Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, The Path of the Just, Ch. 6

READING FOR ALACRITY Zerizut / Alacrity By Alan Morinis The angels were praised for this good trait [zerizut]. As it is said regarding them (Psalm 103:20), (They are) mighty in energy, doing as He says, listening to the voice of His word. And, as it is written (Ezekiel 1:14), The chayot [heavenly beings] dashed back and forth like lightning. In truth human beings are just that humans, and not angels. It is therefore impossible for us to have the might of the angels. Nonetheless we should strive to get as close to this level as we possibly can. King David used to praise his own share of this trait by saying (Psalms 119:60), I hurried did not delay to keep Your mitzvot. Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, The Path of the Just, Ch. 6 In this quote, Rabbi Luzzatto calls on us to cultivate the trait of zerizut zeal, alacrity, enthusiasm which we obviously want and need if we are going to be energetic in leaping to perform our obligations. He is advocating for that trait that motivates us to get up, get going, and do good in any of the variety of ways we might do so. He s looking for the spark that ignites us to be prompt and active for the cause, the antidote to laziness. Where does the fire come from, the sense that working on yourself and the world is an urgent priority? Rabbi Luzzatto wants to encourage you to unlock boundless energy for refining all your soul-traits for the sake of the soul, the other, and the world. What can you do to pump up the level, because the day is short, and the task is great? Rabbi Luzzatto titles this chapter An Explanation of the Trait of Enthusiasm and proceeds to spend the bulk of the chapter discussing not the zeal we seek but its opposite, the laziness with which we are all too familiar. Laziness (atzlut or atzlus in Hebrew) is the obstacle, and the picture Rabbi Luzzatto paints is of humans as being weighted down, so that it takes effort to lift ourselves up and out of the tendency to sink down and down, to destruction: The bad that comes from laziness does not come about in one fell swoop, but slowly and without notice. It comes in a sequence of one bad deed after another, until you find yourself sunk in evil. Elsewhere he says clearly: The lazy man, though not actively evil, produces evil through his very inactivity. This is the same notion expressed by the English philosopher Edmund Burke in his oft-quoted line: The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing. Alacrity 1

I am sure we d all like to avoid that fate so that we neither sink into evil nor do evil. In fact, who doesn t strive to go in the other direction, so that laziness does not rule the roost but rather enthusiasm becomes our close companion? To accomplish that in our lives, however, we had better be sure we are well informed about atzlut laziness itself. This is the focus Rabbi Luzzatto adopts in his chapter as well, and we can draw on Rabbi Luzzatto to identify some important qualities of laziness. Very near the beginning of the chapter, Rabbi Luzzatto tells us that laziness is characterized by heaviness: And see that the nature of a human being is very heavy. 1 [V tireh ki tevah ha adam kaved meod.] Rabbi Luzatto, like many Mussar teachers, associates laziness with our physicality. If we were pure spirit, we d be light and active. But because we live in bodies, we are tied to the physical world and, controlled by the force of gravity, and are pulled down. These are facts of nature that Rabbi Luzzatto does not deny, but he cautions: If you abandon yourself to this heaviness you will not succeed in your quest. The Hebrew word for heavy is kaved. This word also shows up prominently in the story of Moses s attempts to get Pharaoh to release the children of Israel from Egypt. 2 There we read that Pharaoh refused to pay attention to Moses s entreaties because his heart was kaved, usually translated as obstinate or stubborn. Here, too, we get an image that helps us understand what it is to be heavy : it means to run counter to the way of spirit. It s ironic that Pharaoh accuses the Jews of being lazy (Exodus 5:8). We uncover here a feature of laziness that most of us will recognize all too readily: laziness thrives on rationalization. The Alter of Novarodock has a poignant section in his book, Madregas ha Adam, in which he runs through a list of ambitions a person might set for himself, and he responds to each one with the word lu Hebrew for if only. I d give so much to charity, if only I were wealthy. I d study and learn so much, if only I were smarter. I d be so helpful to my friends, if only I were stronger. All of it is rationalization, of course, and nowhere do we find rationalization more perfected than in the case of the lazybones. A lazy person shines with brilliance in creating excuses for why he or she just cannot accomplish some task. 1 My translation. 2 Exodus / Shemot 7:14 Alacrity 2

Despite the fact that Orchos Tzaddikim was written in the 16th century, the script of the rationalizing lazy one resonates among us, too, almost 500 years later. In The Gate of Laziness 3 we read the following, based on sayings from the Book of Proverbs (Mishlei): If one says to him: Your teacher is in the city; go and learn Torah from him, he answers: I am afraid of the lion on the road, as it is written (Mishlei 26:13): The lazy man says: There is a lion in the way. If they say to him: Your teacher is already in the province: get up and go to him, he answers: I am afraid that a lion might be in the streets, as it is written (ibid): A lion is in the streets. If they say to him: He is lodging right near your house, he answers, The lion is right outside, as it is written (ibid. 22:13): The lazy man says: There is a lion outside; I shall be slaughtered in the middle of the streets. If they say to him: He is in the building, he answers: And if I go and find the door locked, I will have to return. They say to him: It is open, but he still will not get up, as it is written (ibid. 26:14): The door is swinging on its hinges and the lazy man is on his bed. In the end, not knowing what to answer, he says to them: Whether the door is open or locked, I want to sleep a little more, as it is written (ibid. 6:9): How long will you sleep, you lazy man? When will you rise from your sleep? Here is rationalization exemplified, though we are entitled to question why the person is called lazy. If there really is a lion in the road (distant) or street (nearby), then the person can t be blamed for exercising caution. But if there is no lion, then why is he called a lazy man? Shouldn t he be called a liar? Yes, he is engaged in untruth, but he is totally unaware of that behavior. That s the way rationalization works. It masks the truth so that the one who utters the false words doesn t even see that they are false. Laziness leads to rationalization and rationalization leads us away from truth. The negative impact of rationalization is that it holds us back from lifting ourselves up out of the heavy inertia that Rabbi Luzzatto has highlighted to us. That s why rationalization is called an eitzat ha yetzer advice of the evil inclination and is ultimately not only misleading but destructive. What I want to underline and so make you more aware of is the little voice that you hear that keeps you from being active and energetic in the cause of lifting yourself up. That voice is none other than the whispering of the yetzer ha ra, offering up rationalizations that you then repeat to yourself as if they were valid reasons to stay stuck on the couch, not learning, not practicing, not exercising, not visiting the sick, not doing the myriad things that you would certainly rank as worthwhile activities, if you would only do them. The yetzer ha ra counsels, why bother? you re so tired, there will be lots of others to do it, this isn t the last chance. This is the way in which that inner voice keeps us from doing that which is positive. 3 pp. 297-299 Alacrity 3

And the same source is accountable for leading us to do the negative. The Talmud is well aware of how the yetzer ha ra operates in this way: Today he [the yetzer ha ra] says do this [sin] and the next day he says do this [somewhat more serious sin] until he says to him serve idolatry and he goes and does it 4 A person should therefore always view even small transgressions as if they were as serious as idol worship because the yetzer ha ra uses the tactic of incrementally increasing rationalizations to cause a person to fall deeper and deeper into wrong action without seeing the course he or she is following The word evil has been coming up in this discussion, and since our subject is something no more heinous than laziness, it is worthwhile deepening our understanding by turning for a moment to face this word evil directly. We tend to think of evil only in its most terrible incarnations, when referring to truly unspeakable deeds. No doubt the evil is easiest to see and name when it is unmistakable, like when dozens of schoolchildren are caught up in a terrorist s political ploy, or when the innocent are made to suffer for the glorification of a distended ego or a sick mind. But to associate evil only with such headline crimes is to give evil a bad name. The evil that shows up on the nightly news in such heavy doses is really the very same quality that appears in much more diluted form in our own lives, in the guise of impatience, deceit, jealousy, judgments, anger, etc. Because evil is to be found in wrong actions of every scope and scale, the horrific deeds that seem to fall off the end of the chart actually don t. They remain connected to ordinary people and ordinary lives by this progression of negative steps, a downward spiral that so often begins not with a wrong step but shockingly no step at all. Terrible evil can begin when we have the opportunity to do something and even the will to make it happen, and then we fall prey to that little voice that counsels us to relax, take it easy, not to bother. Laziness is often the first step on the path to destruction. This is indeed the lesson in the wise verse from the Book of Proverbs (Mishlei 6:6-11) that cautions us to see the connection between those few extra minutes spent cozy in bed and our ultimate descent into suffering: Lazybones, go to the ant; Study its ways and learn. Without leaders, officers or rulers, It lays up its stores during the summer, Gathers in its food at the harvest. How long will you lie there, lazybones; When will you wake from your sleep? A bit more sleep, a bit more slumber, A bit more hugging yourself in bed, 4 Shabbat 105b Alacrity 4

And poverty will come calling upon you, And want, like an armed soldier. Laziness is likened to sleep, and the call is to wake up. Waking up is essential to the development of the quality of alacrity or zeal (zerizut) that is our real focus here. It is also central to the whole enterprise of learning Mussar. In traditional Mussar yeshivas, the talks given by the spiritual supervisor (mashgiach) are sometimes called hisorerus, meaning awakening. Rabbi Yisrael Yaakov Lubchansky, the mashgiach of the Baranovich yeshiva in the years leading up to its destruction in the Holocaust was a master of the hisorerus talk, usually delivered to about 500 people on Saturday night, in total darkness! But there is another sense or interpretation for the word hisorerus (hitorerut) and that is inspiration. Zerizut carries the same sense of awakened energy; laziness is uninspired and somnolent. The heart wants to be inspired, and the first step to becoming inspired in a positive, spiritual way is to become aware of the pitfalls we are likely to meet on that way. That will help us to avoid them. Laziness is the obstacle Rabbi Luzzatto points out to us, and his guidance coincides with experience and common sense. Nothing could be further from inspiration than laziness. Watch out for laziness. Sort out what is true and what is false in your aspirations. Be alert to catch the voice of rationalization when it pipes up. This is how you clear the road to zerizut. Alacrity 5

MEETING FOR ALACRITY 1. Invocation In Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, we read about the desirable traits a person should have: Yehudah Ben Teima said, Be bold as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer and strong as a lion to do the will of your Father in Heaven. [5:23] 2. Review of the previous practice: Honor Discuss any experiences arising from the practice that was given last session of greeting other people or any other reflections on the teachings and practices meant to cultivate kavod ha briyot the honor of human beings. 3. The Text Discussion 1. Although Rabbi Luzzatto understands zerizut in an entirely positive way, one of its English equivalents zeal has a mixed reputation in our age. How do you understand zerizut in a positive way? 2. Rabbi Luzzatto is quoted as saying: If you abandon yourself to this heaviness you will not succeed in your quest. How do you understand this heaviness to which he refers? What would abandoning yourself to it mean to you? 3. Laziness thrives on rationalization. Do you have any examples of this, including perhaps the painfully personal? 4. What inspires you, making laziness dissolve like mist before the sun? 5. Why do you think zerizut is essential to a spiritual quest, and to your own life? Alacrity 6

4. Practice a. To overcome laziness you need action. Changing your thoughts will not be sufficient. Thinking about laziness can also be a product of laziness: you can come up with a rationalization to continue resting and not accomplishing anything, arguing to yourself, Resting will make me stronger and then I ll really be able to take on the major task. So for now, I ll just sleep a little more. Self-help manuals provide lots of hints and programs to overcome laziness. Mostly, they seem to involve lists, commitments and planning. A Mussar approach is different. Here are two things for you to focus on as tools for recalibrating the soul-trait of atzlut [laziness] as a step toward cultivating zerizut [enthusiasm]. Everyone tends to be lazy in situations in which they feel they have no obligation to act. The spotlight falls, then, on what indeed constitute our obligations? Rabbi Luzzatto s chapter focuses on zeal and laziness, but in reality his target is the performance of mitzvot, commandments. The principle underlying the system of the mitzvot is the notion that we are all servants of God, ovdei HaShem. Here, then, is a spiritual source of laziness: it arises in a person who has not fully (or at all!) internalized the notion that life is a gift and we are indebted by it. If you spend time every day consciously considering and meditating on the astounding gifts you have received in your life, and the ensuing obligation to put them to work, then laziness will begin to lose its appeal and will seem instead to be an abomination. As a start, take five minutes to make a list of some of the gifts you have received in your life. Keep that list with you. A second spiritual root of laziness is fear. Here the practice is to peer down into the wellsprings from which laziness springs (if so active a metaphor applies) to seek out a fear that is an impediment to energetic action. This introspection (called cheshbon ha nefesh) is likely to reveal a fear of one kind or another, such as a fear of loss ( if I put myself out like that, I ll be sacrificing my rest ), commitment ( if I speak up, they ll make me head of the committee ), shame ( they ll think I m a geek for being so enthusiastic ), and so on. These fears are usually just hairballs nothing substantial but they can still choke us if not coughed up and disposed of. Add to your list at least one fear that affects you. When you bring the root fear into conscious awareness, in many cases you will discover that what is impeding your energy and action is attachment to a worldly good such as honor or freedom or wealth (experienced as fear of losing it). The good of the soul is made secondary to the desires of the body or ego. In the bright light of awareness, these desires lose their power, and the priority can be returned to the soul. To get the maximum benefit from these practices, set yourself a daily gratitude practice, writing down the insights arising from your introspection into the fears that impede action. Alacrity 7

Too much trouble? Now, I wonder, whose counsel is that? b. Accounting of the Soul To equip you to begin the focus on enthusiasm, you need a new reminder phrase for morning recitation. In the chapter in Everyday Holiness, the phrase that is offered is: Just do it enthusiastically The sage Hillel offers us another phrase that speaks to this trait as well (Pirkei Avot 1:14): If not now, when? The Hebrew equivalent is: Im lo achshav, eimatai? 5. Closing Take turns reading aloud: Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. Mishlei / Proverbs 10:4 The slothful man doesn t roast his game, but the possessions of diligent men are prized. Mishlei / Proverbs 12:27 The slothful [man] says, [There is] a lion in the way; a lion [is] in the streets. Mishlei / Proverbs 26:13 [As] the door turns upon his hinges, so [does] the slothful upon his bed. Mishlei / Proverbs 26:14 The slothful hides his hand in [his] bosom; it grieves him to bring it again to his mouth. The slothful buries his hand in dish; it wearies him to bring it again to his mouth. Mishlei / Proverbs 26:15 The sluggard [is] wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. The sluggard [is] wiser in his own eyes than seven men that give wise answers. Mishlei / Proverbs 26:16 By slothfulness the roof sinks in; and through idleness of the hands the house leaks. Ecclesiastes 10:18 Alacrity 8

David says to Shlomo, And now, my son, the God of your father, serve Him b lev shalem [with a whole heart] u be nefesh chafetza [and with a willing soul]. I Chronicles 28:9 Confirm time and place of next meeting. Alacrity 9