B"H
Thursday, Kislev 7, 5780 / December 5, 2019
In this week's Parsha, Vayeitzei, we find the importance of work over idleness.
Yaakov, after living twenty years by his father-in-law, Lavan, decided to take his family (four wives and twelve children) and return to his parents. He fears that Lavan will not let him leave, so he leaves while Lavan was away. When Lavan learns that they left, he chases after them with the intention of harming Yaakov. G-d appears to Lavan in a dream and warns him not to hurt Yaakov and his family.
The Torah relates the dialogue between Yaakov and his father-in-law, Lavan, when they meet. Yaakov complains to his father-in-law that if not for G-d's protection he would not have survived the mistreatments and cheating he experienced at Lavan's house for the past 20 years. Yaakov concludes, "My affliction and the labor of my hands G-d has seen..." Yaakov credits G-d's coming to his rescue to the "labor of my hands."
The Midrash says, this teaches us the importance of work: "A person shall not say, 'I will eat, drink and enjoy what is good but I will not bother to work, for I will rely on G-d to take care of me.' A man must toil and work with both his hands; only then will the Holy One send His blessings."
The Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar explains the importance of work as follows, "When Adam was put in the Garden of Eden, although everything was prepared for him, G-d told him first, “to work it and tend to it.” Only after this did G-d permit him to eat from the fruits of the garden.
Rabbi Tarfon says: "G-d did not make His presence rest among Israel until they worked, as it says, Let them make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them."
The sage, Rabbi Yossi, says in the Talmud, “Man doesn’t die from work only out of idleness."
It is explained with the following parable: A farmer had a colt, a donkey and a pig. Every day, he measured the amount of barley he fed the donkey and colt, but would let the pig eat as much as it wanted. The colt complained to the donkey, "What is our boss doing? We do all the work for the master, yet he rations our food. The pig does nothing, yet it gets to eat as much as it wants!"
The donkey replied, "The time will come when you will see the pig’s downfall, for it is not for its benefit that our master stuffs it with food, but rather for its harm." Soon afterwards a Roman holiday occurred. The farmer slaughtered the pig and served it for the feast.
The next day, when the owner fed barley to the donkey and colt, after seeing what happened to the pig, the colt refused to eat the barley. The donkey said to him, "Do not be afraid to eat. It is the idleness, not the eating, which led the pig to be slaughtered."
HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY