Sorry, I just don’t have the TIME!
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan,
Chabad @ Flamingo
Sorry Rabbi, but I just don’t have the time. This has got to be the number one excuse I hear. On average do people work longer hours, have more responsibilities and less leisure time than they did four or five decades ago? Perhaps, if making time for spiritual pursuit wasn’t all that popular then, I shouldn’t expect more of people today?
How much time we really do have is a definite unknown. After all, some of us will be blessed with many years, read lots of time, while unfortunately, for others life’s clock will run out sooner. The big question is; can we buy more time, and if we can, what’s the secret formula?
What if spending time on the pursuit of Yiddishkiet could actually make time, rather than simply just using it.
Consider this: several weeks ago the American Journal of Psychiatry published the longest continuous study of mental health ever done - as front-page news. Conducted at the Harvard Medical School, it tracked 724 men for 60 years and showed that key mental factors, such as a stable marriage or financial security, are vital to postponing our inevitable mortality.
Another interesting study, recently published in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association compared the mortality rates of male psychoanalysts to all American males, in other occupations, for the 30-year period 1953 to 1982. It found psychoanalysts have a 48% lower mortality rate than the male population at large, which means that, in a given year, they have half the chance of dying as the average American male.
Dr. Norman Doidge, in an article in the Arts &Life section of the National Post (6.6.01.) posits that psychoanalysis has its healthful effects because it involves a direct focus on repetitive, self-injurious activities. It involves the use of reason, to examine all our actions, which eventually leads us to control unreasonable or negative tendencies.
In this regard; he further comments that Freud’s method of psychoanalysis is by far superior because of his belief that being over-controlled is as damaging as being under-controlled. Essentially, he discovered that some of our most self-injurious behavior comes from over control of our natural drives.
In plain English; people who repress their natural and instinctual desires, develop longings for substitute satisfactions, which are often felt as irresistible, insatiable cravings. They are insatiable because they are substitutes, and not the real thing. For example, the person who is isolated, lonely and eats too much may do so because he or she never addressed their primary longing for passionate human attachments.
I would suggest that Dr. Doidge is more correct than he possibly imagines, but in a way he may never have considered. The Torah tells us that; every Jew has an intrinsic inner need for spirituality and a deep-rooted yearning for an attachment to G‑d. Unfortunately, for many these passions and longings remain suppressed, dormant and unfulfilled.
If the studies are accurate, and Dr. Doige’s understanding of them is correct, spending time in spiritual pursuit would actually amount to the greatest investment in ones health, and longevity. After all, based on the aforementioned, common sense would dictate that a life lived with spiritual well-being will probably last longer than life devoid of spirituality. A ‘key mental factor’ would certainly include having a sense of purpose and meaning to life, and the robust condition of the soul should apparently affect bodily health as well. Basically, it seems that by “making time” for yiddishkiet you might truly be “making time” for yourself!
When discussing the subject of time – or lack thereof - our revered and beloved Rebbe would often relate the following story: A man once arrived at the door of the Maggid of Mezritch (successor of the Ba’al Shem Tov-founder of the Chassidic movement), and stated “seeing as I have only half hour per day to devote to study, surely the you would agree that I devote that time to the study of Halachah” (Jewish ritual laws which govern daily life).
To the man’s astonishment, the Maggid replied “No, the time should be spent in the study of Chassidut” (Mysticism). “How can that be right” he asked incredulously, “surely knowledge of how to practically observe the Mitzvot takes precedence”. The Maggid responded, “if you spent half and hour a day studying Chassidut – you would realize that you have more than a half hour to devote to Torah study!”
Why not give it all some thought, are you sure you don’t have the TIME?