Community Magazine October 2009

22 Community magazine natural causes in another minute. As the individual’s imminent death was predicted by Eliyahu, there would be no doubt that it will happen, precisely one minute later. If the person receiving this information kills that individual himself thirty seconds later, would he really be guilty of murder? Considering the fact that the individual was about to die in any event, we might perhaps take a lenient view. However, the halacha in this case is clear and unequivocal: the killer is no less guilty of murder than if he had killed a young child. Eliminating a minute of life from a person means eliminating another opportunity to achieve eternal life in the next world. Each moment of life is priceless, and denying a person even a split second is considered full-fledged murder. Tragically, people around the world commit a similar kind of “murder” each and every day. When we waste precious hours of our day on meaningless activities, is this not a form of “murder”? Are we not taking time away from our lives, just as a killer takes time away from his victim’s life? “Money is Time” Imagine we were invited to spend exactly fifteen minutes inside a bank vault filled with cash and given the opportunity to walk out with as much money as we can within the specified timeframe. Would we arrive a second late? And once we got there, would we not spend every moment of those fifteen minutes frantically collecting the bills? So why are we so carefree when it comes to our limited time on earth? Each moment is a golden opportunity to earn eternal reward – why do we treat our time so carelessly? The great sadikim understood the value of every moment. It is told that the Hafess Haim (Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan of Radin, 1839-1933) ridiculed the famous expression, “Time is money.” Underlying this proverb is the belief that our goal is money, and time spent on anything else prevents us from reaching that goal. The Hafess Haim noted that to the contrary, money is time. Our goal is to perform as many missvot as we can during our limited stay on earth. The pursuit of money consumes valuable time and thus threatens to prevent us from achieving our goal. This ought to be our perspective on time. Each moment of our lives is far too precious to waste. Time spent on anything besides missva observance diminishes from our ability to achieve our goal and purpose here on earth. Business owners can easily relate to the importance of time. Few things irritate employers more than seeing their workers hanging around idly, without doing something constructive. If they are paid to help the business, then the employer naturally expects them to devote their time at the office to making the business better. And if they finished their assigned work, they must find something useful to do, rather than just sitting unproductively. We are Gd’s “employees.” If He sustains us, if He keeps us alive in this world, it is because He wants us to work, to spend our time making the world a better place. Of course, we, like all employees, are allowed “coffee breaks,” we are entitled to take Dedicated in memory of Mr. Irving Semah    