Time Is Limited but Not Limiting — How the Rebbe Taught Us to Cherish and Utilize Every Moment ✦ Part 2

00:00 I once heard that someone asked the Rebbe how he managed to fit so much activity and so much work into such a short time. How could he do so many things in twenty-four hours? The Rebbe answered him, “Time is indeed limited, but time does not limit us.” In other words, we all have twenty-four hours in a day, no more and no less. Those twenty-four hours are the same for everyone. They are limited, but they do not limit a person. A person can decide how to use every single moment, and then, within limited time, there can be unlimited accomplishment. So today we’re going to talk about time. One of the wonderful and distinctive things we learned from the Rebbe is how precious time is: the importance of time, making use of time, guarding our time, and living with the times. We’ll discuss several subjects connected with time, and we’ll learn some very specific things, as well as practical ones: how a person can use time, value it, and make the best and most effective use of it. Let’s start with a story that happened in 5730, after Yud Shvat. Among chassidim, that Yud Shvat is known as “the great Yud Shvat.” On Yud Shvat 5730, a Sefer Torah was completed that the Rebbe called “Moshiach’s Sefer Torah.” It was a Sefer Torah that the Frierdiker Rebbe had begun writing in the middle of World War II. It was not completed then, and the Rebbe completed it on Yud Shvat, twenty years after the passing of the Frierdiker Rebbe, on his twentieth yahrzeit, Yud Shvat 5730. Yud Shvat fell on Shabbos. On Erev Shabbos, Friday after midday, there was an extraordinarily moving, historic procession to bring in the Sefer Torah. It was one

02:22 of the most sublime and moving moments of our generation. Thousands upon thousands of chassidim came from Eretz Yisroel and from other countries to be there for that special, moving moment when they completed the Sefer Torah that the Frierdiker Rebbe himself had called “Moshiach’s Sefer Torah”—the Sefer Torah with which we will go out to greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu. There was tremendous inspiration. Ten days later, on 20 Shvat, there was a kind of farewell farbrengen. The chassidim were supposed to leave that day; several charter flights were returning to Eretz Yisroel and Europe. The Rebbe suddenly announced that, as his participation in the farewell gathering—what chassidim call “Tzeischem Leshalom”—he would hold a farbrengen. And indeed, the Rebbe came down to the large shul in 770 and began the farbrengen. The Rebbe delivered a long, profound maamar of Chassidus, made a siyum on a tractate, and gave several other deep and wonderful sichos. But the crowd was under pressure, feeling tense. They kept looking at their watches, because by then they were already supposed to be at the airport. Their planes were about to leave, and the Rebbe was holding a farbrengen as though time had stopped. He just carried on with the farbrengen. What can you do when the Rebbe is holding a farbrengen? Of course the chassidim weren’t going to move or leave. But the Rebbe sensed the tension in the room. People were looking at their watches, checking where things stood. So at that farbrengen, the Rebbe began telling a story. The Rebbe recounted something personal that had happened years earlier between him and the Frierdiker Rebbe, the Rebbe’s father-in-law. This is what happened: On one occasion when the Frierdiker Rebbe was traveling, after he had left Russia, it was a very important, historic journey, one that involved a great deal of tension and pressure. The whole household was in an uproar; suitcases and other things had to be gathered and packed.

04:59 Of course, for any of us, the hours before a trip—even an ordinary flight—have moments of tension and pressure. How much more so in those days, when travel required far more preparation, especially for such an exceptional, difficult, demanding journey. Everyone was under a great deal of strain, and the whole household was in an uproar. The Rebbe related that at the time, before his marriage, when he was engaged, he was at the house and came to offer his good wishes and receive a blessing. He came to say goodbye to the Frierdiker Rebbe, who was due to leave in another fifteen minutes. He entered the Frierdiker Rebbe’s private room, his study, and saw his future father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe, sitting there completely absorbed in writing. He approached the desk. What did he see? Nothing less than the Frierdiker Rebbe writing a profound maamar of Chassidus on a complex subject, one of the most subtle and profound topics in Chassidus. He was sitting there writing. The Rebbe was astonished. How could this be? He could not understand how, at a moment when everyone was rushing about under such pressure and strain, the Frierdiker Rebbe could sit there with such peace of mind, delving into and writing about such a profound and delicate subject in the depths of Chassidus. At a certain point, the Rebbe expressed his amazement: How do you do that? The Frierdiker Rebbe noticed his wonder and said, “That is what’s called hatzlachah in time—success with time.” He then explained something he had heard in the name of his father, the Rebbe Rashab, passed down from Rebbe to Rebbe, about the Rashba. He related that the well-known Rashba, one of the great early Torah sages—Rabbi Shlomo ben Avraham, Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet—was one of the great Jewish sages of Barcelona, Spain, about eight hundred years ago. He was

07:18 an extraordinary person. He was a leader of the Jewish people in the diaspora at that time. You could say he was the leader of Spanish Jewry, and not only in Spain but beyond it as well. He had a yeshivah in Barcelona, where he gave daily classes in Gemara, halachah, and various other subjects. He also sent letters—responsa on all kinds of halachic questions—to Jews everywhere. There is a book called Teshuvos HaRashba. At the same time, he issued halachic rulings for the people of his city, and he was also a doctor. People came to him with medical questions. On top of all that, he also made a practice of going for a walk every day for his health. Each day, he would spend some time walking in the fresh air. So he, too, was asked how he could do so much, how he managed to accomplish so much in a day. The Rashba explained—or it was explained about the Rashba—that this is what’s called success with time. The Frierdiker Rebbe then explained to the Rebbe what it means to succeed with time. Time is time, after all. There are twenty-four hours, no more and no less, as we said. So what does it mean? How do you define success with time? He explained something very interesting, and fairly simple once we grasp it. Usually, when a person is engaged in something, there’s the time we spend immersed in that particular activity. But then there’s the time in between: we finish one activity and move on to another, and some time gets lost. A person finishes something and then starts busying himself with various other things, because he isn’t yet ready to begin the next thing. A whole stretch of time passes between leaving one activity and entering the next, and that time in between

09:24 In between, time gets lost. Besides that, something else happens sometimes—and it happens a lot: we start doing one thing, but we’re still stuck on the thing we were doing before. Or we’re doing something while thinking about the next thing we need to do. That confuses us too, because when I’m doing something but I’m not fully present in it—because I’m thinking about what I did earlier, or I’m already occupying my mind with what I’m supposed to do afterward—I lose my concentration. Then the time slips away, goes to waste, and I don’t really manage to do what I needed to do in the minutes I had to do it. That’s really the secret of making the most of time. The trick, what we might call the secret to succeeding with time, is that when I’m occupied with something, nothing else exists right now. While I’m engaged in this particular thing, in this activity, there is no past and no future; there is only the present. There is only this reality, which is what I’m supposed to be occupied with now. Everything else does not exist in my world, does not exist in reality. It hasn’t been created yet, or it no longer exists. In my world, the only thing that exists is the specific thing I’m doing right now. Then you can be completely immersed in it and finish it in the best, most complete way. And the moment it’s finished, at that very moment a new reality comes into being—the new thing you need to do. Then you’re entirely focused on the new thing and have left the previous thing behind. That’s how a person can make the fullest use of time. So the Rebbe addressed this subject and explained it. In other words, here he had received a lesson from his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe. What does it mean to value time? To make use of time, to succeed with time

11:18 in the fullest way. The Rebbe said that this idea might sound like, wow, a very lofty level. You’d have to be the Rashba to do that. You’d have to be Rabbah—a righteous person, a holy person, someone able to control himself, to control time and concentrate so completely. But the Rebbe said that a Jew, especially a chossid who studies Chassidus and has learned the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, knows what the Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya in the name of the Baal Shem Tov about creation ex nihilo. As we know, the Baal Shem Tov revealed the secret of creation at every single moment—what we call the continuous bringing into being, the constant renewal of creation. In Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe devotes twelve chapters to explaining this renewal to us. The Baal Shem Tov taught about the verse, “Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens.” Hashem’s word—the speech with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world during the six days of creation—did not create the world just once, leaving it to exist and carry on by itself. Rather, as the Baal Shem Tov explains, the verse “Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens” means exactly what it says. Hashem’s word. The speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “And G-d said, ‘Let there be a firmament.’” “And G-d said, ‘Let there be light.’” The words with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu created all of creation, and all the Ten Utterances through which the world was created. Every creation, every created being, exists because of the divine power that speaks—and at every moment, that divine power speaks anew. It’s not that the world was created once and has simply continued to exist ever since. Rather, the world is created anew at every single moment. When a Jew understands, studies, contemplates and internalizes the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, it becomes easier for us to understand the power of time, and that also gives us the ability to make the most of it.

13:12 A Jew who knows that at every moment Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates all of reality anew—for this moment, for this reality, with exactly what is needed now—is not worried, pressured or tense. He knows: Right now, I’m supposed to carry out the task I’m doing now. That’s where I need to put my energy; that’s where I need to be fully focused. The thing that hasn’t come yet—no, that isn’t my task right now. It will come shortly. It doesn’t exist yet, and when it needs to, Hakadosh Boruch Hu will create it and bring it about. It will come into being from nothing, like an entirely new reality. So right now, I’m here. There is nothing else. I’m fully here. When the new thing comes, it will come. Hakadosh Boruch Hu will create it—something new and fresh. So I’m not worried. I’m not under pressure. I can make the fullest use of my time. And that is how, in this sicha, the Rebbe guided, taught and trained chassidim to protect their time, value it and know how to use it. To succeed with time is to understand the depth of the Baal Shem Tov’s teaching: time is created by Hakadosh Boruch Hu at every moment, through individual Divine Providence. Therefore, every moment has its own purpose, its own mission, and when I’m in that moment, I’m fully there. That way, I can truly do what I’m supposed to be doing now. This happens to us every day during davening. We’re davening, but our minds start traveling all over the world, because we need to sort out the business there, finish things at home, pay the bank, meet with one person and another, and take care of all kinds of errands and other matters. But right now, there is nothing else. Right now, I’m davening. Right now, all that exists is

14:58 this reality of davening: I’m standing face to face with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and there is nothing else. The world doesn’t exist, the business doesn’t exist, there are no meetings. There is one meeting now, and only one. I’m standing before Hakadosh Boruch Hu in prayer. If so, I can be wholly engaged in davening, concentrate on the words I’m saying, think about what I’m saying, and disconnect from what happened before davening and what is supposed to happen afterward. Right now, there is only davening and nothing else. The same goes for a Torah class. When I’m in the middle of learning, listening to a class and engaging with a subject, I’m fully here. And when the moment comes for me to do my work, carry out my task, do my job or attend to my business, then I do my work faithfully. There too, I’ll be fully present. I’ll do things in the most proper, genuine and faithful way. That’s a healthy person: someone who knows how to make use of time, safeguard it and value it in the fullest way. Speaking of time and valuing time, these are things we all saw with the Rebbe. I remember that I merited to be present at davening and at farbrengens. The precision with time. With the Rebbe, the hour was the exact hour. An announcement would be made that Shacharis was at a particular time, and the Rebbe was there like a soldier. That precision with time. Minchah was at a certain hour, and that was when the Rebbe came in. He was always careful to come in on time, whether for davening or for a farbrengen. They would announce that the Rebbe would come in for the farbrengen at a particular hour. The time of the farbrengen was always very precise. They tell a story that once someone, one of the gabbaim, announced that davening or something else would be at approximately such-and-such a time. It wasn’t a very precise announcement, and the Rebbe asked, “What does ‘approximately’ mean? Is it at this hour or at”

16:54 Differently. In other words, he taught us that time must be treated with precision, that it is precious, and that we must be punctual. This was at the farbrengen on the last day of Pesach fifty years ago, in 5736. At that farbrengen, the Rebbe delivered a very powerful, important, and fundamental sicha about the role of yeshivos. The Rebbe spoke about yeshivos in general, and Chabad yeshivos in particular, in a profound and wonderful sicha. He explained what exactly a yeshiva is, what its central focus is, and where effort should be invested. It was a very special sicha in which the Rebbe explained and helped us understand how a yeshiva student should conduct himself. He spoke about the studies, about learning Gemara and nigleh, about learning Chassidus, about davening and Ahavas Yisroel, and about the activities undertaken outside the yeshiva’s study schedule. It was a comprehensive sicha that covered the whole subject of a yeshiva student. Among other things, the Rebbe said that, after everything and before everything, one of the most important keys to a student’s success is teaching himself to keep to a schedule. That, the Rebbe said, is the vessel for all the blessings. For a young man to truly succeed in learning nigleh, learning Chassidus, fear of Heaven, serving Hashem, and Ahavas Yisroel, the foundation of it all must be keeping to a schedule. Keep to the times set for the yeshiva’s study sessions. When it is time for learning Chassidus to begin, you must be punctual. That is when I arrive—not a minute later. The Rebbe used very strong language about this. Our Rebbeim, our Nesi’im, established the yeshiva and set its study schedule and times. We have to know that those times are not to be played with. They must be observed precisely. Starting and arriving on time is simply fundamental. It is a condition for the fulfillment of the blessings and promises that a person—a young man—will succeed in his studies. At farbrengens

19:27 there was something wonderful. Speaking of time, there is also the idea called “living with the times.” There is the preciousness of time, there is making use of time, and there is living with the times. This is something extraordinary that the Rebbe taught us, farbrengen after farbrengen: to live with the times. First of all, what does it mean to live with the times? For that, we have to go back to the first generation, to the Alter Rebbe. It is told that, early in the years of his leadership, the Alter Rebbe once came out and said to the chassidim: “We must live with the times.” That was all he said. A chossid must live with the times. Now, in those days, the expression “live with the times” was not exactly a chassidic expression—perhaps not even a religious one. It had actually come from the maskilim, as they were then called, Jews who had distanced themselves from the light of Torah and mitzvos. By “living with the times,” they meant living according to the fashion, according to the present day, being a little more... Yes, that was essentially the beginning of what would later be called the Reform and Conservative movements—those who tried to introduce reforms into Judaism to keep up with the times. And suddenly the Rebbe comes and says, “Live with the times.” What did he mean? The chassidim began trying to find out what the Rebbe meant by that expression. Eventually, the Alter Rebbe’s brother, the Maharil, went to ask him what he had meant, and the Alter Rebbe said: “Live with the weekly parsha.” To live with the times is to live with the parsha. A chossid studies the weekly parsha every day. One of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s directives was to study the weekly parsha. And even before the Frierdiker Rebbe, there was the Alter Rebbe. That

21:27 means this has been part of the directives for Chabad chassidim throughout the generations. The weekly parsha is divided into seven sections, and the practice is to study the day’s section. Each day you learn one part, and that is how you complete the daily Chumash portion. The Alter Rebbe says: It is not just about studying the parsha; it is about living with it. Take the parsha and do not study it merely as a story from the past. Every detail, every verse in the Torah, every story in the Torah, every law in the Torah, has meaning today. Even mitzvos that are not practiced today have meaning in our lives today. Everything has meaning. Whether materially or spiritually, there is something beyond the plain story. What does it teach me today in my service of Hashem? That is how a Jew should live each day, and that is called living with the times. One of the wonderful things we were privileged to see with the Rebbe was that, at every farbrengen, an important part—usually the first sicha, the first two sichos, sometimes three sichos—was devoted to the Rebbe explaining in detail what was special about that day. What made this day different from every other day? And not just one thing. He would speak about the day of the week, the day of the month, a special event connected to it, the weekly parsha we were studying, and that day’s section of the parsha. In later years, when the Rebbe introduced the campaign to study Rambam, he would sometimes also connect it to the Rambam being studied that day. It was something wonderful: simply to know that if I am here on a particular day, this day has its own special meaning. There is something special about today. Today is not yesterday, and it is not tomorrow. It has something utterly unique about it. The Rebbe would often repeat the words of the Zohar: “Each and every day performs its own work.” Each day has its own work to do;

23:35 each day has its own unique quality, something belonging specifically to that day. Sometimes the Rebbe would speak about this so wonderfully that it was as though today were the most perfect day in creation. This day—because of its place in the week, its date in the month, the Chumash portion studied today, the Rambam portion studied today, and the events that happened on this date in the past—all of that gives it a wonderful, special meaning. It is not something from the past. Today, this very day, is as though it is the most wonderful, most special day, with a message for your life. You can take meaning from this day for every aspect of your life. Live the day. Living the day, living with the times, is one of the most wonderful things we were privileged to learn from the Rebbe at farbrengens. The preciousness of time, keeping to a schedule, making use of time, and living with the times: time is a reality that a person lives and lives with, that he inhabits and works within in the fullest and deepest way. I also want to mention something the Rebbe spoke about in the last period when we were privileged to hear his sichos. The Rebbe spoke about living with the times—about the time of our era, the time we are in now, which the Rebbe called the period of entering the days of Moshiach. There was an expression that came up several times, particularly in the last sichos we were privileged to hear from the Rebbe: “Our time now is the peak. This is the most precious time.” In Yiddish, the Rebbe called it “hekhste tsayt”—the highest time. The peak of time; the most precious time in the world. In other words, the closer we come to the long-awaited moment, the moment of Geulah that we all anticipate and await, the more precious these moments, this time, become. This time we are in now, the very last moments of this long and bitter exile, these moments,

25:47 The moments just before the revelation of Moshiach—those moments, this time, are the peak. This is the most precious time. We need to seize it, make use of it, treasure it, because soon Moshiach will come and we’ll say, “Oh, why didn’t we make use of it? We had another moment of exile. Why didn’t we use it to do the work a Jew needs to do, to prepare ourselves for the Geulah?” We have that time now. We need to treasure these moments, treasure this time. This is the peak. Right now, precisely now, because on the one hand we are living through the hardest, longest, darkest time. On the other hand, this is the most precious and wonderful time: the light of day is about to arrive. The light of the Geulah is about to arrive. So these moments are the most precious of all. We need to know how to use them and make the most of them. You could say that this is exactly what we’ve been seeing lately. Time has become such a complicated issue. We see how much time people waste. Precisely because of new technology and all kinds of new things that have entered our lives, time has suddenly become an even more precious commodity. People waste it so casually. Suddenly you say, “Oops, I’ve already wasted all that time. I did all kinds of things. What did I do? Nonsense.” We won’t get into that, because everyone knows what we’re talking about. What is important for us to understand is that sometimes, when we see where the yetzer hara places the challenge, where it puts the difficulty in our way, that is precisely the point that matters most right now. And that is essentially what the Rebbe said: we are at the peak. Every moment, every single moment of these days, is exceedingly precious. Make use of it, make use of the time: increase in Torah and mitzvos, increase in activities

27:36 of Ahavas Yisroel, add one more thing and one more action, and live the Geulah. In the later years, the Rebbe spoke about the task of our time: the special mission entrusted to us is to bring about the days of Moshiach. That means bringing the light of Moshiach into exile as well. Already now, by studying the teachings of our Sages, the verses and Midrashim, and the teachings of Chassidus that explain the time of the Geulah to us, we are living in an atmosphere of Geulah. This is what it means to sanctify time, elevate time, uplift time, and turn it into a different kind of time—a time of Geulah. To turn it from a time of golah, exile, into a time of Geulah. And that is in our hands. May we have the wisdom to treasure time and make use of it, to use this wonderful, great gift, the great treasure that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has given us. May we take this treasure of time and turn it into holy and precious time. In this way, we will enter the wonderful, special time of the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, speedily in our days, amen.