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From the pages of Jewish Action - Spring 2002 ORTHODOX AT WORK
Keeping Holy 9 to 5 by Rabbi Yitzchok A. Breitowitz So much of our lives and our energies are wrapped up in our professional and vocational identities. And yet, even the most observant among us often lives a somewhat schizophrenic, fragmented existence. While we meticulously observe the highest standards of Shabbat and kashrut, we conduct our professional lives blithely unaware of, or perhaps even indifferent to, the tremendous and indeed frightening spiritual challenges we face. Our motto seems to be “Man/Woman of the world from 9 to 5; Torah Jew on evenings and weekends.” Our greatest leaders, however, were well aware of these pitfalls. The story is told that Rabbi Yisrael Salanter did not want to make a living teaching Torah and decided to try to earn money in the stock market. Eventually, he left that line of work because he felt that the nisyonot (trials) of the marketplace were simply too great.1 If this was true for such a gaon, what can we possibly say? Nevertheless, since this is the reality that most of us face, it is imperative that we at least be sensitive to the grave dangers of the working world as well as the magnificent opportunities this world presents. Facing Halachic Challenges Historically, the primary obstacles encountered by the Orthodox Jew in the workplace were issues related to Shabbat and Yom Tov observance and, to a lesser degree, the availability of kosher food. While these problems have certainly not gone away, it is fair to state that at least in major metropolitan areas, the incidence of these problems has been significantly reduced.2 Indeed, even wearing a kippah has become socially acceptable. Nevertheless, even today—or perhaps especially today—there are serious halachic issues with which one must continue to struggle. Some are specific to particular professions and cannot be addressed here, 3 others are more generic in nature, applicable to virtually all endeavors. The Gemara in Bava Batra (165a) tells us that a minority of people commit sins involving arayot (sexual impropriety); most people commit crimes involving gezel (theft); and everybody commits sins involving lashon hara (gossip). At a minimum, in the workplace that exists today, one is confronted with all three sins. Provocative speech, lascivious dress and immodesty are commonplace in many jobs; indeed, the proliferation of sexual harassment claims clearly indicates the dangers that men and women face in the modern workplace. Without wanting to sound excessively alarmist, I must state that even Orthodox Jews have occasionally succumbed to serious temptations with tragic and devastating consequences to their lives and the lives of their families. Thus, even from a secular psychological perspective, the Torah’s tremendous wisdom in erecting appropriate barriers and safeguards between the sexes is readily apparent. In the corporate world, gezel is something which we must contend with all the time. Not limited to robbing a bank, gezel is taking an employer’s time, using office supplies for personal use without permission, making personal phone calls– either long distance or local– or overcharging and inflating time sheets in order to increase the number of billable hours. Geneivat da’at, misrepresentation, where one sells things without necessarily revealing all the defects that may exist, is yet another form of gezel.4 At times, people may justify such dissembling on the grounds that the customer is a non-Jew. Yet, without even considering the intricacies of taut akum (mistakes made by a Gentile), the awesome sin of chillul Hashem (desecration of God’s name) and the possible application of dina demalchuta dina (the law of the land is the law) we should heed the admonition of Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky, zt”l, who cautioned that if one acquires the habit of being a liar and a cheat, this will inevitably spill over into other areas of his life.5 Needless to say, lashon hara is rampant in the business world, whether it is describing one’s business competitors or gossiping around the water cooler. What can one say about competitors when trying to get a share of the business? When is disclosing negative information prohibited and when is it in fact required? The halachot of lashon hara are intricate and complex and require considerable study and review as well as frequent consultation with a posek (halachic authority).6 Living by these rules is not easy. What if you’re the young associate in a law firm whose boss demands that certain things be done: Do you lose your job? Do you lose your standing in the firm? What are you willing to give up? Money? Power? Influence? Advancement? Although not quite as dramatic as Avraham Avinu’s willingness to sacrifice Yitzchak, those of us in the working world face mini akeidot (sacrifices) every day. Similar to Avraham, we grow stronger from the challenge if we have the courage to meet it.7 Maintaining Values on the Job – No Matter What
Yet another pernicious problem is simply the lack of time and energy needed to think. All human beings need time to reflect, and bnei and bnot Torah in particular need time to be able to answer questions such as where are their lives going and why. Yet we are on treadmills all the time. We are part of the rat race and we begin to feel like beleague red rats. After all, take the typical lawyer in a major Wall Street law firm who might work 60-65 hours a week. Why isn’t such a heavy work schedule slavery? A slavery that asserts its mastery not just over our time but over our hearts, our souls, our concentration and our kochot hanefesh (energies). If, as Thomas Paine remarked, “The price of [political] liberty is eternal vigilance,” this is even truer for spiritual liberty and freedom. It is so easy to lose sight of life’s ultimate purpose when we are so preoccupied with our daily routine. Indeed, according to a recent survey, the amount of time that husbands and wives spend talking to each other about matters other than housekeeping is less than 20 minutes per week. Look at what the work culture has done to us. In contrast to the prototypical ba’al habayit of the Rambam who earns enough for his daily bread in three hours and can utilize the remaining nine hours of daylight for Torah study, 8 our work seems to have taken over our entire lives. In short, we are slaves; we are slaves both to our work and to the negative emotions that work engenders within us including envy, possessiveness, materialism, arrogance and the like. Keeping an Eye on the Ultimate Destination A modern adaptation of a parable by the Dubnow Maggid brings out this point forcefully. The story involves an obsessive-compulsive individual who always had to be fully prepared for whatever life threw his way. When he was making his first trip to Israel, he was told there would be a seven-hour stopover in France. He decided that he would prepare for the trip by learning French so that he would be able to order a Coke in the proper language. He studied hard for an entire year. By the time he got to the airport, he had mastered the language. He was proud of himself and he impressed a lot of people. But seven hours later, when he got back on the plane, he realized with a sickening feeling that he never bothered to learn Hebrew. He was so preoccupied with the stopover that he never gave thought to the ultimate destination. This world is a prozdor, an entry way and a hallway to the World to Come. There are certain skills necessary for navigating the hallway: we have to make a living, learn how to drive, etc. but if we put all of our energies into navigating this world, and never give thought to the ultimate currency we take with us to the Olam Haemet (the World of Truth), we are as misguided and short-sighted as that gentleman. It would do us well to remember that nobody ever leaves this world wishing he had made one more big deal. But the dangers go beyond the simple inability to think. There is a subtle, and not-so-subtle, reprogramming of thought that occurs as well. Rabbeinu Yonah writes that a major component of how we are judged in the eyes of Hashem is what we truly regard as important 9 in the innermost depths of our hearts, what is it that we really admire? Very often because of the all-consuming energy we have to put into our work, we do mitzvot perfunctorily. Theoretically, every Shabbat must be a new Shabbat, every tefillah, a renewed conversation with the Creator, every holiday, a unique encounter with the Divine. But drained of our energies and buffeted by competing and inconsistent versions of the “good life,” our spiritual selves often atrophy into something arid, mechanical, unfeeling and superficial. The problem of stagnation is, of course, a general problem in the life of the religious Jew. The prophets identified this as mitzvat anashim melumadah,10 doing mitzvot habitually. And yet, while this problem is relevant to every Jew and not just the working population, the lack of time, energy and yishuv hada’at (peace of mind) make the working person exceptionally prone to the notion of not growing in avodat Hashem. The Torah compares a person to a tree. Just as a tree grows when it is rooted in the ground and receives adequate sun, water and nutrients, a person can grow spiritually if he receives adequate nourishment for his soul. If our religion doesn’t provide us with adequate nourishment, we die within. And this deterioration can happen very slowly. A tree can be dead while all the leaves are still green and intact. Similarly, a person can spiritually die even while appearing vibrant and alive. And there is perhaps no greater tragedy than this. Making Spirituality Vibrant and Personal
Virtually every working environment needs the equivalent of a neon sign that says, “Proceed with caution,” and yet amidst the risks, there are many positive opportunities for growth. In Hilchot Deot (3:3), the Rambam lays down a very fundamental idea based on the verse in Proverbs (3:6) “Bechal derachecha da’eihu, Know God in all your ways.” Da’eihu is derived from the verb da’at, which refers to more than knowing; it implies an intimate sense of being connected. The Rambam explains that if one works with the intention to earn money to serve Hashem, give tzedakah and support one’s family, then one’s working hours are not just a vehicle for those noble goals but actually constitute avodat Hashem. I would suggest that the same way before one performs a mitzvah, one says “Hineni muchan umezuman, I am readying myself,” perhaps every day one should start off with a silent or verbalized tefillah to Hashem, that “what I’m going to do for the next eight hours is with the intention of serving You.” If you start off with that orientation, then your entire workday constitutes avodat Hashem. Furthermore, the workplace can be the very arena in which one is mekadesh Shem Shamayim (sanctifies the name of Heaven). In my own community, we suffered a great tragedy several years ago with the sudden death of an attorney in his thirties. While this young man spent his time in law, he lived a life of genuine kiddush Hashem by virtue of his honesty and the gracious way in which he dealt with all of his colleagues including secretaries, janitors and other “run-of-the mill” people who were not important business associates or clients. He was the type of person that after meeting him you would say, as Chazal say, “Kamah naim derachav, How beautiful are his ways.” If that’s what a Jew is, a Jew is a good thing. That’s the definition of kiddush Hashem: “Veahavata et Hashem Elokecha 11— you make the name of God beloved by the way you live your life.”
In truth, there are wonderful opportunities for kiddush Hashem that people in the workplace have that others in more cloistered environments do not necessarily have. Everyone of us— whether we are in the workforce or not—has our own avodah. The challenge is not to spend our lives looking at others saying, “why don’t I have that,” but to see the potential in the place where we are. The Chofetz Chaim used to explain that when Hashem told Moshe at the burning bush, “Take off your shoes because the place where you are standing is holy,” He was speaking to all of us—that no matter where we live or what we do, there is the potential for holiness and sanctification. It is incumbent upon us to find it. 12
Notes Rabbi Breitowitz is the rabbi of the Woodside Synagogue in Silver Spring, Maryland and an associate professor of law at the University of Maryland. This article is an abridgement of a speech given at a young professionals’ group. To subscribe to Jewish Action, click here. |
