Jewish View of Laziness
Question
What is the Jewish view of laziness? Does G-d abhor laziness? To be honest, I am a very lazy person myself. In my heart, I wish I could fulfill a lot more mitzvot than I really do. But I don’t because I find myself too lazy, simply lacking the physical and mental energy. I am too lazy to go to synagogue most of the time, too lazy to daven by the deadline or sometimes at all, too lazy to bensch after meals, too lazy to study as much Torah as I wish I could. I know many other religions consider laziness a serious sin. In their views, I would be a terrible sinner.
Answers
In Hashem’s Eyes, you are not a terrible sinner – you are simply grappling with a weakness to be lazy. 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 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 you are lazy about the things that you do not feel so connected to. If it is the former, 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 bentsch regardless of how much you don’t want to.
If, however, you are lazy about things that you are not so connected to, I think that the simplest answer is for you you take upon yourself to learn about one of the things that you are weak at. For example, if you learned about davening, I would hope that you would feel motivated to daven on time. In general, the more we know about something, the greater is our connection to that thing, and, in turn, the greater is our desire to want to do that thing. This means that the more I know and understand what I am saying when I daven, the more I will want to daven. Not just want to daven, but to daven within the correct times so that I can daven properly.
However difficult it is to overcome feelings of laziness, it is always important to remember that Hashem does not demand perfection from anyone – but He does expect us to do our best.
Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team