This past week I was studying about our matriarch, Sarah. According to the Talmudic sages, she was perfect – without blemish – in wisdom, beauty, innocence, accomplishment, and consistency. The Hebrew word for perfect is tamim, which has two connotations: without blemish and of complete faith. Both connotations apply to Sarah. Per Rashi (one of the Jewish sages), in his commentary to Genesis 23:1, the Torah chose Sarah to display the standard of “all [her years] were equally good.” Because the Bible chose her as an example that we should follow, how do we become like Sarah, making all of our years equally good?
When reading the Bible, one can see that people, animals, and things can be without blemish. It is most obvious when reading about the requirements for the offerings, the food we are allowed or not allowed to eat, etc. But time can also be without blemish, because time is also a creation of G-d. Time did not exist prior to the creation of the universe. G-d is outside of time, beyond time; but He created time as a tool for man. And this tool is also a challenge for us.
In the first volume of the commentary on Genesis, published as part of the Artscroll Tanach Series, is a beautiful analogy on the challenge of man using his time wisely, in order to make all his years good. The author compared one’s lifetime to a huge needlepoint canvas with trillions of holes to be filled with “threads of achievement.” And each hole is a moment in time.
We all have our own needlepoint canvas, but each is different. At the end of one’s life, what will it look it? That depends on how we filled it during the time we had on this earth. For most, the canvas will have several random patches filled in amongst random blank spaces; there might not even be any pattern to be seen after years of effort. For others, there may be only a few scattered stitches, here and there. For others, there may be portions of recognizable pictures, a result of purposeful time periods in their lives.
But then there are people like Sarah. Her canvas had no blank spots. It was full and complete, a beautiful picture that was a result of her life of meaning and accomplishment. Every thread was related to the one before and after, as every moment of her life was connected one upon another in the mission G-d called her to.
Every moment in time has a particular purpose for each of us, ordained by the Creator. Whether it’s Torah study, performance of a commandment, earning a living, eating, sleeping, resting, traveling, etc., each moment has its purpose. Can the purpose of each moment be postponed to another moment? Can we postpone what G-d means for us to do today, at THIS moment, until tomorrow, at another moment? No, for each moment has its own obligation, its own destiny seeking to be fulfilled. To put off something until tomorrow is to deprive tomorrow of its own fulfillment in our destiny.
Each day is not just a twenty-four hour period, but a time for stitching our canvas with moments of accomplishment. If all we do is cross off the day on our calendar, marking another twenty-four hour period of just existing, all we have done is accumulate another day of unrealized potential. This is the reason why man is so dissatisfied with just working, eating, sleeping day after day after day. Deep within us, G-d has implanted the purpose of why we were born, our true destiny, the picture that is to spread across our canvas as we fill it with the stitches of our accomplishments. If we do not seek G-d for that purpose, then we will spend our lives trying to fill that emptiness of sheer existence with things that not only do not help to create stitches in our canvas, but may actually pull out threads that we’ve already stitched.
But G-d is still the Creator, and He renews His creation daily. There are always new opportunities, new chances for each one of us. Each day He gives us has a role to play in our lives, a purpose in our journey to fulfilling the destiny for which we were born. G-d is also a Redeemer, and He can redeem the time we have lost if we are willing to submit to His hand and determine to make better use of our gifts and our time.
This teaching surely convicted me of how I use my own time and my own gifts. I thought about what my needlepoint canvas looks like right now, and I wondered if I even have any semblance of pictures beginning to form on it. For those of you who know me personally, you know the past several months I have gone through a “dark night of the soul” with the trials that beset my life. I had my time of grieving and trying to cope, but now the shroud of mourning has been lifted from me. It’s time to change the colors of my threads from blacks and grays and somber blues, to reds and greens and yellows. It’s time that I PURPOSEFULLY take account of each moment and listen to the Spirit of G-d, seeking His purpose in all that I do, and not wasting the time that He has given me.
This doesn’t mean that I don’t rest or have times of pure fun – those moments have purpose, too, and are meant to be part of my canvas. I just don’t want to WASTE any more moments, so that when my life is over, I will not have any blank spaces or sections where the picture is unclear. I want my canvas to be like Sarah’s was – a complete picture with every stitch in the right place and of the right color, a testimony to a life well-lived, without blemish and full of faith.
If we do not utilize our moments, our “nows,” properly, they will be lost. I think Rabbi Hillel said it best: “If not now – when?”
Happy stitching!
When reading the Bible, one can see that people, animals, and things can be without blemish. It is most obvious when reading about the requirements for the offerings, the food we are allowed or not allowed to eat, etc. But time can also be without blemish, because time is also a creation of G-d. Time did not exist prior to the creation of the universe. G-d is outside of time, beyond time; but He created time as a tool for man. And this tool is also a challenge for us.
In the first volume of the commentary on Genesis, published as part of the Artscroll Tanach Series, is a beautiful analogy on the challenge of man using his time wisely, in order to make all his years good. The author compared one’s lifetime to a huge needlepoint canvas with trillions of holes to be filled with “threads of achievement.” And each hole is a moment in time.
We all have our own needlepoint canvas, but each is different. At the end of one’s life, what will it look it? That depends on how we filled it during the time we had on this earth. For most, the canvas will have several random patches filled in amongst random blank spaces; there might not even be any pattern to be seen after years of effort. For others, there may be only a few scattered stitches, here and there. For others, there may be portions of recognizable pictures, a result of purposeful time periods in their lives.
But then there are people like Sarah. Her canvas had no blank spots. It was full and complete, a beautiful picture that was a result of her life of meaning and accomplishment. Every thread was related to the one before and after, as every moment of her life was connected one upon another in the mission G-d called her to.
Every moment in time has a particular purpose for each of us, ordained by the Creator. Whether it’s Torah study, performance of a commandment, earning a living, eating, sleeping, resting, traveling, etc., each moment has its purpose. Can the purpose of each moment be postponed to another moment? Can we postpone what G-d means for us to do today, at THIS moment, until tomorrow, at another moment? No, for each moment has its own obligation, its own destiny seeking to be fulfilled. To put off something until tomorrow is to deprive tomorrow of its own fulfillment in our destiny.
Each day is not just a twenty-four hour period, but a time for stitching our canvas with moments of accomplishment. If all we do is cross off the day on our calendar, marking another twenty-four hour period of just existing, all we have done is accumulate another day of unrealized potential. This is the reason why man is so dissatisfied with just working, eating, sleeping day after day after day. Deep within us, G-d has implanted the purpose of why we were born, our true destiny, the picture that is to spread across our canvas as we fill it with the stitches of our accomplishments. If we do not seek G-d for that purpose, then we will spend our lives trying to fill that emptiness of sheer existence with things that not only do not help to create stitches in our canvas, but may actually pull out threads that we’ve already stitched.
But G-d is still the Creator, and He renews His creation daily. There are always new opportunities, new chances for each one of us. Each day He gives us has a role to play in our lives, a purpose in our journey to fulfilling the destiny for which we were born. G-d is also a Redeemer, and He can redeem the time we have lost if we are willing to submit to His hand and determine to make better use of our gifts and our time.
This teaching surely convicted me of how I use my own time and my own gifts. I thought about what my needlepoint canvas looks like right now, and I wondered if I even have any semblance of pictures beginning to form on it. For those of you who know me personally, you know the past several months I have gone through a “dark night of the soul” with the trials that beset my life. I had my time of grieving and trying to cope, but now the shroud of mourning has been lifted from me. It’s time to change the colors of my threads from blacks and grays and somber blues, to reds and greens and yellows. It’s time that I PURPOSEFULLY take account of each moment and listen to the Spirit of G-d, seeking His purpose in all that I do, and not wasting the time that He has given me.
This doesn’t mean that I don’t rest or have times of pure fun – those moments have purpose, too, and are meant to be part of my canvas. I just don’t want to WASTE any more moments, so that when my life is over, I will not have any blank spaces or sections where the picture is unclear. I want my canvas to be like Sarah’s was – a complete picture with every stitch in the right place and of the right color, a testimony to a life well-lived, without blemish and full of faith.
If we do not utilize our moments, our “nows,” properly, they will be lost. I think Rabbi Hillel said it best: “If not now – when?”
Happy stitching!
