{"id":43384,"date":"2018-11-04T19:41:36","date_gmt":"2018-11-04T17:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=43384"},"modified":"2022-06-01T17:47:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T14:47:35","slug":"on-the-nature-of-labor-degrading-or-dignifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/on-the-nature-of-labor-degrading-or-dignifying\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Nature Of Labor: Degrading Or Dignifying?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[706,707,378,438],"acf":{"old_id":"43384","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37918,"related_cahpter":"85","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"On work as service, punctuated by Shabbat, vs. work as slavery","content":"

When at the beginning of the book, Moses and Aaron make for a brief opportunity to worship God in the wilderness, Pharaoh responds by placing ever more onerous burdens on his slaves. He condemns Moses and Aaron for wanting the Israelites to desist from their labors–and tellingly, the term he uses is \u201chishbatem<\/em>\u201d (Exodus 5:5), from the same root as the word Shabbat, the day of rest. By denying the Israelites even a moment\u2019s rest, Pharaoh reveals the vast gulf separating enslavement to a human master from dignified service of God. <\/span><\/p>\n

Exodus begins with the enslaved Israelites forced to build cities for a human king; it ends with the people engaged in building a tabernacle (<\/span>mishkan<\/span><\/i>) in which the God who has redeemed them can dwell. This trajectory is crucial to Jewish theology: In Bible scholar Ellen Davis\u2019 words, the people move from \u201cperverted work, designed by Pharaoh to destroy God\u2019s people… [to] divinely mandated work…\u201d (\u201cSlaves or Sabbath-Keepers? A Biblical Perspective on Human Work\u201d 2001).<\/span><\/p>\n

As slaves in Egypt, the Israelites work without respite against their will. When they build the <\/span>mishkan<\/span><\/i>, in stark contrast, Moses asks for <\/span>voluntary <\/span><\/i>contributions: \u201cTake from among you gifts to the Lord; everyone <\/span>whose heart so moves him <\/span><\/i>shall bring them\u201d (Exodus 35:5). Finally freed from slavery, the Israelites are slowly being taught that there is a form of service radically different from slavery, one that honors and nurtures one\u2019s sense of agency rather than degrading it and whittling it away.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, then, as Moses lays out instructions for how to build the tabernacle, he starts by invoking Shabbat: \u201cOn six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a sabbath of complete rest (<\/span>Shabbat Shabbaton<\/span><\/i>), holy to the Lord…\u201d (35:2). Whereas the tyrant prohibits even a moment of Shabbat, God actually mandates and regularizes it. Whereas serving Pharaoh had stripped the Israelites of their dignity, serving God will now affirm it. Moreover, and critically, God commands them to take their own dignity seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is Shabbat about affirming that God alone, is God, or is Shabbat a testimony to human dignity and the importance of rest? The biblical answer is that it is both. The Torah sees no contradiction between a day aimed at affirming God as sovereign over the entirety of creation and a day aimed at insisting that everyone, without exception, is entitled and obligated to rest (20:10). Work and service come in dignified and degrading versions; the Torah is about a journey from the latter toward the former.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":70241,"id":70241,"title":"Jer17-nowork","filename":"Jer17-nowork.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jer17-nowork.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-sabbath-of-the-world\/jer17-nowork\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer17-nowork","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":70240,"date":"2020-02-16 13:18:02","modified":"2022-06-01 14:47:31","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":300,"height":286,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jer17-nowork-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jer17-nowork-300x286.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":286,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jer17-nowork.jpg","medium_large-width":300,"medium_large-height":286,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jer17-nowork.jpg","large-width":300,"large-height":286,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jer17-nowork.jpg","1536x1536-width":300,"1536x1536-height":286,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jer17-nowork.jpg","2048x2048-width":300,"2048x2048-height":286,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jer17-nowork.jpg","post_full_size-width":300,"post_full_size-height":286,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jer17-nowork.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"home_baner-height":286}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"On 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