Graduation for the byrds: Emor

“To everything, turn turn turn, there is a season, turn turn turn, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

One thing’s for sure, when the Byrds wrote it, they didn’t have Forest Gump in mind. And they most certainly didn’t take their cue from this week’s Torah portion either. But, as a fitting note to school’s end and the very rare instance where the English language gets it right – commencement – the lessons gleaned from the Torah here are priceless. “These are the moadim…” Sorry, but I can’t translate it. There’s a word in Hebrew for time – zman, and festival – chag. But this one, moadim, is elusive (I’ve seen it translated as appointed festivals, in contradistinction to the “regular” festivals – hmmm….). Suffice it to say, this passage begins the detailed list of all the stations along the Main Line of the Jewish year. Come to think of it, “stations” is not a bad stab at what’s really going on. A time for this, a time for that – no station repeats itself and each is fundamentally necessary for the journey. Pesach, Shavous, Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, Succos and some of the more “local” stops, Hannukah, Purim, Tu B’Shvat, Tu B’Av, Lag B’Omer, Tisha B’av and back again and again, turn turn turn.

Every end is always a beginning. Every measure of time is only that moment which necessarily connects the previous moment to the next. But there exists the option of steering each moment in any number of directions creating a continuum of either good or evil, right or wrong. “Time” means that it once began, and as certainly as it began, it mush finish. There is a goal to its creation, or it loses all reason to exist. Each moment along the way is either calibrated towards Time’s intended end, or by definition most callously diverted. But there are stops along the way – stations and pit stops to “freshen up” – priceless opportunities to tap into the regiment of the human condition and well the depths of the spirit. No station’s the same, and none is superfluous. Each has its own language, culture, nuance and message and is inextricably connected to the whole system which proudly presents itself a year later for revisitation. These are the “stations” that God gave the Jews – festivals of time and spirit and Divine awakenings.

Through a year, and back again, in and out of weeks, and back again... Some years we’re at Penn, others not. But the “stations” are consistent and it’s there where we’ll measure up the muscle and maturity we garner through life. The Almighty created many different components of time – hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, years, generations – all which require understanding, definition, appreciation and dexterity. We progress in concentric circles, spiraling through life revisiting each and every station, but as a different being each and every time. May we all continue to grow and reach the milestones we’re meant to reach, and may we have the good sense and fortune to recognize when we’ve actually met them.

A blessed beginning to all,

Rabbi Lynn