There is no inherent reality, no substance to the difference. Nachum, in fact, personified the Jewish perspective of time. The Jew looks at time as reality. He sees that in crossing from erev Shabbat to Shabbat he is moving toward a new reality, a new state of sovereignty. That transition is as real to him as crossing landscapes and being subjected to new climates and natural resources.
Environments create their own reality, as do shifts in time.
For the Jew, moment is inseparable from circumstance. He relates to time as place. Yet the Jew relates to time as if it were space, as if it were a physical zone with its own particular characteristics. Chodesh Elul, through to Rosh Hashanah and the Aseres Yomei Teshuva, is a new environment in the Jewish year. The reality to which it subjects us is Hashem's increased accessibility, His intensified nearness, and that invites introspection and self-improvement, processes that, while arduous, are as rewarding as the longest continental journey.