Miller's Musings Parshas Chayei Soroh: Days of Our Lives

This week's Miller's Musings is sponsored

 אסתר בת יעקב הכהן  לעילוי נשמת 

and is 

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם

Old age is one of the inevitable and inexorable facts of life.  No matter how much one may run from it, it always catches up with us eventually.  When it finally dawns on us that our declining years have set in, we may start to contemplate our own mortality and be inspired to put into place those tasks we feel must be completed before our demise.  Our Parsha informs us that Avrohom decided that now was the time to ensure an appropriate match was found for Yitzchok when he “was old, coming (or advanced) in days”.  This is a rather curious turn of phrase and requires us to try and understand what this exactly tells us about Avrohom.

The span of a person’s lifetime can be divided into units of days, each one entirely unique and with its own potentials for growth and achievement.  What one does with that time is of course solely dependent on each individual to choose.  A day can be one of spiritual accomplishment creating infinite reward that will be ours for all eternity.  That day can never be lost but is ours to take with us as proof of that fragment of our life correctly lived and the source of the reward due to us.  But if it is wasted, we are throwing away this incredible opportunity and are left with nothing to show for that time spent on this earth.  When we finally leave this plane of existence and move on to the next world, we will discover which days we still have with us and which have disappeared into oblivion due to our squandering that chance that was afforded us.  Avrohom utilised every moment of every day to the maximum that he was capable of, and therefore, says the Ohr Gedalyohu, those days stayed with him and he could be said to be “coming” with those complete and perfect days.  They would be with him forever.      

It is highly unlikely that any of us are completely innocent of the crime of wasting time. Be it minutes, hours or days, we can all look back on times when we could have been more constructive.   For most this is an inextricable part of living, yet to be conscious of it and its inestimable damage is at least the first stage to minimising it.   One route to ensuring a life well spent may be to consider the eternal loss of times we spend engaged in these trivialities.  But perhaps a more positive approach would be to think of practical ways that we can best make use of the time we have and contemplate the incredible gain that we can cultivate in using our days appropriately.  Each time we do that we are creating jewels of infinite value that can never be taken away from us.  We are forging eternities that transcend anything that this world can offer.  This knowledge alone should be enough to inspire us to make every day count, to make every moment precious and to live a life without regret and full of meaning.

*May every moment of Shabbos inspire us to use every moment of the coming week*