The Art of Boredom

For the first few years that we lived in the community, as part of a kollel that continues the zeman until Tishah B’Av, I felt that life was somewhat depressing for those brave enough to stay in town during the summer months. The vibrancy and energy that permeate the city during the rest of the year is suddenly gone, and societal pressure pushes you to leave. The destination doesn’t even matter, as long as it’s not somewhere you call “home.”

At some point, though, you begin to truly appreciate the quiet of summertime “in town.” The ability to learn and daven with an internal focus, the joy of spending quality time with your young children, the space to develop one’s inner self.

But now, as my children are growing older (I know, “older” is all relative…) and we try to keep them content and satisfied during this extended break, I have a new goal this summer. Teaching my children how to cope, and better, how to thrive, when they are in a state of boredom.

When school ends, our instinctive reaction is to pile as much structure as possible onto our children’s schedule. We arrange chavrusas to learn with them, we try to fill every hour of their day, and we try to maintain the overall feeling of discipline they developed over the course of the year. That’s certainly valuable and something to be encouraged. But my focus this year is on teaching them how to succeed during the “down-time.”