Weekly Letter: We Do Have The Power to Control Time

ow that we have started to count sefirah – the days between Pesach and Shavuos – we are sharing a brief yet very significant letter of the Rebbe about TIME. While it makes sense to say that we have no control nor influence over time – the Rebbe explains how we do have the power to control time… it is certainly possible for us to “stretch time” and turn it into infinity!

A MESSAGE BY THE LUBAVITCHER REBBE, RABBI M. SCHNEERSON, שליט’א

                                                               Iyar, 5713

                                                    ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEFIRAH 

The period of Sefirah connects the festival of Passover with the festival of Shovuos. We begin counting the days of the Omer immediately after the day of the Exodus from Egypt, the day of liberation from slavery, and count (both the days and the weeks) for forty-nine days (making seven weeks) and then celebrate the Festival of the Receiving of the Torah, the culmination point of liberation.

The purpose of counting or measuring any quantity is to ascertain the exact number or measure of a certain thing, the quantity of which is variable. A census of a population, for example, is taken from time to time, since the population can either increase or decrease, and we want to ascertain its progress. Similarly, statistics are kept of various factors, etc. Were these factors stationary and unchangeable or were they uncontrollable, there would be no real purpose served in going over such statistics by periodic counting or measuring. 

Now, Time belongs to those things over which man has no control or influence. Time just marches on, and we can neither slow its march nor speed it, nor can we change its quantity and make an hour last more than or less than sixty minutes. From this point of view, the idea of Sefirah would seem incomprehensible.

In addition, even in those things that change, the idea of counting them reflects their importance, and we wish to establish the exact number of such units, not being satisfied merely with estimates or general appraisal – such as being of large, small, or medium quantity.

But there is more to Time. We have said that Time, unlike most other things which are changeable in quantity, is unchangeable and beyond our control. But this is true only externally. We have no influence over time in a superficial way; however, time holds out for us possibilities not existing in other things. While man’s influence over things under his control is limited, his influence over Time is, in a sense, unlimited. For Time is like a “vessel” which is highly elastic, with an infinite absorptive capacity. It has the power of expanding or contracting, depending how much or little we put into this “vessel.” We can fill our time with unlimited content or waste it away, and the very same unit of time may mean an infinity to one or shrink to nothingness in another. Its true measure is in direct proportion to what is achieved in it. 

Herine lies the special significance of Sefirah – of counting the days to the day of receiving the Torah at Sinai. 

For the Torah, “whose measure is longer than the earth and broader than the ocean,” containing the infinite wisdom of G-d, was given to finite beings, men limited to a short span of time, a life of “three score years and ten” ואם בגבורות שמונים שנה     והיו  ימיו מאה ועשרים שנה          In preparation for receiving the Torah, we were commanded to count the days in order to be impressed with the significance of Time and also to understand how it is possible for a finite human being to grasp that which is infinite: it is hereby emphasized that although we cannot alter the flow of time, either stretch it or retract it, this is only superficially. In reality, each particle of time, not any long period but even a day, gives us almost infinite possibilities. Therefore, although human life is limited on this earth to a certain number of years, one is not limited to his possibilities to use them in such a way, and to accomplish so much, as would take others thousands of years to accomplish. 

If formally Time is fixed and can only be measured but in no way influenced – essentially, time is measured in terms of its content in accomplishment of our infinite and eternal Torah and mitzvos, and   we are able not only to “stretch” time but even to turn it into infinity, into eternity, meaning –  we transfer and elevate it beyond and above time.

This, in essence, is the significance of Sefirah, the counting of the days to, and in preparation of, receiving the Torah.