Think about it: don't we seem to get
an extra three qualitative hours of things done each
day?
Let's take women for example: the average woman in the
21st century has a lot on her `plate.' She works,
raises children, runs a house and spends time trying to
keep herself healthy, reasonably attractive and
modestly clothed [shopping and alterations take time!],
and self actualized. The truth is that this has always
been true but more focus is placed on it now. The
religious woman usually has more than the `average'
number of children who need care, maintenance,
attention in numerous physical and educational areas.
She also has Shabbos to prepare for, which entails at
least half a day's work, not to mention if she has
guests and if they sleep over. Don't mention it.
Most religious women spend a good deal of time praying,
saying Tehillim and birkas hamozon. Even if they
do some of it while hanging laundry or cooking etc., it
still takes time. A good number of women are the prime
breadwinners in the family, allowing their husbands to
devote themselves to Torah study, often while nursing
babies or expecting new additions to the family. Many
women attend at least one class per week, either some
form of study or in parenting. Certainly time
consuming.
Add to this the time required for transportation:
commuting, either to work or traveling for thrift or
simply necessary shopping. Extremely time consuming.
Secular women are involved in volunteer work, i.e.
chessed, too. Religious women not only do
chessed but are involved in community life and
organized or personal neighborly chessed in a
much more intensive way. They may even be running some
kind of gemach-loan service from their homes!
Clock the time needed to answer the door and even the
phone for this outlet of energy and time! Kol
hakovod! You don't have to be a math wizard to add
up the above hours, subtract them from 24, not even
including sleep, and you come up with a minus.
And let's not forget cooking which, for a religious
home, takes more time, what with checking for bugs. A
fruit cake that I bake once a year for Tu Bishvat used
to take me 10 minutes to put together before I became
religious. Now it can take more than an hour. So where
do we women get that time for our myriad activities?
We are actually living longer lives than our
counterparts because of all that extra time -- and
making that time count qualitatively.
We may be getting up when it's still dark and burning
the midnight oil at the other end, but we can be sure
that our time is well spent, and like money,
ultimately, there's always more where that came from:
the Source.
