Making Work – Work for You

I’ve had at least a dozen jobs in my life. From being a babysitter to a doorman at a bar, I’ve normally started each job with tremendous enthusiasm only to be overcome with boredom in the end. Sound familiar? Maybe you are in that same situation now.

One of the biggest things that haunted my teenage years was the thought that whatever profession you choose is your identity. I think this plagues most of our young adults, having so many options but no clear focus on what is really important for them, not their peers or parents. For years I struggled back and forth trying to choose the career, and got nowhere. It wasn’t until I heard a lesson given by Rabbi Noach Weinberg of blessed memory founder of Aish HaTorah, about this very issue that I had any clarity at all. The Rabbi taught that a profession is simply a means to make money – it doesn’t identify you, it is a means to an end. At the same time many of us can understand that but would just like a boost of energy to get back to loving our jobs and not dreading them.

I felt this personally in the IDF. As a machine gunner in the Golani Brigade I was wrapped in enthusiasm from the first day I got my boots. For a year I had extreme energy, enthusiasm, and desire to give myself to the unit. Suddenly, I was counting the months till my discharge, but luckily I bought a book from the Old City Moriah Bookstore in Jerusalem, it was called “Good Job!” It was a small book that gave many tips based on ‘The Ethics of Our Fathers’ on how to approach work. The book worked wonders for me and I was soon back to performing at a high level.

To start, many people find their jobs a waste of time, but we have to remember it is all about how we look at them. If you are working in a field where you help people, or just to provide for your family you are doing a mitzvah. But most of the time we can just get caught up with waiting for the paycheck every two weeks and forget that what we are doing at work and the power to be special. It all depends on your mind, and your desire to choose to make things better.

Hashem doesn’t want you to just be plugging away; chances are that if you are on this website, you are Emuna-oriented and have great potential to be an Ambassador for Emuna. Think about your work setting, maybe there is a person there who you are specifically there to help. Stop letting your physical surroundings influence you and instead YOU influence them. Find ways to help, to share to make other people happier. By doing this you are acting just like Joseph, who was incarcerated in prison. Although he didn’t like his surrounding, he accepted it and was happy with what was, and he became someone of influence by cheering up others. You can do the same, as it says in Devarim 30:19 “Choose Life!”

One of the things that really has been a challenge for me in Judaism is the idea that there are mitzvah’s between man and G-d and between man and man. I always felt that if I just kept my part of the deal with Hashem everything else would work out. But it’s not supposed to be like that, we don’t pick and choose our mitzvot. The highest level of Torah observance is when we are happy “loving your neighbors as yourself (Vayikra 19:18).”

Do you realize what this means? You yourself can change everything, from a basic job to a holy experience. This is our job in the world as Rabbi Brody brings in his amazing work Pi Habe’er  that within each creation there are sparks of holiness lying dormant. But when a person elevates that creation by looking for the good in a person, or helping a person you take part in the correction of the world. All the more so if you help them grow in Emuna.

By all means if someone from an early age is focused on a certain profession they should go for it. But for less blessed folks like myself, keeping in mind that a profession is a means to make money can really refocus our lives on what is most important: helping ourselves and others get closer to connecting with Hashem.

Homework: Start influencing your surroundings, when you are at work, throughout your day focus on the mitzvah of “Loving others as yourself.”