In today’s world, many people spend more time at their place of employment than they do with their loved ones. In fact, if you think about it, the average adult will likely spend more than 100,000 hours of their lifetime on the job. So, what it is it about our work that often leads to such an imbalance of time allocation?
On one level, it would be so easy to argue that today’s economic circumstances mandate such a work schedule. The need to pay our bills and support ourselves, corporate focus on the bottom line, intense market competition, and fear of falling victim to downsizing and/or lay-offs can all be identified as the causes of a driving need to put in the extra time and demonstrate one’s worth to the company. But, is that really all there is to our work? The only reason we devote our energy, time, and mind to our careers?
It seems to me that it is no accident that the Torah introduces the concept of work in the very opening chapters of Genesis. In the well-known account in this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Bereshit, Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden, and are given but one mandate – do not eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As the narrative describes, Adam and Eve do eat from that tree, and are banished from the Garden of Eden. As punishment for his part in this act of Divine disobedience, the Torah says of Adam: Cursed be the ground because of you; By toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life…. By the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat...” (Genesis 3:17-19) Only through hard work, says the Torah, will Adam get food from the land. Moreover, the punishment extends not only to him, but is the same curse carried by each person because of the evil committed by our forebear, Adam.
Troubled by this, some Biblical commentators understand this verse to suggest that the verse is intended not to suggest the curse of work, but rather the transformation of the human role from this point forward. Whereas before this moment, humans could assume that God would provide; henceforth, humans would have to participate in the process of earning their own livelihood and sustenance.
The rabbinic sources, on the other hand, view work as a necessary part of human development and moral consciousness. A study, conducted by Bilha Mannenheim and Avraham Sela (“Work Values in the Oral Torah”) and published in the Journal of Psychology and Judaism (volume 15, 1991, pp. 241-59), has suggested that there are over 900 ‘work-related’ statements in the combined works of the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmud and in the Midrashim of the early centuries. Of those, 84% were classified as positive, suggesting a ‘high esteem of work and craft’.
Recognizing the importance of work in helping to earn the necessary livelihood, the rabbis also emphasized how work helped individuals take responsibility for society and social order. In the Talmudic tractate Nedarim, Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Shimon both declare “Great is work for it brings honor to its master.” Likewise, Talmud Berachot 43b suggests that the Master of the World suits each person’s profession to his or her individual personalities and needs. Each person’s specific talents and abilities have that to offer the world and are equally important in the eyes of our Creator.
The importance that the rabbis placed on work can be seen in the integration they envisioned between Torah and the pursuit of livelihood. Although the study of Torah has always been considered to be the most virtuous of all pursuits, the rabbis were also realistic in their understanding that for the world to exist, study of Torah had to be combined with work in the world. One example of this perspective is found in Pirke Avot 2:2, the tractate of the Mishnah devoted to the ethical teaching and homilies of our ancestors, which cites the teaching of Rabban Gamliel: “Excellent is the study of Torah combined with some worldly occupation, for the energy for both cause sin to be forgotten. And for all (study of) Torah without a worldly occupation, it is for naught and becomes the cause of sin.”
Work is, according to the rabbis, that which we do to live. It is essential to personal development and to achieving religious depth and meaning. It is through work that humans assume their places in the social order as active agents who, like Adam, take from the world by virtue of their own work. Work is a pathway to personal health, a conduit to greater understanding of Torah and of faith, and a mechanism through which one ultimately to leaves a mark on this world even while entering the world to come.
As we begin the cycle of Torah reading anew, and as we move into the year 5765, may we all be blessed to find the meaning in our work. May our time at work help us grow and allow us to make our own unique contributions to society. And, finally, may the meaning we find in our work bring us closer to our selves, to our loved ones, and ultimately to our divine purpose.
Shabbat Shalom.