Horologists around the world carried out one of the strangest operations of their profession on Saturday night - they held back time.
The last minute of June 30, 2012 was 61 seconds long with a "leap second" added to compensate for the erratic movement of the Earth.
The brief halting of the second hand compensates for the creeping divergence from solar time - the period required for Earth to complete a day.
http://news.sky.com/story/953697/horologists-add-a-leap-second
Speaking about time, a friend lent me the book Trust Me by Rabbi Eliezer Parkoff in which he shares a thought from Meva'er Ha-Inyanim as cited in Yalkut Lekach Tov. The thought relates to the passuk in Kohelet, "There is a time to be born and a time to die." Obviously something additional is being taught here rather than the obvious statement. He further goes on to relate a story about a couple who have been married for a long time and haven't been blessed with children. After consulting doctors and making the rounds of rabbis for many years, to no avail, the couple hears about a tzaddik who has great success in helping childless couples. They go to the rabbo, receive a brocha and, within a year, a child is born. They are ecstatic but have one regret. Had they gone to the tzaddik earlier, they would have spared themselves many years of anguish.
"It is this attitude that Shlomo Hamelech comes to address. No! There is a right time to give birth. It is not that the cause brought about the right time; rather, it is the right time that brought about the cause. Since it was the right time, Hashem sent them a tzaddik who would aid them through his prayers. If this same tzaddik would have come a few years earlier, his blessings and prayers wouldn't have accomplished anything..."
We all gained an extra second last night. Did we utilize the time wisely?
Gevaldig. At first I was ticked! (no pun intended) that they messed with time. Who are they? Yet, it, too has a purpose.
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