Oh yes. We are in the final month of the Jewish year, the month of Ellul. A lot has to happen in these last weeks of the year. 

The Jewish view is that time has a personality. Each year has a character of its own. It's like a guest who stays with you for twelve months, follows you around everywhere you go, and then leaves so another guest can move in. Each year arrives with its particular energy and feel, and then that energy makes way for a new year with its own personality and style. 

Some guests are easy, others can be quite demanding. But each leaves a gift behind -the lessons learned, the challenges faced, and tasks fulfilled in the year gone by. 

Every year on Rosh Hashana it is decreed in heaven what each person needs to face in the year to come. We are each given a specific set of obstacles to overcome, lessons to learn and changes to make over the course of the year. 

As the year comes to a close, we need to deal with any unfinished business. We must complete this year's spiritual task list while this year still exists. Rosh Hashana will come and this year will be gone, along with all its challenges and opportunities. New ones will then arrive, but first we have to finish up with the old. Next year has its own energy and its own tasks. 

So now, at the end of the year, the pace speeds up, the intensity is increased and everything is thrown at us. Our guest is about to leave. We need to say goodbye to this year soon, but before we do we need to squeeze every  last opportunity out of it. No wonder it's hectic. It is the drama of saying farewell forever. There is no time to waste. This year will never be again.