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In this week's Torah portion, Yitro, we hear the following familiar commandment:
Six days shall you labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to
the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work... [Ex 20:9-10]
Let us concentrate on the first part, "Six days shall you labor, and do all your work
-- sheshet yamim ta'avod, ve'asita kol melachtecha". The question before us today is: Is "Six days
shall you labor" a positive commandment? Do you HAVE to work six days a week?
Note that it says "shall", not "may", so it appears to be an obligation, not an option.
Indeed, if it is not a commandment, why doesn’t the Torah just say "Do no work on the seventh
day”? Why mention the six days at all? Are we at liberty to "rest" for more than one
day a week? This question is of acute interest to me personally, since I recently retired,
and would like to know if I am breaking any commandments by not being gainfully employed!
First, let us examine the wording of the injunction. In Exodus 20, in our portion, it says "Six
days shall you labor, and do all your work". It is repeated in Exodus 34 [Ex. 34:21] and
Deuteronomy 5 [Deut 5:13]. In Exodus 31 and Leviticus 23, the passive voice is used: "In
six days work will be done -- Sheshet yamim ya'aseh melachah" [Ex 31:15, Lev 23:3]. This
is repeated in Exodus 35, but there the correct feminine form "te'aseh" is used, as ‘melacha’
is feminine. [Ex 35:2]
Needless to say, work is very important in the Jewish tradition. The Mishna says "Love
work -- Ehav et hamlachah". [Pirkei Avot 1:10] The Talmud expands on this notion:
Shema'ya says, "Love work..." Love work? How?.. A man should love work and not hate work,
and just as the Torah was given in a covenant, so too work was given in a covenant, as it
says, (Exodus 20:9) "Six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh is a
Shabbat to the Lord your God." [Question: Does this imply that Shabbat is a *reward*
for work?]
Rabbi Akiva says, "Sometimes a man does work and is saved from death and other times he
does not do work and incurs the death penalty from God. How? If a man sat all week and did
no work, and therefore had nothing to eat, and he had money that had been dedicated to
the Temple in his possession, and used it to purchase food and ate, he is liable to
the death penalty from God [that is, God will end his life, but he cannot be executed.]
But, if he worked all week building the Temple, even though he was paid out of Temple funds,
and he took from them [and purchased food] and ate, he is saved from death. [That is,
he did nothing wrong.]
R. Dostai said: "How can it happen that one who did no work all the six days shall finally
be compelled to labor all seven days? Strange as this appears, it may happen. For instance,
a man who did no work during the week, Friday comes and he has nothing to eat. He starts
to look for work, but is seized by conscription officers, who, holding him by an iron chain,
compel him to make up on Shabbat for what he neglected during the six days."
R. Simeon b. Elazar said: Even Adam the First tasted nothing before he performed some work,
as it is written [Gen. 2:15]: "And put him into the garden of Eden, to till it and to
keep it"; and afterward he was commanded: "Of every tree in the garden you may freely
eat" [Gen. 2:16].
R. Tarphon said: Even the Holy One, blessed be He, did not rest His Shekhina [his Divine
Presence] in the midst of Israel before they performed some work, as it is written [Ex.
25:9]: "And they shall make me a sanctuary; and [then] I will dwell in the midst of them."
Rabbi Yehuda Ben Beteira says, "Someone who has no work to do, what should he do? If he
has a desolate courtyard or a desolate field, he should go and busy himself in it, as it
is written, "Six days you will labor and do all your work." What is taught by, "and do
all your work"? To include someone that has desolate courtyards or desolate fields, he
should go and busy himself. Rabbi Tarfon says, "A man only dies due to being idle [in Hebrew,
batala], as it is written, (Genesis 49:33) 'and he expired and was gathered to his people.'
" [Question: Does this imply that weak old people die because they can’t work?]
[Avot D'Rabbi Natan 11:1]
The Rambam, or Maimonides, the 11th century sage, wrote that:
Anyone... who makes up his mind to study Torah and not work, but live on charity, profanes
the name of God, disgraces the Torah, obscures the light of religion, causes harm to himself,
and deprives himself of life in the future world; for it is forbidden to derive temporal
advantage from the words of the Torah. The sages said: "Whoever makes selfish use of
the teachings of the Torah takes his own life." They further told us: "Do not make of them
a crown with which to magnify yourself, nor a spade with which to dig." They urged us
strongly moreover: "Love work, and hate arrogance." “All Torah study which is not combined with
some work must at length fail and occasion sin" (Pirkei Avot 2:2). The end of such a
person will be that he will rob his fellow man.
Anyone who maintains himself by the work of his hands possesses a great virtue, a virtue
of the early saints, whereby he will attain all the glory and happiness of both this and
the future world, as it is written [by the psalmist]: "When you eat the fruit of the
labor of your hands, you shall be happy and it shall be well with you" (Psalms 128:2).
"You shall be happy" in this world, "and it shall be well with you" in the future world,
which will be altogether good. [Rambam, The Laws of Torah Study, Mishneh
Torah, Sefer Ha-mada (Book of Knowledge) 10-11]
As a result, the rabbis of the Talmud used to work for a living. Sephardic rabbis still
do. But modern Western rabbis live just on being rabbis. In Israel, lots of scholars
survive on charity alone, and this is a source of friction. Here are some examples of ancient
rabbinic professions:
Hillel was a woodchopper and welldigger Shammai was a builder, a contractor
Rabbi Yochanan b. Zakkai was a businessman Rabbi Yehoshua b. Chananiah was a blacksmith
Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Chananel were scribes Rabbi Chanina sold bees' honey
Rabbi Chiyya the Elder, Rabbi Shimon ben Rabbi, and Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel traded silk at
Tyre [Gen. R. 77:2] Rabbi Yochanan HaSandlar was a shoemaker (HaSandlar
= The Sandal-Maker) Rabbi Yehuda the Baker was... guess what
Rabbi Yosi b. Chalafta was a tanner Rabbi Yehuda ben Isaiah was known as 'the
perfume-maker'. The Talmud says: The world cannot exist without a perfume-maker
and without a tanner. Happy is he whose craft is that of a perfume-maker, and woe to him
who is a tanner by trade. [Kiddushin 82b] Rabbi Shimon P'kuli was a cotton dealer
Rabbi Shmuel b. Shilas was a schoolteacher Rabbi Safra and Rabbi Dimi of Nehardea were
merchants Rabbi Abba b. Zavina was a tailor
Rabbi Yosef b. Chiya and Rabbi Yannai owned vineyards
Rabbi Huna was a farmer and raised cattle Rabbi Chisda and Rabbi Papa were beer brewers
Abba Chilkiyah was a field laborer Abba Shaul was a gravedigger
Abba Hoshiya was a launderer and stomped olives with Rabbi Chiyya the Elder
Karna was a wine smeller. He determined how long wine could last before going bad.
Rabbi Chiya b. Yosef was in the salt business Rabbi Eleazar ben Rabbi Zadoq and Rabbi Shaul
ben Botnit were storekeepers in Jerusalem Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah sold oil and wine
Abba Bar Abba was a silk merchant; and His son (Mar) Shmuel was a physician
Many were in the textile industry (Bavot) Some had inherited wealth
Among the later rabbis, -Rashi was a vintner. He grew vineyards and
made wine. -The Rambam and the Ramban were both physicians.
The Mechilta introduces the notion that, if Jews are observant, God or others will do
their work: One verse says, "Six days work will be done"
[passive voice] and another says, "Six days you will work and do all your labor" [active
voice]. How can both be true? It means that in a time that Israel is doing
the will of God, their work will be done by others, as it says "work will be done."
And so too it says in Isaiah 61:5, "And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the
sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and tend your vineyards. But you shall be named
the Priests of the Lord; men shall call you the Ministers of our God; you shall eat the
wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory."
And when they don't do the will of God, they will do their work themselves, as it says,
"And you will do all your work." [Mechilta at Ki Tisa]
This quote is used by some Orthodox Jews to justify studying Torah all the time and doing
no work So the question arises: Is work a religious obligation or a punishment, or necessary
evil, for not being observant enough? -Chabad says that the passive voice means
that *God* is doing the work for you if you are observant, even though you are doing it
yourself. -Sforno says:
You shall succeed in your six days of work when you observe Shabbat on the seventh. [Sforno
on Ex 34:21] -Rashi asks: Can you REALLY "do all your work’
in six days? Of course not. It means that when Shabbat arrives you should "feel" as
if all your work were finished, even though it is not. So Shabbat is not only deed but
also attitude. You should feel as much at ease as if you had done all your work.
What we have not done yet is define exactly what is meant by "work". It turns out the
Talmud defines "work" very narrowly. Work consists of any of 39 activities ("melachot"
in Hebrew) that become prohibited on Shabbat [Shabbat 73a]. They are:
1. Carrying 2. Burning
3. Extinguishing 4. Finishing
5. Writing 6. Erasing
7. Cooking 8. Washing
9. Sewing 10. Tearing
11. Knotting 12. Untying
13. Shaping 14. Plowing
15. Planting 16. Reaping
17. Harvesting 18. Threshing
19. Winnowing 20. Selecting
21. Sifting 22. Grinding
23. Kneading 24. Combing
25. Spinning 26. Dyeing
27. Chain-stitching 28. Warping
29. Weaving 30. Unraveling
31. Building 32. Demolishing
33. Trapping 34. Shearing
35. Slaughtering 36. Skinning
37. Tanning 38. Smoothing, and
39. Marking
So the commandment to "work" the rest of the week can be fulfilled by engaging in any one
of them and no more. You could fulfill that "commandment" by signing your name on the
first day, flipping a light switch on the second day, driving around the block on the
third day, etc. So interpreting "Six days shall you labor" as a positive commandment
would not accomplish anything really significant. Also, work provides contrast. To appreciate
rest properly, you have to work the rest of the time. So the focus of verse is on Shabbat.
Its real meaning is: "IF you work for six days, THEN you will really appreciate resting
on the seventh".
So, is "Six days shall you labor and do all your work" a commandment? No. The Sages do
not list it among the 613 mitzvot. It is simply a prelude to the real commandment, to refrain
from work on the seventh day.
Shabbat shalom.