Rabbi Gary A. Glickstein

When Albert Einstein was asked to explain his theory of relativity to a lay person, he said, “When a young woman sits on the lap of her sweetheart, an hour passes as if it were a minute. When that same young woman sits on a hot stove, a minute seems like an hour.”

Another way to understand the notion that everything is relative to one’s place of reference recalls the words of a survivor. He was sitting quietly in a Displaced Persons Camp with another Jew who had endured untold suffering in Europe. He slowly said, “I have decided to leave this place and go to Australia.” His fellow Jew looked surprised and amazed and exclaimed, “But it is so far.” His friend looked up and asked, “Far? Far from where?”

Time and space are reflected in our perceptions. Where we situate ourselves determines the way we understand them.

Jewish tradition is infused with this understanding. Simchat Torah keeps us moving along the journey of learning Torah; no beginning and no ending, only the path.

The kaddish is situated to transition from one part of the prayer service to the next without pause. The mourner’s kaddish is said at the moment of a soul’s ascension from this world to the next.

The mikvah is a ritual designed to remind us that we are always changing and transforming from what we have been to what we will yet become. May/June is our American season of transitions. We mark endings of one kind or another and begin immediately glancing toward the road yet to be traveled. Weddings, graduations, proms, vacations, moving from one place or job to another, all fill these days.

At Temple Beth Sholom during these months, we celebrate a new Temple Board and School Board, Foundation School year-end festivities, 6th grade graduation, Confirmation, High School graduation, BESHTY elections and awards, fiscal books closings, vacations, camp and summer programs.

And yet, we recognize that none of these events stand as true endings or beginnings. All that we have been is poured into all that we will yet become. As Einstein intuited and concretized the concept of relativity, so our people has always lived by this principle.

We live in countries around the world and yet call Israel our home. We speak the languages of the world and still we call Hebrew our language. We function by the Gregorian calendar and at the same time the traditional Jewish calendar. We are “nishte hin und nishte hair” (neither here nor there) and at the same time “hin und hair,” both here and there.

All beginnings are based on what has preceded. My American Jewish history professor Rabbi Jacob Rader Marcus declared that whenever we can identify the first Jews to arrive at any place, we soon find that there was already another Jew there before them to greet them. How that Jew got there is a mystery. Everything is based on everything that came before.

So we enter the season of marking. We celebrate events that remind us of our journey and give us a sense of framing our lives. We gain a momentary perspective on where we are at this juncture. We take a spiritual snapshot and we move on.

Here’s to the trip. Here’s to life. Here’s to what will yet be.

Sheheheyanu, V’Kiyemanu V’Higianu Lazman HaZeh