Radical Approach to Time Management | Parsha with the Chief: Toldot

Life is short.

The average human lifespan of 4000 weeks is, as Oliver Burkeman says, “absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short”. No increased productivity or efficiency can escape the limits of our mortality.

How do we live with this? How do we confront the fact that our time is finite, and that nothing we do can change that?

To explore this question, Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein contrasts Oliver Burkeman’s book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, with the Torah’s much deeper framework for understanding time itself.

In this talk on Parshat Toldot, we examine the encounter between Yaakov and Esav as a case study in how human beings respond to mortality. Esav declares, “I am going to die. Of what use is the birthright to me?” His philosophy is simple: if everything ends, then only the present matters.

But the Torah offers a radically different view.

Pirkei Avot teaches that “this world is a prozdor - a corridor - before the next,” we discover that the way out of the 4,000 weeks is not by stretching them, but by using them to reach something beyond: eternity.

Time is the most precious resource we possess. It is life itself. There is much to be done. And the task is impossible to finish. Yet our lives do not need to be tragic. They can be heroic.

This is a lesson about time, purpose, mortality - and the heroic dignity of the human condition.

Key Insights:
Life is about 4,000 weeks - and we cannot escape that limit.
Esav’s mistake: “I am going to die. What use is the birthright to me?”
This world is a prozdor leading to Olam Haba - Pirkei Avot 4:21.
The way out of the 4,000 weeks is through them and toward eternity.
“If not now, when?” Rashi teaches: if I don’t do it here, I cannot do it there.
Time becomes meaningful when it becomes eternal.
Priority is the essence of Torah time management.
We are born in the middle of things, we die in the middle of things.
We are mortal, but also heroic - limited beings with access to infinity.