In The Beginning, There Was Separation: Breisheit’s Ten Commandments’ Moment

Most recently, the “work ethic” value is on life support.

Societal figures along with their social policy agenda are standing at the bedside in the ICU of the long held belief. There appears to be some excitement to finally pull the plug on this ancient core value. The signs of the decline is evidenced by employers struggling to find competent employees. Why is this happening? Is it possible that the Torah’s very beginning can shed light on the matter?

The Torah Portion Breisheit’s Chapters One and Two reveal the world’s blueprint. The Master of the Universe’s construction plans required many acts of separation. The notion of separation attaching to the story is evidenced by the creation’s events being separated between two chapters.

Separation

In Chapter One of the Torah, much of the Lord’s creation activities involve separation. There is the separation of light from darkness (Genesis 1:4); the separation of water from other water (Genesis 1:6); and there is the separation of water from land (Genesis 1:9.)

Beyond acts of separation, the creative acts for each day of creation were labeled as “good” with the totality of the acts being “very good.”.

Breisheit’s Second Chapter involves a different type separation; a temporal one. The separation of the days of the week occurs. The Lord separates the first six days of the week- days of labor-from the seventh- a day of rest. Unlike the matters of the creation which were labeled as “good”, this seventh day is declared as “holy.” The “holy” day being the Sabbath.

Query

Since the beginning of the world involved much separation, wouldn’t have been logical to include the division of the days into the first chapter?

Arguably, it does make sense. Chapter Two, however, is separate from the act of creation. The seventh day being sacred is about the creation of a concept. It is about time and the separation that occurs within time. It is about a moment in time being blessed; a holy day. A day of rest and the cessation of acts of creation.

The Separation From Work and Rest

From the text, the world was created with the concept that there is a division between and rest. There is the realization that these two elements define human activity. This notion was addressed brought forward within the Ten Commandments’ Sabbath commandment. The Sabbath commandment, however, proscribes a separation more expansively. It includes bondage and freedom in the equation.

This notion is evidenced in the Torah’s two versions of the Decalogue. While both the Exodus and Deuteronomy versions of the Ten Commandments are brought into address this, we see that the Exodus version recounts “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” while the Deuteronomy version discusses the Exodus, “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.”

What Are The Percentages? Does This Matter?

The division between labor and rest, however, as laid out in the Torah is not 50/50. Mathematically, approximately 86 percent of the week is devoted towards labor versus to 14 percent for both rest and relaxation.

In society, social policies are increasingly shifting the balance ever so more towards extended days off. There is increasing effort to encourage individuals to devote less time towards working.

As a result of this shift, people are finding less value in work. Conversely, there is reason to find less sanctity with respect to the days off.

Rabbi Harold Kushner realized the connection between work and the human spirit. As he said “something dangerously corrosive happens to a person’s soul when he no longer takes his work seriously enough to give his best.”

Thus, as the drive for excessive time off and essentially devalue work continues, it creates a separation from humanity and the holiness of the Sabbath. Presently, the continued erosion of work hours impresses on workers that that their jobs should not be taken so seriously. The concept of performing good work which could become over all very good work is being lost. In turn, this impacts the soul. With one’s soul compromised, the Sabbath’s sanctity is at risk.

Be well!!

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