SHABBAT SHUVA 5785

What If I Offered You ½ Million Dollars?

What would you say if tomorrow I offered you a dollar? There would be one stipulation: you have to spend it all in one day. Anything you don’t spend, you lose. I would imagine that if a made that offer to you, you wouldn’t be especially excited about it. After all, it’s only a dollar.

Let’s increase the stakes a bit. How about if I offered you $1 every day for a year? But again, by the end of every day, you have to have spend it all or you lose it. And by the way, the offer might be renewed for the following year, but no promises. Now we’re talking about $365 dollars. It might not be a fortune, but it’s likely to grab your interest more than a single dollar would.

Now let’s make things really interesting. How about $1,440 dollars a day, every day, for the next year? That’s over ½ million dollars for the year! Now that is an offer everyone would take seriously. Understand the stipulations still apply. You have to spend all $1,440 every day. Not a penny carries over to the next day. Use it or lose it! And again, although it’s very possible that the offer will be renewed, nothing is guaranteed. But with over ½ million dollars a year at stake, in the form of 365 payments of more than $1,400 a day, let me suggest that we do a little bit of budgeting.

Let’s start with an easy category. How much would you set aside to squander, to absolutely waste on trivial, meaningless pursuits? I’m going to venture a guess that most if not all of us would say, “If I’m getting that money every day, where I have to spend it or lose it every day … and I might not get it again next year, I’m not going to waste a penny of it. I’m going to use every bit of it, every day, for things I really care about.” And personally, I would agree. Squander part of my more than $1,400 a day? Not a chance.

Would you use some of that money on yourself? I certainly would. I would certainly spend some of the money on things I would truly enjoy. Some of them would be material things. I’d replace my 20-year-old golf clubs. Maybe buy season box tickets to the Braves and the Falcons. There’s nothing wrong with using some of the money on yourself, but I would hope it would not be your only budget line.

How about family and friends? I would certainly plan on using the money to benefit my family and friends. Again, sometimes it would be on material things for them. But some of it would be used for travel. Where? To get my kids to come to see Cheryl and I from Joshua and family in Florida, Lea in Phoenix, to Jonathan in LA.

Chery and I would also travel. We would go back to Israel more frequently. I’d like to tour Jewish sites all over the world. And of course, I would document it all with my fancy new camera.

Now let’s expand our circle a bit. You’re not going to waste any of the money, you’re going to treat yourself to some things that would be especially meaningful for you, and you’ll spend some in different ways on your family and friends. But what about the rest of the world and your obligation as a Jew to leave it better than you found it?

The Torah teaches us to set aside 10% of our income for tzedakah. I know some of us don’t always hit that ideal mark. I’m not judging that. So maybe not 10%, but something? Would anything go to feeding those without food, or providing clothing and shelter for those who are homeless? Would you support worthy Jewish causes here and in Israel? Would you support your shul and other important local Jewish institutions? I know you would.

Well, I have some great news, my friends. We have all hit the lottery. And now I have to come clean. I’m not talking about dollars. I think it’s fair to say I’m talking about something worth more than money. I am talking about time.

You’ve heard it said that time is money. On this Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I tell you that time is not money. Time is life. You get an allotment of 1,440 minutes every day. That’s well over ½ million minutes a year. But, as I have been saying, you cannot save even one minute for another day—and tomorrow is never guaranteed.

Nevertheless, this is no small gift. We’ve already discussed how to use it. None of it will be squandered. Some will be used for yourself, some for family and friends, and some will be given to causes important to you, causes that you believe will help to build a better world. If that is indeed how you’ll spend your precious time this year, you will indeed make this a very good year.

My friends, let me conclude by making the case that time is life—not money. You cannot bank time to use later. You cannot regain time you lost. You cannot borrow time. You can’t even check your balance to see how much time is left in the bank of life.

Time is valuable in ways that far outstrip money. Time is indeed life, and as we mark the beginning of a New Year—a new period of time, a new period of life, let us resolve to add value to our lives as I spoke of yesterday, and resolve to use that time well. Amen!