Our Rabbi's Message
November 6th 2009
By Rabbi Aaron KriegelThree angels came to see Abraham and for three different reasons. One appeared to bring comfort and healing to Abraham who had just circumcised himself. The second came to announce that Abraham and Sarah would become parents and the third came to announce the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The rabbis explained the reasons why one angel could not have done those three tasks. They said that angels can only do one deed at a time.
Quite a commentary on multi-tasking, isn't it?
Angels, who are supposed to be superior to people in almost every respect, are unable to do two things at one time. How are mere mortals able to balance many projects at once? The answer seems to be that we mortals cannot do more than one act at one time. The reason is simple. Rashi's commentary, which reports the conclusion of the rabbis, was written to edify people with useful knowledge. Obviously, what was important about Rashi's commentary was not how angels live, but how people do. He was teaching people how they should act by pointing out how angels act.
Does that mean that we should not multitask? Well not exactly. It means that we can only do one thing at a time and so whatever we do we must focus on doing the best that we can do. In minutes we can work on a number of projects, but we can only work on them one at a time. You see, the rabbis advise us to do the best that we can do for as long as we have on that project and then to move on and do the best that we can do on the second project and so one and so on and so on.
We can do much consecutively but not concurrently.
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