Does This Keep You Up At Night?

Answer

I'm sorry you haven't been sleeping. I hope the answer to your question will help. I'll explain it as boringly as possible.

Time itself is a creation. It didn't exist before. Before didn't exist either, because before is a measure of time.There was no concept of before before time was created. Time has a beginning, which means there was no before before that.

This is not just an abstract concept. It has real implications for your life, and can help you in your daily struggleswhencontemplated deeply(preferably during daylight hours).

The Kabbalists teach that creation was not a one-off thing. G-d is constantly recreating the universe every second. You, me and the entire world are being created anew from absolute nothingness right now. The world we see now is not the world that was a second ago. It is a freshly created world, with new possibilities and no preconceived baggage. It may look like the same old world, but the divine energy that props it up is not.

This is also true of time itself. We experience time as a continuum, each moment inexorably leading to the next. But that's not the case. Time is a creation.Each moment is a new reality.

It's worth thinking about this when we feel anxious about the future, or upset about the past.The past only exists as a memory I have in the present. And the future only exists as the present moment's anticipation of what's next. G-d is recreating everything at this moment. So can we.

All we have is now, this moment, right here. And you want to go to sleep?