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JUDAiSM W O R K

- ,Excerpt from: Yishuvo Shel Olam. Harav Mordecai Piron

in Avoda veAvodat Ha-adama e m e k : o r o ~ ChazaJ.. ed. Y. Mazor,Telem-Noar.1982,

The main idea behind the partnership between man and the creator is the injunctionthat man should continue and develop the process of creation begun by the Holy One

Blessed Be He, The story of creation ends with the passage: "Rnd Sod blessed the

seuenth doy ond sanctified It fo r on thot day he ceDsed from Ilil his lobDr ofcrestlon" (:l J ' \ \ ' D ) I ( ' ~ )

On this our sages commented: ''The Holy One Blessed Be He said unto man: Up t.o thispoint I have been the one to make all the effort, but from now on you are bound to dothe work.".M J ' \ \ . ~ " O . ,nn 1MB

The labor of creation did not cease. On the contrary,the world was brought to acertain stage of perfection and development by the creator and henceforth the

obligation to labor, create and bring forth is that of man. It is man that must raisewhat has been entrusted to him to still higher levels of development in all areas of

life. This is the background against which we must understand the many sayings of

the sages in praise of work.In many cases the motivation of man in striving to act in

the divine image by creating and doing is emphasized. Here is an illustrative example:

"Love Work." Hov?This comes to instruct us that we are to love work and not hatework. Just as the Torah was given to us as covenant so was work given to us in

covenant, as i t is wriUen:"SIH lIays shall your labour be done and the seuenth dayshall be a Holy Sabbath unto the lord. N? J'\U')W in.X Nt ' p,c lJ'U ~ , . , . n \ ~ X

l ~ ~ ~ c - -" 'niftj. IFf.een w ~ Ai\< -+

---.'":' I

- -, ,. - -- - -a t l J . ~ G t f ~ . ~ ~ : n / ~ : b ~ U ~ ~ S ~ ~ ~ b ~ ~ i d ' ~ a ~ ~ ~ e l l e n t thing. is the study of ,the

Pn h' b'ned with [some] worldly ocpupatwn, Tora fO;; 'demanded by both of them causes sin to for the a or All tudy of th e Torah without work,be forgotten. s h f

. h d be futile and become t e cause 0must In t e en . h h eaationsin. Le t all who are employed W1 t t e congr <::>

Arllj Ri:;tltd 'Yossi added: (Great) is labor (0 trade). Anyone '...iho does not work

endongers his being. ' t l h ~ d ' ? Did nothing on the f irst da'd.: did nothing on the

second day--at"lIj had nothing to eat. Took coins rneant fo r ct"larity ond ote

and thus must answer for it. What is the reason for his predicelrnent? Not

-,W1

v"lorking ( plying his trade).

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Excerpts From: Attitudes Regord'ing Work in the Literoture of the Soges

t-1ichkarei Verushalayim B'Machshevet Israel - Do1et

Hebrew University) 1982 -- Me'ir Ayali

Work 8S 8 V8lue in Greece 8nd Rome ~Ptlysical labor came to be held in contempt in Greece ond Rome os 0 result

of political and economic crlanges. These chonges resulted from their ~development as conquering worrior-states. Slaves multiplied ond the \j=l

slave trade grew. 'y-lork was done by sloves. The work of hired laborbecame superfluous in many instonces except et the height of the

ogri cultura 1season. As tj result (hi red lobor) was pauper; zed.

Among the rligher closses the idea that any work .. especially hired labor)

does not befit a free man gained currency. Thi s was the case in Greece

where the idea of democratic freedom gave ad,jitional impetus to the

negation of ony "ens];:Jv'ing" hired labor. Thus all manual labor corne to be

held in low esteem.

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I'JfJ/ i l ) Iq /P"e I'J l )I ' e"es

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Plut.arch (1) t.ells us of the Spartan who visited Athens on the day that trle

cit!J tribunal SElt in session. One of the citizens 'NElS sentenced as an iljler.

"He (the i dl er) went t'lorne utterl y despondent accompani e,j by fri erllj::;

et'npat.hizing ,...tith him. He asked his friends if t.hey had ever t'leard of such

a thin!j that a person could be fined for being fr-ee! Thus thehl relat.ed toan!:;lthing concenring work or gainful enterprise as akin to s l a v e r ~ . " The

l a ~ N against. idleness ha,j been introduced to Athens Solon.(2) He S;'N it'lot

Ule 1anlj natw-e was i ncapab le of support i its i nhebit.onts and hence

could not support a host of d o - n o t h i n ! ~ s . But not all H'le inh':lbitelnt.::; wereS,:'Jti si ed HI thi S 1a\'\'.

Herodotus (3), in speaki ng of trl8 hi gher classes in E!jypt that vvere

forbidden to engage in manual lebor of a n ~ : ; l kind says:

"I f the Greeks learned trils as well from the Egyptians) I cannot soy for

certain. I not.e the Thracians, the Scythians, the Persians) the Lid,jHes and

almost all the barbarians view triose of their citizens ar"j it'lair offspring

who learned a croft as inferior to 'other citizens. Those who distance

themselves from manuEll labor ore seen 8S noble--especially those who

give themselves over to the art of worfare. All the Greeks rlove learnt

this--in particular the Locdemonians (on the other hand) leflst of 011 the

Cor'j nth; ni ans."

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.- - : ~ ... • .....l-

: ~ : ; . : : ; ~ : : : ; ; ; ' ~ : ~ ~ : ~ : : : ~ . : : . : : ~ ~ : ~ ~ ~ ' S : : ~ . ~ · : - : ~ ~ · . : : : ~ ~ ~ 2 ~ 2 : · ~ " " " ~ " " " "

Are those who Lobor

Worthy of bei ng full

C IT I ZENS?

The ! ~ w e a t plrilosopl·lers of Gr-eece such as Aristotle., while valuing work 'in

and of itself., ,looked down upon those perfor-rning i t and did not consider

thern as bei ng worthy of part ci pat i ng in gover-nrnent. Greek dernocracy di d

not accept thi s opi ni on anlj even struggl ed a!jai nst it. Hence one rnust be

careful of general i zat ions wlli cll 1 ad to e ~ · ~ a g ! j e r a t ions with regard to Hie

relationship of Greeks anlj Romans to labor- anlj latlorers. After all, r·nost of

the inhatdtants of Grece and Rome workelj.

Horner ha:3 Achill es (v,those soui is v'lander-i n!j 'i n the 1and of deported

spirits) say: "It \n/Oullj be better for- rne to be a di'j!d laborer Iftorking in

someone else's fi e1d Hli'jn to be the rul er- of a 1 these wasting spi rits". Thus

he e ~ · ~ p r e s s e s the infer-ior status of the laborer wllo labor-s in ernother-'s

fi e1 . On Hie other hand . Hesi od (4) er contemporary of Horner ( 8th Century

B.C.EJ prai ses wor-k arflj decri es i d1 eness: .....a doub1e porti on of love '.",Ii 11 be

tlestov'ted upon hi rn who toil s all hi::; days" anlj ..... i t is not derrreemi to

1at1or; dO'i ng nothi ng bri ngs shame". Trlucydi des (5) quotes Peri c1 s (6) in the1atter-'s mourni n!j thos fall en in battle: "None of them are asharnelj of thei r

hurrltd e background --even those wl·lose rnai nstay is thei r craft. ar-e not

i ~ n o r - a n t in rnatters of the State."

But the general opinion in Ancient Gr-eece did not vie\·v work favor-at,ly. The

situat on in Rome was no different. ~ " 1 u c r l of the work and crafts v·tere

perforrne1j b!d slaves. The higher cla:3ses surely vie'Ned h i r i n ! ~ oneself out

to others fo r pi'jyrnent as lowering one's status. The poor-trie,j to distance

Hlemselves from hir-elj labor 'in the fields and 'instei'jd sougrlt to live a life

of i dl eness in Hie cit!J

(I) P l u t . ~ r c h - - < i p p r o x . 46-120 C.E. ChroniclE'r <ind bio9npher of <incient Greece .and Rome.

(2) :30lon--La·w·9ivo?t· of Atho?ns ; E.th C.. ntlJrlJ B.C.E.

(3 ) Herodotus--Greek histori<in; 5th C E ' n t u n ~ S.C.E.

(4) H..sk"j--Sh...ph ...rd-p.)o?t of iindo?nt Gt·...... o:: ... ; iippro)<: 800 B.C.E.

(5 ) T h u c ' ~ d i d E ' s - - G r e e k soldier-histori<in; 5th C e n t u n ~ S.C.E.

(E.) P...t·io::les--Atheniiin stiiteSniiin, protii90nist of e m o . ) r < l ' ~ I J ; 5th CentlJI"IJ B.C.E.

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-- l o ~,.,

IV. Buddhist Economics ~ the

. 't iS take some funda-I .. '" .

and see what they look lIke when viewed by a

economist and a Buddhist economist.

is universal agreement that a fundamental

of wealth is human labour. Now, the modem econb s been brought up to consider 'labour' or work as

Jr.i)re than a necessary evil. From the point of view of

it is in any case simply an item of cost, to be

to a minimum if it cannot be eliminated altogether,

automation. From the point of view of the workman,

a 'disutility'; to work is to make a sacrifice of one's

anu wages are a kind 'of compensation

Hence the ideal from the point of view of

is to have output without employees, and the

the point of view of the employee is to have

without employment.

.e consequences of these attitudes both in theory and

c o u r ~ e , extremely far-reaching. I f the

with rC!T3rd to work is to get rid of it , Jv c r ~ ' methou

'reduces the work load' is a good thing. The most

the so-callet! 'divi

the pin f ~ ~ ~ o r yAdam Smith's Wealth of Nations! Here i't is

which mankind has

bu t of dividi.l"1g up every

minute parts, so that

fmal product can be produced at great speed without

had to contribute more than a totally

and, in most cas(.;s, unskilled movement of hisI

be Buddhist point of view takes the function of work to

t least threefold: to give a man a chance to utilise and

him to overcome his ego

with other people in a conunon task;

the good:> an d services needed for aning existence. Again, the consequences that flow from

o

view are endless. To c.rganise work in such a manner

it becomes meaningiess, boring, stultifying, or nerve

for the .....orker would be linle short of criminal; it

indicate a greater concern with goods than with

an evil la:k of C0mp2.S5ion and a soul-destroying

of a t t a c . ~ e n t to the Inost primitive side of this

existence. Equally, to strive for leisure as an alterto work wocld be considered a complete misunder

c: one of the basic truths of human existence,

that work and leisure a..re complementary parts of

e sa.ne living process and Ca:l.."lOi: be separated without

of work and the bliss of leisure

From the Buddhist point of \'jew, there are therefore two

of mechanisation which must be clearly distingui5hed:

that eriliaDces a man's s ~ : i l ~ a:-;d power and one th2t

th;: 'wcrk of m3I! ove: t;) a r::i:!chanical s13ve, le;l\'ing

in 2. p o ~ i t 1 o ! ' ! of having to s e , . ' ~ L . ~ e sIaI:e. , , .

Buddhist

~ c o n o r : : i i c s must be very difier;m: frem the economics of

modern materialism, since the Buddhist ~ e e s the essence of

civilisation not in a multiplication of wants but in the

purification of human character. Character, at the same

time, is formed primarilY by a man's work. And work,

properly conducted in conditions of human d!gnity and

freedom, blesses those who do it 2.L'1d equally their products

The Indian philosopher an d ~ o n o r n i s tJ.

c. Kumarappa

sums the maner up as follows:

.•...' ] f the nature of the work is properly appreciated and

. applied, it 'will stand in the same relation to the higher

£aculties as food is to the physical body. I t nourishes and

enlivens the higher man and urges him to produce the best

he is capable of. It directs his free will along t..'l-te proper

course a.c.d disciplines the animal in him into progressive

channels. I t furnishes an excellent background for man to

display his scale of values and develop his personality."e

I f a man has no chance of obtainiag work he is in a

desperate position, no t simply because he lacks an income

but because he lacks this nourishing and enlivening factor

of disciplined work which nothing can replace. A modem

economist may engage in highly sophisticated calculations

on whether fJ.ll employment 'pays' or whethe;:- it might be

more 'economic' to run an economy at iess than fJl1 empIcv

ment so as to ec.sure a greater mobility of labour, 2. b e t t ~ : :srabilit)' of wages, and so forth. His funda...'11.ental c;iteriol1

of success is simply the total quantity of goods produced

during a given period of tiIne. ,-_.

From a Buddhist point of view, this is standing the truthon its head by considering goods as more important thanpeople and consumption as more important than creative

activity. It means shifting the emphasis from the worker to

the product of work, t J : l Z . ~ is, from the human to the sub

human, a surrend::r to the forces of evil. - •