Monday, May 27, 2013

Too Busy

I often assert that the phrase "I don't have time" is quite misleading. EVERYBODY has the same amount of time.

24 hours a day.

When someone says "I don't have the time to do X" what he is really saying is that X is just not important or pressing enough for him to do.

I am busy. Really busy. Can't be interrupted. Then I get a phone call. My wife tells me that she needs to go to the hospital to give birth to triplets. I suddenly have time. Tadaaaaa!!!:)

I saw this idea in a gemara that I recently learned [Ksubos 27]. The Mishna says that when an army captures a town, we must assume that the women of the town were violated. [So is the male animal at war]. The gemara cites a source that says that during war time the soldiers are TOO BUSY to take the wine and pour it to their idols [so the wine remains kosher]. But wait a second, asks the gemara, I thought that the soldiers DO HAVE time, as evidenced by the fact that we assume that they violated the women. Answers the gemara [say this in gemara niggun], for their yetzer hara, they have time. For the idols, they are too busy.   

When you want to do something - you do it....