42 | MAY 16 • 2024 
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ime management is 
more than management 
and larger than time. It is 
about life itself. God gives us one 
thing above all: life itself. And 
He gives it to us 
all on equal terms. 
However rich we 
are, there are still 
only 24 hours in 
a day, seven days 
in a week, and a 
span of years that, 
however long, is 
still all too short. Whoever we 
are, whatever we do, whatever 
gifts we have, the single most 
important fact about our life, on 
which all else depends, is how 
we spend our time. 
“The span of our life is 
70 years, or if we are strong, 
80years,
” says Psalm 90, and 
despite the massive reduction 
of premature deaths in the past 
century, the average life expec-
tancy around the world, accord-
ing to the most recent United 
Nations figures (2010-2015) is 
71.5 years. So, concludes the 
Psalm, “Teach us to number our 
days that we may get a heart 
of wisdom,
” reminding us that 
time management is not simply 
a productivity tool. It is, in fact, 
a spiritual exercise.
Hence the following 

life-changing idea, which sounds 
simple, but isn’t. Do not rely 
exclusively on to-do lists. Use a 
diary. The most successful peo-
ple schedule their most import-
ant tasks in their diary. They 
know that if it isn’t in there, it 
won’t get done. To-do lists are 
useful, but not sufficient. They 
remind us of what we have to 
do but not when. They fail to 
distinguish between what is 
important and what is merely 
urgent. They clutter the mind 
with trivia and distract us when 
we ought to be focusing on the 
things that matter most in the 
long run. Only a diary con-
nects what with when. And what 
applies to individuals applies to 
communities and cultures as a 
whole.
That is what the Jewish cal-
endar is about. It is why chapter 
23, in this week’s parsha, is so 
fundamental to the continued 
vitality of the Jewish people. It 
sets out a weekly, monthly and 
yearly schedule of sacred times. 
This is continued and extended 
in Parshat Behar to seven- and 
50-year schedules. The Torah 
forces us to remember what 
contemporary culture regularly 
forgets: that our lives must have 
dedicated times when we focus 
on the things that give life mean-

ing. And because we are social 
animals, the most important 
times are the ones we share. The 
Jewish calendar is precisely that: 
a structure of shared time.

A TIME FOR EVERYTHING
We all need an identity, and 
every identity comes with a 
story. So, we need a time when 
we remind ourselves of the story 
of where we came from and 
why we are who we are. That 
happens on Pesach, when we 
re-enact the founding moment 
of our people as they began their 
long walk to freedom.
We need a moral code, an 
internalized satellite navigation 
system to guide us through the 
wilderness of time. That is what 
we celebrate on Shavuot when 
we relive the moment when our 
ancestors stood at Sinai, made 
their covenant with God, and 
heard Heaven declare the Ten 
Commandments.
We need a regular reminder 
of the brevity of life itself, and 
hence the need to use time wise-
ly. That is what we do on Rosh 
Hashanah as we stand before 
God in judgment and pray to be 
written in the Book of Life.
We need a time when we con-
front our faults, apologize for 
the wrong we have done, make 

amends, resolve to change and 
ask for forgiveness. That is the 
work of Yom Kippur.
We need to remind ourselves 
that we are on a journey, that we 
are “strangers and sojourners” 
on earth, and that where we live 
is only a temporary dwelling. 
That is what we experience on 
Sukkot.
And we need, from time to 
time, to step back from the 
ceaseless pressures of work and 
find the rest in which we can 
celebrate our blessings, renew 
our relationships, and recover 
the full vigor of body and mind. 
That is Shabbat.
Doubtless, most people — at 
least, most reflective people 
— know that these things are 
important. But knowing is not 
enough. These are elements of 
a life that become real when 
we live them, not just when 
we know them. That is why they 
have to be in the diary, not just 
on a to-do list.
As Alain de Botton points out 
in his Religion for Atheists, we 
all know that it is important to 
mend broken relationships. But 
without Yom Kippur, there are 
psychological pressures that can 
make us endlessly delay such 
mending. If we are the offended 
party, we may not want to show 
other people our hurt. It makes 
us look fragile, vulnerable. And 
if we are the offending party, it 
can be hard to admit our guilt, 
not least because we feel so 
guilty. As he puts it: “We can be 
so sorry that we find ourselves 
incapable of saying sorry.
” The 
fact that Yom Kippur exists 
means that there is a day in 
the diary on which we have to 
do the mending — and this is 
made easier by the knowledge 
that everyone else is doing so 
likewise. 
In his words: “It is the day 
itself that is making us sit here 
and talk about the peculiar 
incident six months ago when 
you lied and I blustered and you 

In the Diary
In the Diary

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

