麻豆约拍

From Rabbi Pete Tobias of the Liberal Synagogue, Elstree:

If I look a little out of sorts this morning Chris, it鈥檚 because I鈥檝e just returned from a flying visit to my son in LA. Truth is, I鈥檓 really not sure what time it is. I left the UK a week ago, a couple of days after we turned our clocks back to Greenwich Mean Time. While I was there, the Americans put their clocks back an hour 鈥� given my practice of staying on English time when I visit the States, I was actually up and looking at my smart phone when it went from 1.59am to 1.00am on Sunday morning. So in addition to the 10000 miles I鈥檝e travelled in the last week, I鈥檓 also wondering if I鈥檝e done a bit of time travel as well?

It certainly felt like it when I arrived at Heathrow. When I left last week, everyone was gearing up for Halloween. On Tuesday morning, there were Christmas trees in the arrivals area... I 鈥榤 sure I鈥檇 only been away for five days!

Dividing and measuring time is a very human activity. The position of the sun, the phases of the moon, the sequence of the seasons are the natural patterns of the universe. We humans have created calendars that divide the year into twelve months of varying duration starting on January 1st and decreed that one day turns into the next at midnight.聽 We punctuate the continuum of time with celebrations at key moments of the year, either relating to the seasons or marking religious or historical moments.

But no matter how much we seek to structure and manage time, it will always be beyond our human ability to control it. The secret is, as embodied in these words by poet Philip Bailey, quoted in the Liberal Jewish High Holyday prayerbook, to cherish and make the most of every moment, whatever season or time zone we might be in:

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. They most live,
Who think most, feel the noblest, act the best.