We have discovered that maturing is not something we complete with our skills course in junior high school, nor even with the attainment of American civil adulthood at 21. We have also been privileged to hear stories of the growth of individuals as spiritual persons and as Jews in all decades of life. This season of the year with its emphasis on cheshbon hanefesh, taking a personal accounting of our soul, makes us more aware of the passage of time. This special selichot service, beginning with havdalah which marks the transition from one kind of time to another, makes us more keenly aware the meanings we impose upon time. Gathering at this late hour more normally dedicated to preparing for sleep helps us to be open to new possibilities in the use of our time.
Time is a unique commodity.
Though we have a certain amount of it, we can never know how much remains to us. Time is a very perishable commodity, we cannot store it up, and once expended it can never be brought back. Sometimes we act as if time had no value in and of itself and takes on value only as it is used for some productive pursuit. Yet in other ways we sense that time is of ultimate value and that nothing can make up for time lost or wasted. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel argues that Judaism is more a religion of time than of space, that the unique gift of Judaism is its ability to give meaning to time.