The Past is with us Always

Shabbat Mevorchim Shemini 5767

We have just celebrated Pesach, our Festival of Liberation, an event that occurred almost three and a half thousand years ago. Since then Jews have been persecuted and redeemed countless times, and yet even in the midst of our deepest suffering, we have relived our Exodus from Egypt. Why?

Another question. When we count the Omer each night, we don't say, "Today is the first day of the Omer", "Today is the second day of the Omer", etc . Rather we count, "Today is one day of the Omer", Today is two days of the Omer". Why do we use cardinal numbers when ordinal numbers seem so much more appropriate?

The answer to these questions touches on one of the most important aspects of life and its meaning.

We don't merely live in the present. Life is not only about now and the future. The past is very much alive not only because of its contribution to the present but because it really still exists.

Time is not merely a wave and a flow. Its existence can be mapped just as space can be mapped. It is a fourth dimension. This is something that is an essential part of Einstein's theories, and why serious physicists toy with the notion of creating a time machine or time tunnels. It is also very much part of Jewish thought where "Zeman and Makom", "Time and Space", are considered to have been created just as what exists within time and space were created.

This is no mere philosophical bantering. It tells us that what we do at a given time is done forever. It leaves an impression, hopefully a good one, on the real time in which the action occurred. If our action was a good one it exists eternally at that moment of time. And if it was a bad one, it needs to be removed. How? By doing Teshuva (repenting). If the Teshuva is deep enough, it reaches back to the time that we committed the sin and eradicates it. This is why it does not suffice to be merely good from now on, as one would expect if it was only the NOW and the FUTURE that were important; one must do Teshuva in order to "fix" the past.

It also tells us that the good experiences of our past continue to exist even when they have left our conscious minds. A visit down memory lane is not a visit to a time that no longer exists, any more than recollecting a beautiful mountain or lake that one has visited implies that they do not exist. And even should an event be "overtaken" by subsequent events - it still very much exists. An example: a person has a deep and wonderful relationship with another and then for some reason the relationship crumbles. This does not mean that the entire relationship was a sham: that the photos should be burned or the images of the offending party removed. There is no need for this self-defeating bitterness. The beauty that existed then still exists now. Not now, as in the present, but now because the past continues to exist now as a discrete event. An event whose beauty can be revisited in one's mind with complete authenticity.

I recently read of a woman who came out of broken relationship say something that rings so deeply true: "Just because the dream has ended does not mean that it didn't come true once". And that once is still exists now.

This is why we count "Two days, three days, etc" and not "First, Second, Third". Today is not merely the Third day. It is Three days. All the days that we have experienced are with us still.

And so is the Exodus from Egypt.

Not merely as memories, but as a reality that we can continue to experience if we so choose.

And here comes the most important observation of all. If the Past still exists in the Present, if Yesterday still coexists with Today, imagine how important Today is for Tomorrow.

As the Psalmist says: "Teach us to number our days, so that we attain a heart of wisdom".

Rabbi Benzion Milecki OAM
25 Nisan / 13 April