A professor had a wife who never had dinner ready on time and every day he had to sit around waiting. Suddenly it occurred to him that he could utilize this time and he began to write a book. A few years later he published the work he had composed entirely in the time spent waiting for dinner. Now if scholars can show such diligence in secular knowledge — for which there is no divine reward — how much more important is such effort in the study of Torah?
–Isaac Bashevis Singer, In My Father’s Court
