The Power of the Good Deed

Albert Einstein defined time as one of the dimensions of creation, and it is undoubtedly a very special dimension. According to the teachings of the Kabbalah, time was created on the first day of the creation, after the formation of primordial matter.

The great marvel of time is its constant flow in a single direction: forward, the continual change of the past to the present and the present to the future. At the same time, it is now quite clear to physicists that in some way all 'times' are one from a certain perspective. The literature of Jewish philosophy and Jewish law also presents an interesting exploration of the nature of time: is it a single inclusive reality or a composite of many units?

Another question that is yet unresolved is that of speeding up or slowing down in the dimension of time. Can the movement along the axis of time be controlled? For now, physicists suggest a positive response to this question, but it is completely theoretical. There is no device today that can produce the tremendous levels of energy required to prove the theories empirically.

Thus science offers no proof to date, but the Kabbalah and the inner essence of the Torah do. The nature and multi-dimensionality of time are explained in the books of the Kabbalah and Hassidic philosophy. Each one of the four spiritual worlds (Emanation, Creation, Formation, action) has its own relative dimension of time, different to the others.
 

On the practical level – regarding the actual acceleration of time – it emerges that there is a special 'trick'.

We will not delve into the realm of the special acts reserved for the great Kabbalists , such as a leap (a folding of space) or prophecy (transparent vision of the future) – We refer here to a technique that exists in the realm of action that is open to regular, ordinary people. Each of us is capable of speeding up the time needed to learn an academic subject or to develop cognitive and emotional processes, matters that require their own special investment of quality time.

This time can be reduced a thousand times (!) by means of a very simple act: doing another person good (materially or spiritually) – to put it simply, an act of kindness. One of the greatest Kabbalists of recent generations, Rabbi Schneur-Zalman , wrote that by means of a material or spiritual act of kindness to others, a person's mind and heart are refined a thousand times.

In other words, the time needed for a person to achieve any mental or emotional insight is reduced a thousand times due to the act of kindness. For example, academic or emotional coping that is meant to take one thousand hours will be shortened to one hour.

From a cosmic perspective, kindness to others as part of repairing the world (tikkun olam) is one of the central channels for realizing what the prophet Isaiah describes in the expression "I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time." The lofty revelations described in the literature of Jewish mysticism, which will be revealed to all humanity in the era of the 'seventh millennium', will be revealed more speedily thanks to good deeds.