Our Gemara continued discussing the middah of laziness, it’s negative and infrequently positive qualities. I was particularly struck by something the Orchos Tzaddikim (16) mentions. In categorizing various forms of laziness he mentions intellectual laziness:

⁦Not only does the lazy man fail to attain knowledge of the Torah, since he does not occupy himself with the Torah as he should, but due to his laziness, false notions enter his heart…A lazy person also listens to idle matters, but he excuses himself by maintaining that he has an open mind. Laziness, then, causes a man to seek reasons for saying that when he avoids study, he is really doing a positive good. 

Now even though it is true that we must rest in order to grow strong and that listening to witty matters helps to clear the mind, this applies specifically to the man who is zealous and occupies himself with the Torah. The strength of man is not like the strength of stones and his bones are not like brass, so that he can be busy constantly; one must rest from time to time in order to replenish one's strength. But the lazy man applies this theory to himself and embraces it so wholeheartedly that he does nothing at all. In every instance where exertion is called for, he rationalizes his laziness.

Orchos Tzaddikim seems to be saying two things: 1. It is easy to rationalize not thinking thoroughly or studying matters thoroughly. Yet it is an obligation to do so, and push yourself intellectually in knowledge of Torah. 2. He also mentions that one who is toiling hard in Torah also needs to rest his mind. 

It seems to me that this is a true and significant struggle for learners, especially in our leisure culture with almost every form of entertainment available. One can just click on a podcast and listen to just about anything for hours and hours. And, while he says it is considered a good thing to occasionally rest the mind, it is all too easy to waste way too much time and rationalize it as recuperating. 

There is a story about the Chofetz Chaim as a youth, who apparently overdid his hasmada, and the doctors forbade him to study Torah for an entire year. This story comes from a good source (See p. 68 “Yoshor, Moses Meir (June 1986) [1937]. Chafetz Chaim, the life and works of Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan of Radin. rendered into English by Charles Wengrov (1st Revised ed.). New York, NY: Mesorah publication. The author was  loyal talmid of his for many years who wrote a biography of him. 

Parenthetically, I must comment on this medical advice that clearly the Chofetz Chaim took most earnestly. These ideas may sound strange to our ears. Our doctors today engage in a different kind of mythology such as Calling human experiences and styles of engagement with the world chemical imbalances, low self-esteem, personality disorders and attention deficit disorder. I’m not making fun of modern medicine anymore than I am making fun of ancient medicine. Whenever medicine tries to delve into the psychological realm it really engages in what is essentially mythology. But mythology is not false, rather it is a cultural narrative that allows people to understand human experiences and patterns of behavior that are not quite possible to describe verbally, what Jung would call the collective unconscious. We all do what we can in every generation to get a handle on and explain human behavior which is essentially inexplicable though somehow deeply meaningful.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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