Don't we all wish we had more time? We'd love to study Torah, spend quality time with our loved ones, and pursue hobbies and dreams which we have always postponed -- but between the duties of work and chores, there seems to be nary an extra moment to devote to these important endeavors.
We are currently in the midst of the seven-week Omer counting period. The mitzvah which dominates these days involves counting time; or, in other words, making time count.
A peek at the history of leisure time will give us some much needed perspective in the area of time management. What are we doing with all the extra time afforded to us by modern technology? To answer this question, most of us need only to look in the direction of some of the other "conveniences" and distractions provided by the very same sciences.
Maimonides writes (Laws of Kings 12:4): "The sages and prophets longed for the Messianic Era... only in order to be free to study Torah and its wisdom; with no oppressor or deterrence."
As the era of Redemption approaches ever nearer, we are experiencing a taste of this awesome possibility. And as time becomes more plentiful, knowledge has also become more accessible by quantum leaps. In times past, the average person needed to trudge to a library or synagogue for study texts; now it is within the means of the average consumer to own a modest personal library and, for everyone, the internet offers so many opportunities to broaden horizons, with hundreds of thousands of pages of Torah knowledge and so many audio classes as well.
As we "count time" this Omer period, let us resolve to make more of our time. The time is there -- the question is only how we will choose to use it.
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