Blessings of Work, Blessing of Rest

Rabbi Melanie Aron

Friday, July 20, 2007

In popular culture Adam is usually portrayed as lazing around in the Garden of Eden, picking fruit as it pleased him, without a care in the world.

That’s not how the rabbis of the Talmud imagined it. We read in the Avot de Rabbi Natan, a commentary on Pirke Avot: “Even Adam tasted nothing before he worked, as it is said: And God put him into the Garden of Eden to guard it and tend it. (Genesis 2:15) ”

Work clearly preceded Adam and Eve being exiled from the Garden. The difference was that in the Garden of Eden, work always brought a reward, whereas outside the Garden, the work would be difficult and there would be resistance to success. Work was understood therefore in Judaism not as a punishment, but rather as something intrinsic to the human being.

Work was not to be avoided, according to the rabbis. God worked- just look at creation, and so should we. It is through work that we became partners with God and earn the manifestation of God’s presence. The rabbis learn this from the building of the tabernacle in the desert:

“The Holy One Blessed be He, did not cause His Divine Presence to rest upon Israel before they did work, as it is said: And let them make Me a sanctuary, then I will dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8)”.

But there can be too much of a good thing and I would guess that it was the perception of an imbalance in our society today which prompted Moment magazine, to chose as the topic of the June 2007 “Ask the Rabbis” pages the question: “What does Judaism say about being a workaholic?”

The rabbis of the Talmud extolled the combination of Torah study with work, and advised even the rich to find some occupation, but ideally primacy was given to Torah study. The rabbinic requirement that a father teach his son a trade or profession, was not about making him into Bill Gates (or perhaps more appropriately for us, Sergey Grin), but more about preventing him from being tempted to become a thief because of a lack of an honest way to make a living.

Even when in more difficult times, it was necessary to work long hours to support one’s family, still a man was required to learn two paragraphs of Torah in the morning and two in the evening.

Most of the contemporary criticism of the 80 hour work week, which all agree is incompatible with good health, with leading a religious life, and with being a real part of our families, is directed against acquisitiveness. But many are driven to work these incredible hours less by the worship of wealth than by the joy of achievement. While work can be medicinal in a difficult time, providing a sense of pride and satisfaction, and a sense of fulfillment, there is indeed too much of a good thing.

So how do we know when we are going overboard? Rabbi Gershon Winkler, a Jewish renewal rabbi writes: “If my work engrosses me so much that I cannot turn from my computer to marvel at my child’s artwork or send a loving kiss back to my partner as she passes near, then I am a workaholic in a negative sense.”

For those who can’t count on themselves to keep things in balance, our tradition provides a mandatory vacation every seven days, the Shabbat, when wealth making is put aside and even creative labor is prohibited. As one Reconstructionist Rabbi pointed out, Judaism can be an enabler of our workaholism, because of our sense of the holiness of work. After all “when your efforts are in line with God’s, who calls it quits at 5pm?” But Judaism also brought us the sabbatical and the duty to insure, that it is not only ourselves who get to rest, but all the members of our society. It is the ten commandments themselves which give us a religious obligation to help change our society’s pattern of overwork. Just as the ancient Israelite landowner had to make sure that his entire household, including his servants and the stranger who dwelt within his gates, had the opportunity to rest on the Sabbath, so do we have the obligation to make sure that everyone in our society has a day off. We must fight against unlimited compulsory overtime, and wages that require two or three jobs to maintain a family. We must make sure people have the benefits that allow them and their families to flourish and reduce the difficulty people still have in getting paid leave for family needs.

At this season when many of us are fortunate enough to have a vacation from our occupations, we can pause to appreciate the blessings of work, and the blessing of rest.