I have a cousin who is a filmmaker and a writer in Brazil. When I was in Brazil this summer, I was not able to meet with her, because she is writing the most viewed soap opera in the country, and on the day we were supposed to meet she had to go to the filming of an important emotionally charged scene while her husband took their daughter to the airport for a yearlong program in Israel. Her absence from the cousins’ get together reminded me of a conversation we had about an idea she had for a movie, many years ago. The story line was about 10 people who were running away from something in a big city, and all move to the same small city to try to achieve or regain whatever was missing in their lives. When she told me the story, my immediate response was, what a great idea! When people move to a small town, they probably have more time for themselves. To which my cousin responded: “Lia, I said nothing about time. What I said was that each of them had an issue to deal with, and to be truthful, not one of the 10 characters in this film has a problem with lack of time.”
It was clear that this was my problem, one that was in the forefront of my thoughts. And although this conversation happened many years ago, it remains very fresh in my head, because dealing with time constraints and feeling pulled in too many directions has not changed very much in my life. I feel constrained by time because I love doing many things and being with many people. There are just not enough hours in the day to keep up with my obligations and with everyone I want to see and everything that I want to do. I see too many causes I want to give my time to, too many organizations I want to help, too many books I want to read, and there is just not enough time for all of what I want to do. I have to prioritize. And then I feel like I am missing something. It’s when I realize that I am choosing one passion in my life over another, that lack of time begins to oppress me. To pursue my creative urges and to be with the people I love, there are too few hours; when it comes to laundry and cleaning, the hours seem to drag.
Psychologist Robert Levine explains that there are clock time cultures and event time cultures. Clock time cultures see time as fixed, linear and measurable. To event time cultures, time is considerably more flexible and ambiguous. Event time cultures celebrate the passage of time instead of marking the passage of time.
There are no minutes and seconds, as much as there are seasons, moments and rituals. Jewish time is event time. Jews see time and all of history as a much larger unit. One of the many Hebrew terms for time is the word Z’man. Z’man is not clock time. The word Z’man is heard, for example, in the blessing Shehechaianu, the blessing that acknowledges God’s power to bring us to this moment. We say this blessing at b’nei mitzvah celebrations, at the beginning of every new year, when we wear something new when we are celebrating something new in our lives. Within the bracha, we say the words ba’zman haze—and these words do not mean this exact minute. We really mean this moment, this season, the ability to be present and enjoy something really special. We understand that every moment and every season is an opportunity for growth and renewal, to stop time and mark time, to recognize the changes in our lives and connect those changes with the power of God.
Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote: “Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events, to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year.”
As we start preparing for the Jewish New Year of 5784, I hope that this year we will not feel controlled or oppressed by time. My wish for all of us is that we learn to use our time wisely, to contribute to our spiritual growth, the growth of our communities, the strengthening of our families. This year I wish we will find many reasons to say Shehecheianu, to connect events and changes in our lives with the power of God, and use the ancient wisdom of our tradition, a tradition that lives in event time, to slow down to admire and enjoy God’s creation.