>> Torah portion THE ISAAC AGREE DOWNTOWN SYNAGOGUE Invites the Community to Observe THE HIGH HOLY DAYS DOWNTOWN SYNACIOqUE The Holocaust Memorial Center 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, MI (Less than a block North of the Orchard Lake Road Exit of 1 - 696) A Warm, Friendly Environment. No Admission Charge. No Tickets Required. Parshat Nitzavim-Vayeilech: Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20; Isaiah 61:10-63:9. B oth literally and figuratively, I do a lot of looking-back through old files as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur approach. I reread some of the things I've writ- ten and preached in the past; I go back through my 5774 calendar, to remind myself of what I did and what I didn't do, of whom I saw and whom I missed. And then, just before the New Year begins, I encoun- ter (again) this week's Torah portion: "You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God ... to reaffirm the Covenant" I am reminded that, just as the Children of Israel in ancient times stood on the threshold of entering their Promised Land, we ourselves stand in large numbers, with just as much anxiety and excitement, on the threshold of our New Year. And I ask myself, 'Am I ready to stand before God?" In my preparation for these Days of Awe, as I studied and thought and considered and prayed, I encoun- tered a teaching from Rabbi H. Rafael Goldstein of Los Angeles. He quoted the saintly Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: "Judaism is a religion of time, aiming at the sanctification of time ... The Bible senses the diversified character of time. There are no two hours alike. Every hour is unique and the only one given at the moment, exclusive and endlessly precious. Judaism teaches us to be attached to the holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events" That is why we celebrate and com- memorate our holy days and festivals, our life cycle events and ritual ceremo- nies — to add holiness and meaning to time. And then, those marked times help us remember the things we do: the deeds, mitzvot, behaviors and gestures that are the visible displays of "standing before God" as Jews. Rabbi Goldstein wrote of once see- ing an exhausted man who wore a shirt with a company name printed on the back: Time Movers. "No wonder he was so tired" he thought. "He had spent his day moving time!" And his self-questioning continued: If you could really move time, how would you do it? Would you make time move slower or faster? Doesn't time fly when you're having fun? Would you move your time to a different century? The call to us as a people and as individuals is here, again: "You stand this day ..." This day (a phrase repeated in our New Year lit- urgy) is situated between the two times of our lives, past and future. "We are in the constant flow between the two; every moment is either about to happen or has slipped by. We experi- ence time each moment as it comes" "You stand this day ..." helps us mark the passage of our past year and prepare for the new What have we done with our time during 5774? Have we lived our time to the fullest? How will we live our time in the future? Rosh Hashanah calls us to be Time Movers — and not just from past to future. But from wasted time to more productive time; from self-centered time to selfless time; from ordinary time to holy time. In other words, as we enter 5775 and as we prepare to stand before God, let us not only think about how to mark and move time, but also promise to change how we move through time. 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