Parashat Vayehi- Time Flies When You’re Doing God’s Will
The opening verse of Parashat Vayehi informs us of the number of years that Yaakob Abinu lived: "Yaakob’s days, the years of his life, were one hundred and forty-seven years."
One Rabbi noted the peculiarity of the syntax of this verse. Rather than simply stating, "Yaakob’s years were one hundred and forty-seven," it begins by saying, "Yaakob’s days…" Curiously, the Torah speaks of Yaakob life not only in terms of years, but also in terms of days.
The reason, perhaps, is that for a Sadik, years seem like days. For most of us, the days pass by quickly, but the years move far more slowly. This is not the case for the spiritual giants, those whose sole ambition is serving God to the best of their ability and reaching greater and greater heights in Torah and Misvot. For them, there is never enough time. The Sadikim are never satisfied with what they’ve accomplished, they always have more room for improvement, more Torah to study, more people to help, more ways to fulfill God’s will. When a person lives his life with this kind of intense ambition and sense of purpose, the years move by as quickly as the days. The Torah therefore speaks of Yaakob’s years as "days."
The story is told of the Beneh Yissaschar (Rav Zvi Elimelech Shapiro of Dinov, 1783-1841), who was once walking through a market and came across two Jewish men sitting comfortably and chatting.
"What are you doing here?" the Rabbi asked.
The men answered, in Yiddish, "We’re just chasing the time away." Evidently, this is the Yiddish equivalent of the English expression, "killing time."
"If you’re chasing the time away," the Rabbi replied, "then please chase it toward me. I never have enough time to complete what I need to do. If you have extra time, please send it my way so I’ll have some more!" This is how the Sadikim view time – there’s never enough of it.
The reason why we waste time is because we don’t make religious pursuits our primary ambition and goal. We are satisfied and complacent, so we feel no pressure to achieve more. But if we prioritize Torah and Misvot, and view our lives as opportunities to achieve spiritual greatness, we will always have more to do, more to accomplish. And if we live with this perspective, then we will use our time far more constructively, and realize that there really isn’t any time for us to "kill."
