Timeless Torah

Throughout all the vicissitudes of history, the nature of space and time seemed rooted in immutability. Man's expectations, plans and hopes were limited by the constraints of the calendar and the map. Not only did the mile and the minute dominate everything, they reminded us that every beginning had an end, past which we could not follow.
These boundaries filled man with melancholy thoughts. Human existence was finite, measured by the passing of a few seasons. And as far as space was concerned, he was no more than a small, brittle clump of earth. Thus, both the clock and the horizon taunted man with the admonition that, "From dust he springs and to dust he returns."
For a long time this was the way man conceived of himself. Then one fine day, along came a Jew named Albert Einstein and contradicted those accepted norms. Einstein taught that time and space was relative and not absolute. Not everywhere was an hour an hour and the term ‘meter’ did not always embrace the same amount of space. At first, Einstein's theory was scoffed as fiction. Today it is the universal standard of scientific truth. Indeed, modern physics is unable to operate without Einstein's theory and it is only thanks to the Jew who once had to flee Germany that man is not confined to terra firma.
An interesting paradox, however, has come to light as a result of space flight. We now know that a person flying at great speeds does not age the same way we do here on planet earth. Theoretically, an astronaut might fly around in space for a couple of years and return home no older than his son. Simply stated, the child who was stationary aged, while the father who flew grew steadily younger.
Once upon a time, such calculations would have been laughed at, but not any more. Curiously enough, this Einsteinian idea is actually hinted at in this week's Torah reading. The famous wizard Bilaam, was known as a scholar, magician, even prophet. But he had never heard of the good professor's Theory of Relativity. Bilaam pondered on the future of the Jewish People and saw that they are bounded by neither place nor time. To be sure they age, but it is precisely with the passing of time that they grow younger.
Thus Bilaam cried out, "Who has counted the dust of Jacob? Who has numbered the quarters of Israel?" That is, the customary reckoning of time did not apply to the Jews. Time is divided into quarters as the year is apportioned into four seasons. Empires and dynasties also follow the same pattern. They begin, expand, stagnate, and die. But for the Jews, the ravages of time seem not to exist. They grow younger, stronger, and more capable.
So Bilaam had to concede that the Jews are different. Not recognizing the Theory of Relativity he could not comprehend their secret strength. Still he proclaimed, "They are a people that dwell apart, not reckoned among the nations." What Bilaam could not fathom was the yardstick of the soul.
To be sure, the body is also born with the capacity to grow, but only for a limited duration. Then the aging process sets in. The human organism gradually runs down like a tired old machine. The end approaches. But the soul is altogether different. It does not grow feeble. Just the opposite! The more it experiences, the stronger, the sharper, the surer it becomes. The Jew is the astronaut.