Teach us to number our days - column for Las Cruces Bulletin - February 1, 2019

 In the Karol household, we have been going through some of our old files to decide what we need to keep.  While deeply engaged in that task, my wife Rhonda called from the other room, “You need to see what I just found!” 

   It was a copy of the photo spread in Cincinnati’s Jewish newspaper, The American Israelite, chronicling my June, 1981 rabbinic ordination. Seeing this memento offered a momentary measure of my nearly 38 years as a rabbi. 

  This article came to light right around the time I attended local events sponsored by the NAACP Dona Ana County Branch to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The NAACP breakfast, besides recalling the words of Dr. King, offered a poignant memorial tribute to former Las Cruces Police Chief Jaime Montoya, who died in early January.  

   Programs that revisit impactful statements and accomplishments of people who left their mark on their community have a way of bringing to mind the legacies which we, ourselves, will leave.  

    Verse 12 of Chapter 90 in the book of Psalms suggests how we can put our lives into proper perspective as we move through each passing year.  

    As I perused the Bible translations on my shelf, each one offered a slightly different take on this biblical piece of counsel:

• Teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart (The Catholic Study Bible: Third Edition – New American Bible Revised Edition, Oxford, 2010). 
• Make known to us the best way to count our days so that we may develop hearts of wisdom. (Our Haven and Our Strength: The Book of Psalms, translation by Martin Samuel Cohen, 2004)
• To count our days rightly, instruct, that we may get a heart of wisdom.  (The Book of Psalms, Robert Alter, 2007)
• Teach us how short our time is; let us know it in the depths of our souls. (A Book of Psalms, Stephen Mitchell, 1993).  

    Taken together, these renderings of this verse challenge us with this question: What is the best way to count our days? 

   In the previous verses, Psalm 90 speaks of how everything comes into being and then passes on.  It declares that our days are filled with choices we make, some which we eventually regret.  As it states in verse 9, “we spend our years like a sigh.” 

    I believe that this Psalm reminds us to savor every moment, to consider the good that we can do every day, and to keep within view the needs of humanity and all of creation. 

    Martin Samuel Cohen, in his commentary on Psalm 90, suggested that this Psalm intentionally juxtaposes the usual span of our lives with God’s timelessness.  

    We do, however, have a chance to taste — and to do — what is timeless when we share a kind word, when we give to others with a generous spirit, and when we dedicate ourselves to making a difference in the world.   

     Perhaps we should change the order of phrases in this verse from Psalm 90 to better understand its message.   

      How can we gain a heart of wisdom? 

    We do so by recognizing that our time on earth is limited, and by realizing that we achieve the goal of “rightly numbering our days” when the acts we perform have the potential to sustain the world for yet another generation, if not more. 

   So may we make our days - and all that we do - count in the best way possible.