Divine Time Management

“I do not expect from you to refrain from sin because of a lack of interest in sin; I want you to abstain from sin because of a lack of time for it.”
— Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kutzk, to his disciples.

“The world says, ‘Time is money.’ I say, ‘Time if life.’”
— Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, to my father, Gershon Jacobson in 1985.

Cheating on the Sabbath?

The marvelous invention of the Sabbath — a day in which we put our stressful lives on hold and dedicate every moment to our souls, our loved ones, and our spiritual growth — is introduced in this weeks portion, the opening section of the Bible.

“And G-d saw all that He had made , and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus, the heaven and the earth were completed, and all their array. G-d completed, on the seventh day, His work, which He had done, and He abstained on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. G-d blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He ceased from all His work (1).”

The blatant contradiction displayed in this biblical verse is striking. On the one hand the Bible states that G-d “abstained on the seventh day from all His work which He had done; G-d blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He ceased from all His work.” This would mean that G-d completed His work on the sixth day, followed by a complete day of rest. Yet the very same verse declares that “G-d completed His work on the seventh day,” meaning that He completed the work on the seventh, not on the sixth, day.

How are we to explain this contradiction? It is either one or the other. Did He complete the work of creation on the sixth day and then “rest” on the seventh day; or did He complete His work on the seventh day and then “rest” for the remainder of the seventh day.

Divine Punctuality

The Midrash and Rashi (2) offer the following explanation:

A human being, incapable of determining the precise moment of nightfall, cannot establish the exact moment when Friday ends and Saturday begins. Therefore, Jewish law obligates us to begin observing the Sabbath a short while before it actually begins. G-d, on the other hand, knows the exact moment when Friday merges into Sabbath, and therefore, on the first Friday of creation, He continued His work throughout the entire day, until the very end of the last moment before the Sabbath began.

Since G-d would not cease building His world until the moment that Sabbath began, it appeared as if He completed His work on the Sabbath day itself, even though in actuality He completed it at the conclusion of the final moment of day number six. Because of this appearance, the verse states that God completed His work “on the seventh day,” since that is how it looked from a human vantage point (3).

What’s the Point?

The obvious question is what was the purpose of G-d working all the way till Sabbath and making it appear that He is “violating” the day designated for rest? What derived benefit compelled G-d to give off this false impression that He was laboring on the Sabbath? In whatever way you will explain the meaning of G-d “engaging in work,” the question remains, why did G-d not simply behave in the identical fashion He expects from His people, to cease the work a little while before the actual beginning of Sabbath?

In addition, why would the Torah be interested is relating this episode to us. Every story and every detail recorded in the Torah serves the purpose of constituting a blueprint for human life, an instruction for the human condition. What can we gain by knowing that G-d knows how to tell time impeccably (better even than a Yeke…) and could therefore work away until the absolute culmination of the sixth day? What relevance does this information bear to ordinary human beings who are incapable of knowing the exact millisecond when night commences?

Cherish the Moment

It is here that we are presented with one of the most important contributions of Judaism to human civilization — the value of time.

Think about it. For six full days G-d created a universe that is extraordinary in its magnitude and stupendous in its grandeur. During this week, the Creator fashioned a cosmos of endless mystery and limitless depth. After close to 6,000 years of human scrutiny, we still have not grasped the secrets of even one single atom that has come into being during those six-first days of creation. During this momentous week, the very reality and miracle of life emerged.

One could not conceive of a more accomplished and successful week! Talk about accomplishment, ambition, self-realization – this week put the entire universe into motion. “And G-d saw all that He has made , and, behold, it was very good (1).” Following such a fruitful and productive working week, as the sixth day was winding down, G-d had the full right to sit back, relax and enjoy His grand achievement. Maybe even taste a little Sabbath Kugel and Kishkeh…

Comes the Torah and declares — nay! As long as there was even one moment remaining during which the building of a world can continue, G-d would not stop.

How to Manage Your Time

We, too, are builders of the world. G-d built a physical world out of spiritual energy; our job is to build spiritual energy out of a physical world. To transform the world into a moral and sacred place, a world saturated with light and goodness.

Comes the Torah and says: Even if you have already employed your strengths to build a beautiful world; even if you have affected many people, touched many souls, ignited many hearts and lifted many spirits, as long as you have the capacity to construct one more heart, inspire one more soul, enlighten one more spirit and transform one more individual — do no cease building and repairing G-d’s world.

It is for this reason that G-d continued to fashion His world up to — and including — the last possible moment, even at the cost of having it appear that He is “violating” the holy day of Sabbath. Through this, He imparted to us the eternal lesson: Carpe Diem! Every moment of life contains infinite value; seize it! If there is still one human being you can touch, fetch the opportunity and reach out.

The Final Blow

We may take it one step deeper.

The Torah emphasizes that “On the seventh day G-d completed His work (1).” This means, that the work G-d had done during the final moments of the sixth day (appearing as though it was performed on the seventh day) is defined in the Torah as the work that brought to completion all of the labor during the six preceding days.

In other words, the awesome and splendid universe that was constructed during the first six days were lacking in completion as long as G-d did not utilized the final moments of the sixth day to finish the world.

The same is true in our individual lives as well. If we allow even the final moment of our day to be squandered, it is not only a loss of a moment; it means that all of the work of the previous moments remains blemished and incomplete. All the moments in our day constitute a symphony; when a single sound is missing, the entire symphony remains incomplete.

Just as this is true in each of our personal lives, it also holds true in the long history of human civilization. Our generation, as the sixth millennium is winding down, has been compared in Jewish texts to the “Late Friday” of history (4). We may often view our daily involvement in acts of kindness, in the study of Torah and observance of Mitzvos as inconsequential in the ultimate big picture.

In truth, however, it is these small and ordinary things that we do in our lives today that will grant completion to 6, 000 years of blood, sweat and tears to turn the world into a G-dly place and bring redemption to our turbulent planet (5).

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Footnotes:
1) Genesis 1:31; 2:1-2.
2) Bereishis Rabah 10:9. Rashi to Genesis 2:2. Cf. Rashi to Megilah 9a.
3) Cf. Likkutei Sichos vol. 5 pp. 24-33, where it is demonstrated that Rashi's view is that
G-d actually completed the work at the first moment of the seventh day; yet it was a type of work that is permitted on the Sabbath (See there for a full-fledged presentation of this fascinating idea.)
4) See Ramban to Genesis 1:1; Or Hachaim beginning of Parshas Tzav. Cf. Sefer Hasichos 5750 p. 254 and references noted there as well as Sefer Hasichos 5749 p. 477.
5) This essay is based on a talk delivered by the Lubavitcher Rebbe on Shabbas Bereishis 5728, October 28, 1967. The talk is published in Likkutei Sichos vol. 5 pp. 24-35; Sichos Kodesh 5728 pp. 114-115.