The Elastic Power of Time
Tech Tribe Dispatch #252
💡 Think:
Between Passover and Shavuot we count the days. This practice known as a the Sefirat Haomer, maps the 49-day journey from the exodus from Egypt to the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, marking the culmination of the liberation of the Jewish people.
There’s something odd, however, about counting days. We count and survey to gauge fluctuation and change. Has a population grown or shrunk? How have weather trends changed over time… But what is the purpose of counting days.
Seemingly, time, of all properties, is immutable. 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 or less than sixty minutes. Sixty seconds will always make a minute, sixty minutes an hour, twenty-four hours a day, and seven days a week… What do we gain by counting the days between the two holidays, if the measure of time between them will always be the same?
From this point of view, the idea of Sefirat Haomer would seem incomprehensible.
In a letter, written Spring of 19531, the Rebbe addresses this question:
Actually, time holds out for us possibilities not existing in other things. For 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 upon 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 to another. Its true measure varies in direct proportion to what is achieved in it.
Herein lies the special significance of Sefirah, of counting the days to the day of Receiving the Torah at Sinai.
In other words, the power of time is judged in how we fill it: Do we endlessly scroll our feeds, for more content, or do we invested deep content and purpose.
🏃 DO:
✨ An (almost) First Friday Shabbat! What will Judaism look like in an era of space travel? Can an ancient calendar and faith, designed around the agricultural cycle, ever mesh with life in a world beyond sunrise and sunset? Join us Friday, May 31!
🍷 Brex Shabbat Dinner @ NYC #TECHWEEK - Join Tech Tribe for a Shabbat Dinner co-hosted with Brex in NYC on June 7th. Connect with fellow founders, VCs, and Brex employees, and be part of the thriving community in New York during #TechWeek.
👨🚀 Jewglers, join us in the NYC office and GVC on Wednesday, June 5th at 3:00pm, for Jews in Space: A conversation about when Jewish life takes to the stars.
🍰 Shavuot: An Evening of Revelation. Join us on Wednesday, June 12, for an al fresco feast, drinks and the Ten Commandments, as we celebrate Shavuot!
🎬 Watch:
🎉 Mazel:
Chai Society member Max Sklar on teaching data structures at NYU next fall.
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📚 Read:
📍 I Know Where You Were Last Night
🙅 How to Avoid Fanaticism, by Rabbi Akiva and His Students
🏫 On Campus, a New Social Litmus Test: Zionist or Not? by Tech Tribe friend Joe Bernstein
🔥 Lit:
This week, light Shabbat candles in NYC at 7:57 PM
For Shabbat candle-lighting time in your area click here.
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