Laziness: Caring about Caring

Question

Dear Rabbi,

What is the Jewish view of laziness? Does God abhor laziness? To be honest, I am a very lazy person myself. I know I should do more Jewish things but I guess I’m just too lazy. I know many other religions consider laziness a serious sin and, in their view, I would be a terrible sinner.

Thank you, Rabbi, as always, for your guidance.

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    First, to ease your mind, you should know that you are not a terrible sinner in God’s eyes. You are simply grappling with a weakness called “laziness.” Does that make being lazy okay? No, not at all. Judaism regards laziness as being an undesirable trait. But Judaism also recognizes that we all have our weaknesses and our strengths, and that we all need to work on our weaker traits.

    Please allow me to wonder if you are a lazy person about everything in your life, or if it is that you are lazy only about things you do not feel so connected to. If the laziness is “global,” perhaps there is not too much that can be done other than to set yourself small but doable goals. For example, to accept upon yourself that you will always say the blessing after eating a meal, regardless of how much your laziness tells you that you don’t have time or energy for it.

    If, however, you are lazy only about things that you are not so connected to, I think that the simplest answer is for you to take it upon yourself to learn more about those things. Take, for example, prayer. Let’s say you are interested in praying but you find it hard to pray on time or stay focused on your prayers the way you would like to be. In general, the more we learn about and understand something, the greater is our connection to that thing. And, in turn, the greater is our desire to want to do that thing correctly. This means that the more I know and understand what I am saying when I pray, the more I will want to pray, including at the right time and with concentration that is appropriate to my personal ability.

    In addition, a noted author once wrote, “Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today, because if you enjoy it today you can do it again tomorrow!”

    I am not saying that overcoming a lazy trait is easy. But however difficult it is to overcome the trait of laziness, it is important to remember that God does not demand perfection from anyone – He just expects us to do our best

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team