want it to go fast like you're sitting in a a boring class you wanted to go class you want it to go fast it goes slow and you want it to go slow it goes fast right in other words time really defies us and and tws us so how do you harness time soic has an answer turn to the next page the the RV says that there are three processes if you will that the Jew is supposed to experience in each moment of time and by the way the the r is if you ever read any of his his Works they're not he didn't write them but people said wrote them down the joke my time was you know that someone went into his office and saw the r had a thesaurus and another person said yeah the RV was correcting the thesaurus right if you take a look at his works it could conceivably be I mean he uses terminology the is a perfect example of of melding that that which is good from the outside world with what is unclear and leaving out what is not correct very important okay so the r says there are three three processes three procedures we're supposed to experience in every moment of time and each of these is essential to transcending time or capturing time whichever way you want to look at the first is retrospection he says retrospection is not just knowing your history it's carrying your history with you it's living your life in the not in the shadow of but be by by being formed of the historical Saga of our people and we see that today today there was a there's a lot of discussion now about the Holocaust because it's Holocaust Remembrance Day we have to live with that that that has to be part of what we are and who we are in other words that's that should power us and say we we're thank God in a different situation we can do look at what we can accomplish who knows how you harness it but that's supposed to be with us as we travel and the good times as well the glory times as well retrospection anticipation anticipation is a belief in a glorious future now the r really says very beautifully what is he says that the contribution of the Jew to historical awareness is that we introduced a destiny driven history right that until then everyone believed that history was governed by causality he says right what's causality it's being pushed by the p in other words one generation does things prepares for the Next Generation the EXT generation builds on what came before we however say no we're not just pushed by the past we're propelled by the future right we we're going somewhere we're traveling to a particular destination what that destination is is and the details of that destination is not totally clear to was the mashiach mashia times etc etc but we're going there we're traveling on a on a road that takes us back all the way to Abraham and will take us to that destination and that awareness is in huge contribution because it changes the way we look I mean history governed by causality doesn't work well it works but negatively for example at the beginning of the 1900s everybody was is feeling pretty good and they were saying you know this century is going to be the best Century of all this is going to be the century where we've we've come to a certain moral status we've come to a certain scientific status this is going to be the the the the generation that's going to be the the the the best iteration of time and it has been maybe the worst generation the worst Century I'm sorry been it right in other words there's no there's no um you can't say with speci specificity I'm trying to think of the word word that I want you know I don't know you do have this problem too sometimes all right thank you good all right good to know good to know all right uh you can't predict that's the word you can't predict that what will happen based upon the past you have to build your own time all right so appre that anticipation is Destiny driven history so we've got retrospection anticipation and finally we come to the hardest of all and that is appreciation says the r appreciation is the determination of your the value of your own time in life the understanding what your generation what your crowd who you what you're supposed to contribute to Je history and retrospection and anticipation are supposed to inform anticipation and form appreciation in other words the r says appreciation is the combination of all three I have to have the past with me I have to have the future with me and I have to have the present defined by not defined only by that but defined partially by those by those events or those uh values and then bring in my own values bring in my own time determine how all of Jewish history affects me probably when we get closer to PES we'll we'll talk about the seder at some point but if you think about the Seder it's very interesting it's very interesting people don't notice this PE one of the things uh actually had the to publish a hag and what I did in the ha was i i people always look at the Seder as little details in other words there's this there carass no hardly anyone takes a step back to look at the seder's flow and if you look at the S the flow of the Seder it's very interesting it mirrors these three right everything before for the meal is the past everything after the meal is the future what's the meal the present and it's supposed to be informed and we are invelop it's a it's a meal like no other meal in in in our experience it's a meal where we're living we're trying to bring out these three these three processes yes isure is very very nice past is history the future is Mystery I'm not sure that I agree with that though right because what we're saying is the past is not just history right the past is something that I've got to has to be alive in in me right okay so we are so and the r says that when you do these three procedures or processes you experience them successfully then you are transcending time you're not controlled by time because you're living in a in a flow that goes past the particular moment in which you live and brings in the future the past and the present another aspect of time is the concept of kadat there are two different major kinds of kadus that are found in Jewish thought there's kadat mom and kadat the the sanctity of a place and the sanctity of time which of the two is more powerful if you look at Jewish law sanctity of time overwhelms the sanctity of place in a number of ways for example just a quick example what the building of the mishan building of the mishan would continue until what Shabbat Shabbat they would put the thing their their tools down and then they begin again the idea being that kadat man transcends even the the Holiness of a place and what's fascinating is that time is really the first example of kadus in the Torah God seems to create sanctity and time simultaneously when does he do that right God sanctifies the seventh day it's First Act of sanctification and what he's sanctifying is time we're supposed to learn from the times that we experience and let them inform all our other experiences spab is supposed to affect our weak it's not just supposed to be at the ice olated moment of time I think I told you about my friend who was a chain smoker hope maybe not um and unfortunately he smoked about a pack a day or two come shabas he would put down the cigarette and if you walked up to him at any point on chabas and said to him Sid do you do you miss the cigarettes he says shabus no of course not he would light his the next cigarette from the havdala candle and unfortunately he passed away because of lung cancer he failed to understand that shabas is supposed to inform the weak if you can do it on chamus you can do it during the week as well if you can spend time with your family on chamus then you can spend time with with your family shabas is is meant to be a model that in warms the week so time is our most precious commodity really isn't it and I believe that's why kadat transcends kadat makom because what we're doing when we give God our time when we observe Shabbat when we observe yto we are basically saying KES we're going to take some of our time which is so precious it's a most precious commodity and we're going to sanctify it and we're going to partner with you in that sanctification and Kad can be different for different events for example when it comes to chabas the rabbi say Shabbat is that it is Sanctified by God from the beginning of time and on concerning chabas I don't really have a sanctification role my role is to experience the sanctification that a created on chabas when it comes to Y totally different the Kat of yto is a partnership between man and God because of because of Kes KES or reflected in KES KES if we determine when theid is we're also going to determine the the character of its sanctification and therefore according what there are differences you can cook on cook under certain restrictions on Yan you Yan if you look this is not true with the spartic Traditions but if you look at the the amot of Shabbat in the yashik Traditions there is no no paragraph of right of sim shabas is not sim shabas is what on correct own egg is I'm experiencing A's presence I'm enjoying this I'm experiencing it but I'm not creating when it comes to chabas in that regard when it comes to yto partnership sanctification partnership okay let's go on next so the so we've spoken about how the fact that we made said KES aesh really governed God's actions in a way right determined the the time and the place of the holidays but the ramam comes and makes a very important point the Ram comes and says right at the bottom of the page page number three three the the determination of the months is not given to everybody in other words I can't say even in time when when we sanctify the month I couldn't say sitting in Tel Aviv it wasn't any Tel Aviv come come up n yafo all right I couldn't say you know I'm going to determine I'm going to look at the side I'm it is given to the Bez and the bezin a time and the bezin relies on on uh adus relies on testimony of witnesses to determine when or when the it's either go now what's the the issue it's either going to be a month that is or a month that is Molly it's either going to be a month that is 29 days or a month that's 30 days that's the H GF that's what we're dealing with well you also deal with leaping the year but that's another issue all right so says the r they have to deter right the the court will determine when rodes is and Proclaim it now this may seem self-understood but again I'm going to quote the r in a very interesting way korak Rebels against Moshe rabenu and against aaro and sa for B but korak's Rebellion interestingly enough is seen differently by the rabbis they say they paint pictures of what of what he said and how he did it for example they said the the korak came to to Moshe and to the people and said I have a question if I have a a Talis that the Garment is totally blue right so you know this do I need a blue thread as well and mosha said yes you do car says that's ridiculous if I have a house that is filled with Torah Scrolls floor to ceiling well not on the floor but right do I still need a mza and mosha answers yes you do and Kor mocks the answer now what are kazal saying to us with those those pictures korak's Rebellion wasn't just a rebellion against our own emotion it was a rebellion against Hal Authority Moshe is the first deiser of halaha if you take him away from that role the stops that if Thea stops by the way you and I wouldn't be sitting here we would have disappeared a long time ago because what's what has held us together over the years right is not place what right the and how we live and what we do okay tradition very good we were singing Tradition now so there for korak's answer had to be korak's Rebellion is is answered in such powerful way why the Earth swallows etc etc because in some ways this was the most dangerous moment for that generation in some ways if if God didn't respond with strength then the they they would they and what the r says is it's a rebellion of Common Sense a common sense Rebellion against H Authority that's really what the rabbis are portraying and in our day he says he says you if you go if you need medicine you wouldn't prescribe your own medicine right go to the expert he says why do so many Jews feel that they can determine what the is as opposed to going to the expert to determine that law it's the common sense Rebellion it's korak's Rebellion against alic Authority and therefore what we we have to recognize is that the is essential for our survival and essential for the is rinic Authority essential for the is the rabis making the decisions and with all that brings and all their flaws and all their nonetheless okay now turn to the next turn to the next page I'm now on page number four turn to four right if you turn to four you find a dramatic event that occurs and underscores everything we've been talking about till now and that is raban Gamel and RAB yahushua right two mishna the first mishna and I'm G to I unfortunately I didn't underline certain sections that I should have but if you take it look at the first underline you'll see that what it says is two witnesses come and they say to the rabbis say the bezin we saw the mo the moon in the east in the morning and in the West in the evening these are these are false Witnesses it's not possible they're giving testimony that makes no sense Etc another set comes old he knew Mano we saw it at the right time the time was expected but afterwards it disappeared we didn't see it anymore and again the rabbis say this is but ran Gamel accepted that testimony for whatever reason raban Gamel said they're not false Witnesses in each case I accept their testimony re yua another major major figure and there's a lot of dealings between ran Rua Etc in our history Rao says I I believei is right I believe that these are false Witnesses so I think we should not accept their testimony and we should determine the calendar on the basis of that nonacceptance says wait a minute I'm the authority now I'm the n and Rua goes and in the in the text here it says that Raba encounters him and Reba says what's why are you so sad what's bothering you and rehua tells him why and he answers you should understand that whatever ra said he is the authority now he goes to reidus and see what Rebel did I forgot to tell you this he didn't just make when he heard that yosua was opposing his decision he said I I ordered you to come on the Yom Kipper that day that you think is Yom Kipper I order you to desecrate that day in other words I order you to come to me with your staff and with your belongings that I I and stand before me do things that are only done behold only during the we only during a nonh holiday don't Kip her don't Kip herua I think this isn't Yer this is your Kipper and rabag gel says no You' got he's strong you have to appear before me with your staff in your hand and your bag with you he encounters other great Scholars Reid doam andinus says Reid doam and herness if you question raan Gamel you're going to have to question every bezden that existed since the time of mosha you're opening up a Pandora's Box there has to be an authority that determines and when we had a Sanhedrin this is how it worked and those Authority that Authority would determine and you have to accept it eventually take a look at the third line from the bottom notal mlo Rua took his took the um his staff and his money eventually gives in he understands that he can't and he appears before abang Gamel with his staff and with his money and what does ra say he says Bo Shalom rebi rebi come in peace my teacher he's saying this yua and my student my teacher with wisdom you you you transcend me in wisdom and because you accept it what so this is an example of the tension that exist that exists in the determination of Al and one could argue why you know that we was this was supposed to work with a central Authority we don't have that Central Authority now everybody goes to their own post sake and and and and there's potential for very serious differences of in one major one major major uh controversy that takes place now is the controversy concerning and I'm sorry to say brain death brain death what is the if God forbid God for million times you have someone who is brain dead in other words and that's not the brain death that is used on a popular level it means total brain death it means you he does there's no brain activity even in the brain stem in other words which controls reflexive action but the person is on a respirator and is breathing and the class physical definition of death in the past has always been breathing so what what and now why does this become so important even more because of transplantation right there are certain organs that you cannot you can only transplant from an individual like this who is if you consider him dead you can do it if you don't so one one Authority is saying you unplug that respirator its murder the other authority is saying the guy's dead and and if he's dead you're keeping him alive artificially that's you're not even keeping him alive and therefore we can trans we can transplant orans we can take him off the respirator Etc now this is a debate that is waging in the in the halls of the of the the of the community but it's being decided it's being decided out in the field by the rabbis I I I I argue I'm I'm pretty sure that most rabbis are accepting brain death as death and I believe and I believe that by the Next Generation it won't be an argument anymore there'll be the decision just like telephone laav de in my in that book where there was an argument concerning whether or not you could use it and apparently major experts said you could and now they we we know we can't so what is a debate in one generation ends up being solved in the next so that's what that's what will happen but it's an example of where the is encountering tremendously difficult issues and the determination of the can can make a world of difference now let's go on why the moon why don't we follow the Sun Sun so there are a variety of potential answers one is that the Moon is the only Celestial body that whates that changes that grows right Kesh what does the word Kesh come from kadash our life is supposed to mirror the moon not at its descent but only at its asset we're supposed to we're supposed to feel that we're constantly in motion towards Higher Goals for ourselves for our lives and that's why you have very often in Jewish thought you will find mitzvot that celebrate the journey as opposed to the destination in other words the spat om right the counting of the OM day by day by day is to make us understand that yes we want to get to Revelation and that's important but the journey there is even more important and things can happen in the journey that you don't expect and that can enrich your lives this gives life to to a common a Common Thread concerning time quality time I'm GNA have quality time with the family I'm gonna what I'm going to do is I'm going to work every day until nine o'clock but I'll I'll eat out the time that I and that's quality time that's when it will make a difference things that that happen at other times can be more impactful I can remember a ball game with my father right more than all the teaching he might have given me right in other words pick up ball game in the backyard and what what that meant you never know grandparents grandparents you never know when the mo a moment will come that will be remembered think of your memories they're not necessarily the memories that you would would have expected would be memories and certainly not those that your parents would have expected you can predict so time time and the journey is extremely important the yes the moones maximum strength as it exactly the time two of our ma connect very interesting right that that he said that the what that the Journey of the moon reaches its fullest at a point where two of our festivals are at that moment right so R right it's that that's right I was thinking of I was thinking of it beginning at the beginning of the Jour right so we that and we celebrate that correct we celebrate the moons PES and PES and sukot all right so that is that is again the journey getting to that traveling towards that moment and says in the bottom of your page why do we say Hales Hales is not a Mitzvah it's not a it's not even a minog it's something we adopted why because it represents Jewish survival he says there are times when we look at the at the sky and it's dark there are times when we look at our situation and it's Bleak and there are other times when we can work our way through that step by step and the moon begin begins to become brighter and our experience begins to become better and and that's the moon represents the Journey of the Jewish people course history Darkness and light Darkness and Light Darkness and Light okay let's turn the page page number five oh boy we're running out all right we spoke about the the last thing concerning so basically where we've we've seen as I said in the beginning lay upon lay of of meaning in the concept of kesay upon of meaning that makes this the perfect Mitzvah with which to begin the process as a nation but the second directive what's the second directive Nissan should be for you rash well we don't follow that do we right in other words we we look we when do we celebrate Ros right what what does it mean that Nissan and why why is there so first of all you you should know that in the Jewish calendar there are multiple Rashana right New Year one we know about is the new year coming up the new year of the trees what why does why every you know every other tradition can agree on what their new year be when their new year begins and we debate begins here begins here begins here why can't we make our mind because this Jewish tradition wants us to to experience and to Value so many different things and the multiple Russ take the new year of the trees we value the trees value nature value the things around you and by making these rash sh parts of the Jewish calendar what we're being told is think about it think about the things that surround you that in your experience and your surroundings and your en environment think about the things you should appreciate when puts Adam in ganen the Torah tells us he puts him in ganen to work it and to guard it that's one of those dialectical phrases that to uses like AAR KGO and G VAV basically is if I'm working if I'm working the land I'm mining I'm I'm doing all of those things that are not respecting the land I'm taking what I need from the land but I you have to balance that I have to balance that with an appreciation of environment around me and that's the big debate today about uh global warming etc etc and how we're changing the environment these are issues these are serious issues we have to also respect the world around us and the way that God created the world I remember hearing a story once of farmers who who were being um invaded by Rod a certain rodent that was eating their crops so what did they do they eradicated the the rodent they basically poisoned the rodent and it no longer was a problem only to find that that rodent used to eat a certain bug that was an even bigger problem for them and therefore by eradicating the rodent they increased the problems concerning their their crops so we're we're not so brilliant in other words we've got to understand that the the world around us is created by God is meant to go a certain way and and we have to respect that now rosesan of Nissan and Tish however are the two major Russ Russ what did they each speak to us about so I'll tell you that a hint is can be seen from an important Hal the Hal is that a king a king's Reign begins if it's a Jewish King at Nissan and if it's a non-jewish king at Tish another now this was important the text you look in you can find it in this text why was this important because contracts were dated by the r of the king and therefore if the king became king a Jewish King two months before Nissan let's say when Nissan comes he's now in the second year of his Reign and that's what's put on the star that's what's put on the contract and when it comes to a non-jewish King Tish Nissan is our it's when we were born it's when the Jewish Nation comes into being Tish is our belonging to the universe being part of the world being part of the outside world determining what we can take that's that's appropriate that can be part of our world and keeping out what doesn't what doesn't match our thoughts and our values we the symbolism is huge one would think that once we accept Nissan as a Ros Tish would disappear right doesn't because we're supposed to be as I've told you before the G of vosha we're supposed to be abam stands at the end of his end of his career and he says to Ben to the Hittites I am a stranger and a citizen together with you it's a dialectical phrase how can you be both a stranger and a citizen the answer is that's the best def soci sociological uh definition of the Jew across the ages G vosha put me in any country and I'll rise to the Top If you let me but I'm also different I'm and and I maintain that difference and that abam culminates his career with that with that statement and it's important for us and that's what Nissan and Tish represent Nissan and Tish represent that I am part of the world Community that's Tish and I'm part of my own unique community and that's Nissan and both exist because we have to have that balance in our lives so hopefully we have taken our own Journey uh towards understanding why a kades baru begins might be the reasons why he begins we don't know the reasons he begins but these are potentially reasons why he begins our journey in time Jewish time with the establishment of Jewish time and with the directive that he gives and specifically by launching Jewish time this way we enter into a journey that is tremendous tremendously meaningful and one that can enrich our lives have a good day everyone