Table Talk - Parshas Emor 5770
I hope the ideas contained below, will provide you with some topics for discussion, at your Shabbos table.
Einstein`s theory of time is a fascinating subject. So is the history of methods of measuring time, including atomic clocks, on which so much of the modern technology we use, depends. Countless articles and books have been written about the nature of time, including one by a British physicist, who believes that time does not really exist.
But I believe they are all missing the most important question about time. However you measure it and explain it, time marches inexorably on. Does this mean that whatever we do is rapidly consigned to a soon forgotten and irrelevant past? I think the answer is contained, in the following story from the Midrash.
A Roman aristocrat said to Rav Yehoshua ben Chanania. “ I am greater than your teacher Moses, because I am alive and he is dead, and in the book of Koheles, it says a live dog is better than a dead lion”. The Rav replied, “ you issue a law that nobody should light a fire in your kingdom for three days” he did so, and they soon found that people were breaking the law. The Rav then said “but Moses issued a law so many years ago, not to light a fire on Shabbos, and people still keep it, so he is still greater than you”
The Rav was saying, if a person did something of eternal value like teaching Shabbos, he is still better than the person who is alive, but doing nothing of enduring value.
In other words, the answer to my question is, no unit of time is lost if you do something worthwhile with it. Every second becomes immortal if you do a Mitzvah with it.
This “theory of time” is what the Midrash means, when it says, the seven weeks of the Omer, are only “Temimos”-complete, when you use them to do Mitzvos. This is one of the underlying ideas of the Mitzvah of counting the forty nine days of the Omer, mentioned in this week`s Sedra, which we keep at this time of the year.
SOURCES; Sefer Latorah Velamoadim & Midrash Koheles Rabah 9-3.
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QUESTION FOR THE WEEK;
What do Purim and Lag Bo`Omer have in common?
ANSWER;
The Shulchan Aruch (428) states, whatever day of the week Lag Bo`Omer falls on, Purim that year, also fell on that day of the week; and the way to remember it is, “Plag”
