For most people, however, it is not miserliness that prevents them from doing kindness but laziness. The person is too lazy to give the loan and then have the annoyance of] finding the borrower and ask for the loan to be repaid. The truth is that laziness is an obstacle in all areas of avodas Hashem (Divine service), because it is the way of the lazy person to procrastinate and push everything to the next day, or the day after that…. King Shlomo said it long ago: I passed by the field of a lazy man… and, behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; nettles had covered its surface; and its stone wall was broken down (Mishlei 24:30-31). Our Sages of blessed memory said that there are four issues that need re-enforcement, one of them being “good deeds” – that is, to get used to doing them all the time. A person must treat his service of Hashem like he does his business; a store owner will sit in his store even during cold days and is not lazy to engage with every one of his customers, even though the profit he will earn from each is not great at all. He understands that it is from those profits that he earns his living in this World. It is even more so with regard to matters that pertain to the World to Come must one work energetically, without any laziness whatsoever.
