“Do you know how long the kids’ summer vacation is? Eleven unstructured weeks! What are we going to do?” This refrain can be heard by panicked mothers coast to coast. Innately we sense that so much ‘time off’ is unproductive for our children and ourselves. Aside from the logistical challenges of such a vacation what is it about all that unstructured time that sends us into a tizzy?
Three Dimensions of Time
Time can be experienced in different ways. If you’re making a simchah you relish every moment of anticipation. Your steps are lighter and the usual annoyances of daily life glide right over you. You wonder how the rest of the world doesn’t notice you’re living on a different plane.
Unfortunately in times of difficulty we experience the opposite. Every moment is weighty and the simplest things are burdensome. Days stretch into each other with nothing uplifting to break the monotony. You wonder how other people are oblivious to your pain.
Our Sages have given names to these different textures in time. The times of distress are called yamin rabim — many days. As the Torah testifies at the height of the Egyptian exile: “And it was during those many days that … they sighed from the work.” (Shemos 2:23) Especially frustrating in these situations is the lack of progress. More time doesn’t get you any further. The particulars of each moment get lost in the seemingly random multiplicity of time and we feel that the future will not be any more significant than the past.
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