What does King Solomon mean that the one who rushes comes only to lack?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau explains King Solomon’s verse “Machshevos charutz ach l’mosar, v’chol atz ach l’machsor” in plain terms: “A person with thought creates abundance. A person who rushes ends in lack.” The one who thinks builds; the one who rushes loses.
The rusher, in his reading, is the reactive person. His day is written by whatever comes at him: the phone, a problem, a burst of pressure. He spends his life putting out fires, and “that’s the whole tragedy.” He is exhausted from morning to night, yet his life never changes.
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau adds a surprise hidden in the verse. It does not criticize the lazy man. It criticizes the one who rushes. Being busy does not always mean really working, and the lack the verse warns about is not only a lack of money but an emptiness inside, the feeling of having missed what mattered.
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In A Soul at Peace: The Plans of the Diligent
Also answered in this teaching
How can I start the day thinking instead of rushing?
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau suggests taking a few minutes in the morning, before opening your phone, to ask one question: what is the one thing that, if it happens today, will make sure today was not wasted?
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
The one who thinks before acting comes to abundance; the one who rushes comes to lack.
Fear, vulnerability, or tension
The rusher is not lazy. He is always on the way to something urgent, and that is exactly why nothing gets built.
Deepest human truth
The difference between the two people is not hours. In the book Rabbi Landau calls it a moment: a moment of stopping to ask what is important today, not what is urgent.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Wisdom, Perception, and the Inner Life · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz