It states (Tehillim 90), חסדך בבקר שבענו, kindly grant us the ability to do teshuvah, ונשמחה נרננה, and then we will rejoice, ימינו בכל for we will get all our days back.
sake, distance yourself from batalah, idleness, as distant as a shot arrow. If a person threw a package of money into the sea, people would consider him insane. Even more insane is someone who throws a drop of his time away and engages in idle talk."
Similarly, the Yaaras Dvash (2:10) writes, "No, my sons. It's not good that we waste precious time on foolish things that have no value. At night, they waste their time, and when the sun rises, they roll over from side to side and miss the last zeman tefillah. One sin leads on to the next."
In another location, the Yaaras Dvash (1:4) writes, "My brothers, please, awaken from your sleep. Don’t waste precious time with the world’s foolishness, such as idle talk, discussing wars (who will win and who will lose), hunting, or other forms of emptiness. These are deeds fitting for princes, but why should you waste precious time on them? It's very foolish to exchange the real world for a world of falsehood. How can one waste time? If one is destined to die on a specific day, and someone offers him millions if he agrees to die one day earlier, I know that he won't accept the money, regardless of the large amount of money he's been offered. So, if a day of life is so precious to you, how do you waste it with idleness? He is the שוטה, fool, stated in Chazal (Chagigah 4), who loses everything that's given to him. Because time is a precious gift from Hashem; with time, one can know Hashem, attain perfection, and correct his deeds. "
People tell the following mashal: Someone came to a cemetery and started reading the headstones, "Here lies Reb Shimon ben Dovid. He lived two years." Most matzeivos stated that the niftar lived for one or two years. The oldest among them was the matzeivah of the Rav of the town. His headstone read, "Here lies the rav of our city... He was ten years old when he died." "What's this all about?" he wondered. "Was there an epidemic in the city, and everyone died young? And how could it be that the Rav of the city was only ten years old?"
He came into town and asked the wise men for an explanation. Most didn't know, but he found one old person who knew. He said, "In this city, we didn’t write when a person died; we wrote how many years he lived. Only the hours used for Torah, tefillah, and mitzvos are called 'living.' The people of this city would count the number of hours one designated and devoted to Torah and tefillah, and that's what we write on the headstone. Sometimes, a long life adds up to just about a year..."
The visitor didn’t understand. "Why do you say that he only lived for a year? He lived much longer."
The wise men of the town saw that they must elaborate some more, so they explained: Chazal (Brachos 18:) say, מתים קרואים בחייהם רשעים, 'Resha'im are called dead, even when they are alive.' True, they are living, but they are as good as the dead because they aren't using their time productively for Torah and mitzvos. Regarding learning and keeping Torah it states (Mishlei 9:11), ימיך ירבו בי כי, 'With me you will live long.' Ultimately, only moments used for Hashem are called living."
The Gemara (Yoma 86:) teaches, תשובה גדולה אדם של ימיו שמארכת , "Teshuvah is great, for it lengthens the lifespan of man." The Tzlach explains that teshuvah doesn't add more years to a person's life; teshuvah resurrects and fixes all the dead days – days that weren't considered life. Before one does teshuvah he has many dead days, which aren’t counted as part of his life. When one does teshuvah out of love (מאהבה תשובה), his sins become mitzvos, and his past days are resurrected and are now counted as part of his life. This is how teshuvah "lengthens the lifespan of man."
