We Jews have a unique understanding of time. We sanctify it through Shabbat and holidays. And we mark the high points of our lives by saying Shehecheyanu. “Coca Cola is my favorite drink,” said one Reform Jew, “so I elevate Shabbat by only drinking Coke on Shabbas.”

To be a Jew is to know that not every hour is the same. Every hour may be sixty minutes long. But an hour spent with family, an hour spent helping others, an hour studying Torah is greater than any other.

And our most somber holiday, Yom Kippur, is a holiday about time. Yom Kippur reminds us that there really is a time machine. Through looking back on our lives, we can come to understand ourselves, to forgive ourselves, and to become the people we were always meant to be. We realize that the past – no matter how hurtful and painful it might have been – is only a prologue to the kinder, more loving people we can become.

And when David Ben Gurion spoke at the United Nations in 1947 arguing for the the creation of the State of Israel, he talked about another aspect of Jewish time.

Three hundred years ago a ship called the Mayflower set sail to the New World.  This was a great event in the history of England.  I wonder if there is one Englishman alive who remembers what time it set sail or what kind of bread the crew ate.  Yet more than three thousand years ago, before the Mayflower set sail, the Jews left Egypt.  Every Jew in the world knows exactly what day they left and what kind of bread they ate.  Even today, Jews eat matzah on the fifteenth of Nisan.  They tell the story of the Exodus and all of the troubles that Jews have endured since being exiled and they end with a prayer, “Next year in Jerusalem.”  This is the nature of Jews.

This is the way of the Jews – to remember the past, to acknowledge the pain, and to work for a better future. We Jews have long memories. And we look long into the future, knowing that the world we are working towards will not arrive soon. But each of us can take a step towards creating that word. Each of us can be a link in the world’s longest journey.

We live between the distant past and an unseen future, and yet we are taught to seize every moment. A kind word, a chance encounter can change the entire world. Against the vastness of time and the uncertainty of the future, we stubbornly believe that every action matters.

To be a Jew is to live with hope, to know that our lives are part of a journey, and to know that every moment matters. And to be a Jew is to live with one foot on earth and one foot in heaven – to see the muck and the mire of life and to know that, together, we can build a heaven on earth. Next year, or next generation, or the next, every person on earth can be free. Every person can be at peace. We really can build the Jerusalem of our dreams.

And to be a Jew is to wake up every morning thinking, “How can I take the next step towards creating a better world?” In the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel:

There is a divine dream which the prophets and the rabbis have cherished and which fills our prayers and permeates acts of true piety. It is the dream of a world, rid of evil by the grace of God as well as the efforts of man, by his dedication to establishing the kingship of God in the world. God is waiting for us to redeem the world. We should not spend our life hunting for trivial satisfactions when God is waiting.

Each of us has a purpose. Each of us has a kind word that only we can say, a mitzvah that only we can do. And each of us is a part of history, a link between the suffering of Egypt and the future redemption.

We dare not spend our life hunting for trivial satisfactions when God is waiting.