PEKUDEI/ HACHODESH
Make Time Count
The Previous Rebbe once said: "The clock is a silent moral preacher." Without uttering a word, the clock pierces the soul and awakens a sense of the elevated life one can live and ofthe fleeting moment that will never return.
To learn to listen to the voice of the clock, we will need to dwell on the first question raised in the Torah: How did the mitzvah of sanctifying the new month merit being the firstcommandment given to Israel as a nation? What is primary, fundamental, and essential about it? After all, it is not the first among principles of thought, such as belief in G-d; it isnot the first related to human existence, like procreation; nor is it the first to be practiced in life, like circumcision.
We will explore three unique ideas, and the final one will bring us back to where we began: The mitzvah of sanctifying the new month means sanctifying time—treating withseriousness the most fundamental factor in our existence, which influences every decision in life.
