Counting

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. ” This is a countdown that our kids are used to hearing! They always finish the task when we reach the right number! I have learned that a countdown should start at 3 and not at ten! Countdowns are also part of our personal lives. Before you know it someone will remind us that there are only 213 days to Hanukkah. I know there are those getting married this summer or celebrating other life cycle events that are counting down the weeks and days. Many of us have counted down the days to a major transition moment in our lives, be it major birthdays, how soon we can drive, how long before we go to college, or retire, and even how long until our next great vacation. Counting down offers us a growing sense that the cherished moment is getting closer and closer.

This week's Torah portion Emor reminds us that there is a different way to count. We count in a very precise fashion. For seven weeks leading up to the festival of Shavuot we count. In ancient times the count marked the transition from one agricultural season, the barley harvest, to the early summer wheat harvest. For us, counting agricultural days are not part of our purview, unless we are very obsessive about those tomato plants. Perhaps we know counting better from how many more days till Rita's Water Ice opens. In Judaism, we continue the count to mark the transition from Passover to Shavuot; to mark the transition from a liberation from Egypt to the revelation of the Torah at Sinai. In recent years we have added some important steps to this period of counting, like a celebration of Israel and remembering those who died during the Holocaust.
This process of counting gives us an opportunity to appreciate every day more fully, reminding us that in Judaism the journey is as meaningful as the destination.
Our text teaches us yet another lesson about time. It teaches us the value of sacred time. All of us are living ever-more stressed lives. “Time away” has disappeared, particularly with the advent of cell phones. We are available 24/7. The Torah comes to remind us that we need to stop and stand apart from that mad rush through time; that there are moments in our lives called sacred time. The great Jewish thinker Abraham Joshua Heschel offered the idea of Shabbat, of the Sabbath, as an island in time.
The text proposes that there are sacred times. Weekly there is Shabbat, both a reminder of God’s resting after creation, which perhaps should resonate with many of us who work many hours, and of our liberation from Egypt, when our ancestors as slaves were granted no “down time.” The holiday cycle comes to remind us that we need to celebrate liberation, revelation, and our agricultural bounty—Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, respectively -- but also that there is a moment of renewal and new beginnings (Rosh HaShanah) and also a time for personal reflection and repentance (Yom Kippur). Add to that list, later holidays of Hanukkah, with its reminder of light and restoration, of Purim, celebrating the joy of survival, and most recently Yom HaAtzamaut, Israel Independence Day, which reminds us of the miracle of the modern Jewish State, and we have the core of the cycle. At the heart of this view of time is that we are part of a community; not just individuals with time on our hands. But as community members we need to pause, celebrate, commemorate and, yes, recharge our spiritual batteries. Just as we recognize that our cell phone batteries need periodic recharging so, too, we should be mindful that our souls require recharging. And the Jewish calendar is a reminder of that necessity.
We are taught in Judaism that time is a commodity that can never be regained!