Episode 27 - Parshas Bo: The Value of Time

Good afternoon, and hope you had a great day so far, and that your Shabbos prep is going well! 

As we said, every Erev Shabbos, I will share something from the weekly Torah portion that we can learn from and share with others. This week’s Parsha is Parshat Bo...so let’s catch us up on the context.

This portion has the final 3 Makos/plagues, and then the Exodus of the Jewish people as they leave behind 210 years of slavery and persecution on their way to pick up the Torah and go to the promised land.

As they get ready to go, God decides “as it were” that he wants to take this first opportunity to share an opening mitzvah with them. Get the ball rolling and frame the Jewish experience and what it is all about.

Now, I don’t know off by heart all of the 613 mitzvos that we have…but I do know a bunch of them, and therefore would ask you to think of the answer to the following question.

If you were God, and had to throw one out there to start…what would it be? Remember, you have 613 to choose from.

So personally, I would think maybe  it should be saying the Shema to reaffirm our belief in God who is about to take us out of Egypt, or about  “chesed” acts of kindness and to dedicate your life to kindness, not like the Egyptians, or maybe about or maybe it is Shabbos because it is so key to a strong Jewish identity, I am sure you can think of a few more yourself as well, maybe even some better suggestions. But one thing forsure, you should open with something strong, inspirational, and core for us to know as a Jewish people.

Basically, I imagine it unfolding like this. God is gets up infront of the 2,000,000 Men women and children and steps up to the mic. “okay, is this thing on. Great. Hey Jews, we are getting out of Egypt after all these years. And I’ve got big plans for us, and lots of great commandments that are aimed at infusing meaning, molding great characters, deepening spirituality, and inspiring lives….i’ll share them all with you in 49 days when we get to Sinai,…but let me leave you with one for now, so you see what I mean. 

So what does God choose to give over as the first mitzvah.  Chapter 12 verse 2 reads

הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖ם רֹ֣אשׁ חֳדָשִׁ֑ים רִאשׁ֥וֹן הוּא֙ לָכֶ֔ם לְחָדְשֵׁ֖י הַשָּׁנָֽה׃

This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.

Basically in short God is saying  “lets set up a monthly calendar – wouldn’t that be great! Yes there is more detail to it than that, like how we follow the moon and not the sun – and yes there is a deep reason for why Jews are lunar focused and not solar.”  But in general, God is basically kicking off his mission for the Jewish people  by introducing the calendar.

Seems a little technical, I was hoping for something a little more aspirational.

But at the same time, I kind of have faith in God that he knows what He is talking about.

What’s up with G-d’s choice? So one of the most profound answers I saw, brought down by the Seforno, a 16th century commentator, is that God isn’t simply telling us how to keep time, but more so that we must “VALUE” Time. 

Set up a system to count, track and monitor time. Our greatest commodity in life and our greatest expression of freedom that we have is how we use our time. The ability to express our freedom lies in our ability to control how we spend our time, and the success of life is dependent on how well we use it.

We should never use words like “kill time” or time is money. But rather time is simply life. So the more meaningfully you use your time, the more meaningfully you live your life. Yes we all need breaks and down time…but I am not sure if any of us will look back proudly on the binge watch fests we had or the amount of candy crush we played…

As we know, there is no commodity that is as valuable and yet as fleeting as time; a c