Long Island's Oldest Reform Congregation
140 Central Avenue - Lawrence, NY 11559
(516) 239-1140

Rabbi Brooks R. Susman

I remember when I first became conscious of counting and time. It was in the mid-fifties. And what was the thought that coalesced these concepts? The question: how old would I be at the new century. And the answer I got: that's old! My parents were barely that age when I first pondered the question. And coupled with the number is the realization that now is the millennium. We all are future oriented. We anticipate the next birthday, the future vacation, the daughter’s bat mitzvah. And then reality strikes as we note that there is less of a future and more of a past. We are based in time. And the millennial fever has made us conscious of our dependence on and in time.

But does this number truly matter in the full scheme of things, especially when our millennium still has 240 years until its arrival. In our calendar, it is 5760. It is not our religious millennium. I will not be around to see our Jewish millennium, but I am here to witness this one. What will be disappointing concerning this one is that little will change. There will still be the same feelings and actions toward others on January 2 as there had been on December 29.

Time does not change us merely by its passage. Rather we change within time, but only if we will it. Yes, I am older than the young boy who thought that the coming of the new century was a lifetime away. And in a way, it was a lifetime. I am a different person than that naïve young man, a young man with decades of summers, and loves, and dreams, and futures ahead of him. Now I am, as is each of us, a millennialist. We have crossed into new territory. And only through our actions can we guarantee that the new will be significantly different from the old.

If I have a prayer for us, it is that we now respect the new time. We have the ability to change, but only when each of us decides that the change is both necessary and appropriate. Take millennial stock. Choose what is truly important and what is mere fluff. Not one of us will ever again share a millennial moment. Do not let the time pass idly! I will never have this opportunity again: that is, to wish you, on this cusp of a hopefully new age; wisdom, understanding and discernment; and the time to nurture them.