The other day, while I was sitting on the dentist's chair and
waiting for the Novocain to take effect so that the dentist
could start a root canal, I almost started to laugh. I didn't
go there that morning because of any pain, just for a regular
checkup. So after the dentist gave me the verdict that I
needed a root canal I asked him if he might have made a
mistake, since I didn't feel any pain in my mouth. He said
that it seems that the decay had just reached the root. If I
would have come earlier (maybe even a few days earlier), a
regular filling would have been enough to remedy the
situation.
I started to laugh at myself when I realized that it was my
own procrastination that caused this painful and expensive
ordeal. This was funny to me because I remembered the many
times I inwardly laughed at other people whom I saw lecturing
their children about the importance of not waiting for the
last minute to study for their tests or to do their homework.
These lectures seemed so absurd to me because I knew that
these very same people would almost chronically finish
preparing for Shabbos at the last minute; mopping the floors
or rushing to put the cholent on the stove (with a
piece of raw meat) after the siren announcing Shabbos already
sounded. While I was sitting on the dentist's chair, I
realized that I was just as big a hypocrite as the ones at
whom I scoffed!
This incident started me thinking about this strange
phenomenon of procrastination. We use it to make our lives
more pleasant but almost invariably it results in the
complete opposite: stress, pain, loss of money or
embarrassment. "Do we ever gain from it?" I thought to
myself. "And what is its root? And are we able to rid
ourselves of this annoying trait?"
The truth is that there are two benefits that we do get from
procrastinating. First, we shorten the time that we actually
have to do the task that we are trying to avoid. As a
teenager once explained to me, "What takes my friends all
week to study, I complete in one night, because I have the
pressure to finish it before the morning. I agree," she
continued, "that it is not pleasant to work under such
pressure, but the few hours of pressure is a small price to
pay for a whole week of enjoyment!"
Second, often we put off doing a project for such a long time
that eventually the need for it ceases and consequently we
avoid doing the unpleasant project altogether.
On the other hand the negative effects that it has on our day-
to-day lives surely outweigh these two benefits. For
instance, stress that is caused by waiting for the last
minute to finish cooking or to set up the tables and chairs
for a sheva brochos could be avoided if these things
were done earlier.
Sometimes, we have to hire a carpenter to fix a broken door
that could have been avoided if we had just tightened a loose
screw earlier.
An example of procrastination that causes embarrassment is
when someone puts off doing laundry until the end of the day.
She intended to get up early and put it in the dryer but
unfortunately she woke up late and had to wear damp clothes
to work.
Not only does procrastination interfere with our material
life but it also interferes with our spiritual life. The
Ramchal in Mesillas Yeshorim points out that the
yetzer hora tries to delay us from starting three
distinct categories of mitzvos. He writes (beginning of
perek 7), " . . . before we start to do the mitzvoh we
have to be careful not to let the mitzvoh become stale.
(Therefore) when the time arrives to perform a mitzvoh (first
category), when it comes one's way (second category) or when
one thinks to do it (third one), one must swiftly take hold
of it and perform it and not allow much time to elapse in the
interim, because it is the greatest danger not to do so; for
each new minute can bring with it some new hindrance to the
performance of a good deed . . . "
Women davening Mincha is a good illustration of the
importance of performing a mitzvoh "when the time arrives"
and not waiting to do it at the last minute. Little children
don't always plan their crying to coincide with their
mother's schedules, and often they begin to cry right when
the mother begins to daven Shemoneh Esrei. Therefore,
when the mother begins to daven early and the baby
cries, there is enough time to calm the baby and still
daven. However, if she waits until right before
shki'ah to daven, then by the time the child is
calm she has already missed the time to daven.
We learn the seriousness of not immediately doing "a mitzvah
that comes one's way" in the gemora Taanis. (Nachum
ish Gam Zu related an incident that happened to him:) "A poor
man once came to me and said, `Rebbi, feed me.' I answered,
`Wait until I unload my packages from my donkey.' I didn't
finish unloading before his soul left him."
A few years ago, a rebbe of mine, who had taught me a lot of
Torah and to whom I was once very close, was hospitalized for
about a month. I pushed off visiting him numerous times
until, on the day that I finally made it to the hospital, he
was too sick to see visitors. The very next day I had to
perform the mitzvoh of levoyas hameis and I lost the
opportunity to perform the mitzvoh of bikur cholim as
well as the chance to thank him for all that he had done for
me.
After we have conquered the yetzer hora and heeded the
advice of the Ramchal to start to do a mitzvoh immediately,
we shouldn't feel sure that we will merit to complete it.
The Ramchal (ibid.) writes that not only does the
yetzer hora try to stop us from starting a mitzvah but
it tries its best to prevent us from completing it. He
writes, "Therefore . . . (someone who) is doing a mitzvoh
should hasten to complete it; not for the sake of ease, as
with one who wishes to relieve himself of a burden, but for
fear that he might not complete it."
The meforshim teach us that the severity of
procrastination is not limited to its practical outcome,
namely hindering our performance of mitzvos, but rather a
mitzvoh done lazily stems from an entirely different place in
ourselves than a mitzvoh done with vigor. Therefore, these
two types of mitzvos merit two completely different
rewards.
For instance, the Torah tells us that after Noach came out of
the ark he got drunk and revealed himself. When this was made
known to his two sons, Sheim and Yeffes, they were concerned
about his honor and they brought a garment to cover him.
Rashi quotes a Midrash that Sheim's reward was that
his descendants, Klal Yisroel, would be sanctified
through the mitzvoh of tying tzitzis onto their
garments. Yeffes, on the other hand, was rewarded by the
promise that in the war between Gog (his descendant) and
Magog, Gog would not be left in an open field but would be
buried just as he covered his father.
Seemingly, this isn't fair. Since they covered their father
together why did Sheim merit extra kedusha and Yeffes
only burial?
The Maharal (Gur Aryeh Bereishis 9:23) explains that
an action done with vigor is rooted in the nefesh
while the root of an action done lazily is in the
physical body. Therefore Sheim, who forcefully and briskly
covered his father (like Rashi there explains), was rewarded
with something appropriate for his nefesh. On the
other hand Yeffes covered his father sluggishly and therefore
only his body was rewarded.
HaRav Shlomo Wolbe (Alei Shor II page 254) goes one
step further and maintains that procrastination not only
taints a person's personality but it is considered an
imperfection in any and all creatures of the whole
creation!
He explains that this is the meaning of the gemora
(Shabbos 30b) that in the future, women will conceive and
give birth the same day and that trees will bear fruit every
day. Nowadays, he explains, that there is still evil enmeshed
in the creation, it takes time for an embryo to develop.
However when the world will be perfect and there will be no
evil at all, everything will grow quickly because quickness
is spirituality!
