I spoke with an acquaintance at the gym this morning as we
plodded through our elliptical workouts. He works in the ever-changing and
challenging field of cyber security. He’s been putting in 60 to 80 hour weeks
because his employer cut the workforce by 17% and expects the remaining
employees to not only pick up the slack, but cover the ever-increasing
workload. He said, “It’s hard to have a life.” I have spoken with others who
are overworked, underpaid, and disrespected at work, as well as those who see
their jobs as an assemblage of boring and meaningless tasks whose only purpose
is to engender a paycheck.
Torah’s lengthy and elaborate description of the work of
building the Tabernacle begins with a mention of work:
Moses
then convoked the whole Israelite community and said to them: These are the
things that Adonai commanded you to do. For six days work shall be done, but on
the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of compete rest, holy to Adonai;
whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire
throughout your settlements on the Sabbath day.
(Exodus
35:1-3)
The emphasis on rest, and the dark threat of death for
violators of the commanded rest make it difficult to see that Torah commands
not only shabbat but also work. We are supposed to work. That is the normal way
of the world. Well, you knew that, right? We all have to work, at least until
we can retire and live a life that is kulo
shabbat, our weeks like a string of Sabbath beads strung on gossamer of
rest and relaxation.
And we might think that work means drudgery. After all, when
God banishes the man and his wife from the Garden of Eden, God says:
…Cursed
be the ground because of you;
B y toil
shall you eat of it
All the
days of your life:
Thorns
and thistles shall it sprout for you.
But your
food shall be the grasses of the field;
By the
sweat of your brow
Shall
you get bread to eat,
Until
you return to the ground—
For from
it you were taken.
For dust
you are,
And to
dust you shall return.
(Genesis
3:17-19)
Isn’t that a
cheery thought? Labor historian, Prof. Melvyn Dubofsky, published a review of
James B. Gilbert’s Work without
Salvation: America’s Intellectuals and Industrial Alienation, 1880-1910
under the title, “Adam’s Curse: Or the Drudgery of Work.” “Work without
salvation” and “the drudgery of work” are phrases that speak for all too many
people. No wonder Monday elicits groans, Wednesday is “hump day” and Friday,
well TGIF says it all. Most advice for people who are miserable at work
concerns when to quit. Not everyone feels this way about their job or other
work they do, but most people feel this way about some of the work they do.
A few chapters earlier, when the Decalogue was recounted, we
read:
Remember
the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your
work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of your God Adonai; you shall not do any
work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or
the stranger who is within your settlements. For in six days Adonai made heaven
and earth and sea—and all that is in them—and then rested on the seventh day;
therefore Adonai blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
(Exodus
20:8-11)
Again, the imperative of work is barely visible behind the
screen of the commandment concerning shabbat. The formulation for shabbat here
is magnificent: rest is all-encompassing, universal. It’s for everyone, including
servants and even animals—all of God’s creation, all in imitation of God’s rest
on the seventh day. But if that is so, then our labor for the other six days of
the week is also in imitation of God’s cosmic creation. As God created, so do
we; as God rested, so do we. This suggests a different way to view our work:
rather than drudgery, our labors contribute to the on-going creation of the
world, the furtherance of civilization.
Can we see our work as having a creative, holy component?
Can we see it as part of a larger effort to support society, build humanity,
further values we applaud and even cherish? Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl
in Me’or Eynayim quotes the opening
verse of parshat Vayakhel, and then
explains:
These are the things that Adonai commanded you to do: For
six days work shall be done… (Exodus
35:1). Why is “shall be done” written in this passive form? This seems to
indicate that the work is done on its own…
I’m sure I’m not alone in running this experiment. You can
leave laundry in the hamper and dishes in the sink and they don’t clean
themselves. You can leave marvelous books piled on the desk, but they don’t magically
sink into your mind or appear in brilliant written pieces on your laptop. You
can leave paperwork galore all over the place and, somehow, it does not process
itself. Alas.
The Chernobler rebbe answer his own question:
Know Him in all your ways (Proverbs 3:6) means that everything you do or think should be in accord
with the Torah that is within it, and he should believe this with complete
faith. For all things happen in accordance with Torah. This is what [the Sages]
meant [B. Makkot 24a] in which the prophet Habakkuk [characterized the essence
of the entire Torah as:] The righteous shall live by his faith (Habakkuk 2:4). The
essence is faith and [with faith] one will surely fulfill [the admonition of
Proverbs:] Know Him in all your ways—
thinking that it is not you that is conducting this negotiation, or whatever thing
it is, but rather the Torah within it… This is what Moses is teaching the
people. Even though it is necessary to engage in labor, know that it, too, is
Torah.
At first glance, we might think that Rabbi Menachem Nachum
is telling us that Torah pulls the invisible strings that run the world and we are
mere marionettes fulfilling Torah’s mandates. But I don’t think that is what he
means. It seems to me that he is saying that when we are focused on Knowing [God] in all your ways, that
means conducting our lives as much as possible in accordance with what we
understand to be God’s values and priorities and Torah’s ways. Through this
focus, our thoughts and deeds are imbued with Torah and we can elevate our work
to a divine level of meaning, seeing it integrally connected with divine
meaning and purpose. Conducting our lives in this way, thinking and acting with
holiness in mind, will assure that our work is not mundane at all, but rather holy
work—six days a week.
Rabbi Menachem Nachum then connects the six days of work
with the seventh day of rest:
These are the things… Six days shall work be done…
These are the things means that the work that gets done on the six days is also
by the hand of Torah. Then, the seventh day will be holy [means that] when you act in this way all through the six
days, the seventh will surely be holy, for you will have drawn holiness into
the entire week. [Quoting B. Avodah Zarah 3a:] “The one who makes an effort on the eve of shabbat will eat on shabbat.”
The Chernobler rebbe reaffirms that when we go about our
work in this way, we drawn down holiness not only for shabbat, but into the
entire week. The one who makes an effort on the eve of shabbat (i.e., the six
working days) will eat on shabbat means that those who approach their endeavors
on the six working days as acts of holiness will enjoy the full holiness of
shabbat all week long.
Clearly, this approach does not solve the problems of being
overworked, underpaid, or disrespected. But it does address the issue of
meaning: Can we see our work as meaningful? Another looming question is can we
really do this? Here’s a suggestion:
Think of three things you did today at work and how they fit
into a larger picture of purpose, how your efforts contribute to the success of
some endeavor, and how that endeavor can benefit others. Try to do that every
day after work for a week. Then next week start your day by thinking about
three things you will do that day and how they contribute to the on-going
creation of the world and the furtherance of society.
© Rabbi Amy Scheinerman
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