SEPTEMBER 8 • 2022 | 11

rejects “a frame of reference 
in which value is determined 
by productivity, the strength 
of one’s career and individual 
entrepreneurship.”
Easier said than done, 
however. Her antidote — to 
“stand apart,” to embrace 
“solitude, observation and 
simple conviviality” — is 
perhaps more feasible if you 
are an artist rather than an 
office-worker, let alone a 
factory worker, home health 
aide or Amazon warehouse 
runner. (She spends a lot 
of time birdwatching and 
retreating to mountain 
cabins.)
To her credit, Odell quotes 
Samuel Gompers, the Jewish-
British immigrant and labor 
leader who championed the 
eight-hour workday as far 
back as 1886. In an address 
asking “What Does Labor 
Want?”
, Gompers answered by 
quoting Psalms: “It wants the 
earth and the fullness thereof.”
What most people want, 
I suspect, is simply more 
control over their time and 
mind-space, and to keep work 
from leaking into their private 
lives — and maybe vice-versa. 
They want to do work that 
matters, and the private time 
to decompress, reconnect and 
take care of stuff.
It’s telling that there is no 
commandment in Torah to 
work, but there are plenty to 
rest. Shabbat is a literal day of 
rest, but it is also a mindset. 
It strictly defines profane 
productivity in order to carve 
out space and time for the 
sacred. This Jewish attitude 
toward work and rest is not 
about quitting, but it is about 
occasional quiet. 

Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor in chief 

of the New York Jewish Week and 

senior editor of the Jewish Telegraphic 

Agency. 

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