Why We
Would a Messianic payday
make you toil harder?
ADAM KATZ-STONE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
n Jewish tradition, work begins in the worst of ways: with the cataclysmic sin that
gets us all expelled from Eden. Two quick nibbles of forbidden fruit, and the net result:
"Accursed be the soil because of you; with suffering shall you get your food from it ... with
sweat on your brow shall you eat your bread ..." (Gen. 3:17-19).
oy.
To put it mildly, this puts a pretty negative spin on the whole concept of working. And that
initial reading — that work is a curse, a punishment, a pain in the neck — certainly has in-
formed a lot of rabbinic thinking on the subject. Many of the great Talmudic sages, in fact,
felt that maybe we shouldn't go to work at all; that maybe the only proper activity for a Jew
is non-stop Torah study.
They argued that when the Messiah comes there will be no work. They argued that Torah
should take precedence over worldly concerns. They argued that God takes care of the pi-
ous. They argued and they argued ...
... And they lost.
In the end, the sages of Talmudic times determined that we have to go to work. But there's more
to it than that. Ask rabbis and Jewish scholars about work, and what do they answer back? Messi-
w
ah, they say. Redemption, they whisper. Garden of Eden, they declare!
As Labor Day approaches, and most Americans plan for that one last picnic before autumn, Jew-
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ish tradition reminds us that our daily labor (so gladly put aside by most for the long weekend)
can be more than we ever dreamed: that our work is in fact a bridge, between this world ... and the
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perfect world to come.
Fasten your seatbelts, we're heading deep into Talmud country