Workaholics and Egyptian Bondage

There are people who are so dedicated to their profession or business that they have no sense of time; they are workaholics. Frequently their obsession with constant work will cause them to neglect their families, their religious and Jewish educational responsibilities. For all intents and purposes, they are very much in an “Egyptian bondage” situation.

Defining the Galus-Perech form of slavery

This week’s Torah portion, entitled “Shemos,” describes the enslavement of the Jewish people in Egypt. Not only did the Egyptians take away their freedom by forcing them to work for them, but they also subjected them to an unusually cruel type of work: Avodas perech, usually rendered “backbreaking labor.”

What is “Galus perech?” According to Rambam (Maimonides) (whose yahrtzeit (the anniversary of his passing), occurs on the 20th of Tevet, which usually coincides with this week’s Parsha), it is a reference to work, which has no limit and produces no benefit.

We are required to remember the Exodus from Egypt daily, because we are, figuratively speaking, still very much subjected to Egyptian slavery, even as we enjoy unprecedented freedom. Accordingly, it is important for us to understand the dynamics of Galus perech in our lives, so that we can also discover the mechanism to liberate ourselves from it.

At first glance, the imperative to apply the Egyptian experience to our lives appears rather strange. Most of us, who grew up in America, probably cannot fathom what relevance this aspect of the Exodus has to our lives in this modern world. Thank G-d, we never experienced losing our freedom and independence in this good and free America and other Western Democracies. We certainly cannot relate to the idea of Avodas perech-form of slave labor. Or could we?

Workaholics

There are people who are so dedicated to their profession or business that they have no sense of time; they are workaholics. Frequently their obsession with constant work will cause them to neglect their families, their religious and Jewish educational responsibilities. For all intents and purposes, they are very much in an “Egyptian bondage” situation. This obsession with work parallels Maimonides’ idea of Avodas perech as work that has no limit.

Furthermore, the benefits we do enjoy from our work can only be real if our labor serves as the “vessel” or instrument for G-d’s blessing. For, after all, it is not our work itself that brings benefit, but G-d’s blessing Our efforts are the instruments He gave us through which we channel His blessings. If, however, the instrument is misshapen, it cannot elicit (all, or even part) of G-d’s blessings. And while it may seem that the workaholic or the person obsessed with work will generate much profit, the person could really never truly enjoy those gains. No matter how much one makes, they still feel the need to make more.

In modern parlance we refer to this syndrome as the rat race, in Biblical jargon this type of work is the modern day equivalent of Avodas perech. The work is endless and the benefits elusive.

The antidote: healthy Avodas perech

Good and evil possess parallel systems. To know how to cure our enslavement to our work, we must find and unleash its positive counterpart, the “kosher” form of Avodas perech.

When the soul of the individual devotes itself to its service of G-d in an unlimited and unrestricted fashion; when the soul is prepared to give everything—with total selfsacrifice—for G-d, that is the first characteristic of Avodas perech. Obsession for positive ideals can be a healthy form of obsession.

This does not mean that the person has to divorce himself from the material world. Rather it means that one views everything in life as an opportunity to better serve G-d. Since life affords us infinite opportunities, this translates into infinite ways of serving G-d.

When one’s service of G-d is generated from the soul, one does not seek any benefit for its service to G-d. It’s not that no benefit will derive from this service; it simply means that one is imbued with a sense of dedication, in relation to which all benefits are meaningless. Not having any benefit means that one has transcended the need for those benefits. And when the benefits do arrive they are seen for what they truly are; positive results of positive action, and not as the “pay-off” for the initial sacrifice that was made.

Hence, the soul’s dedication can be described as a positive form of Avodas perech because the work is of an endless, infinite nature and one that transcends all benefits.

Garbled messages from the soul

While we differentiated between kosher workaholics and its non-kosher counterpart, one may suggest that they are closely interrelated. The misguided obsession for work derives from the soul’s love of labor for that which is good and holy. Workaholics actually use misplaced dedication, which emanates from their soul’s obsession with the higher and more G-dly pursuits in life.

We all possess this G-dly soul that is constantly “sending” us messages about its spiritual agenda and its G-dly desires. We do not always posses the proper “receptors” that understand what it is that the soul truly desires. Frequently our conscious mind “picks up” a warped and misguided message. As a result, instead of translating the souls desires into idealistic efforts in that direction, we use it for the aimless dedication to our careers that knows no respite and has no moral and spiritual objective.

Modern day liberation from Egyptian Bondage

It is sad that we should misuse our G-d given talents for spiritual growth in the rat race of modern day life. Going out of Egypt daily in a modern context thus means, to acquire the proper perspective about our rolein life, and a proper list of priorities.

Never before have we been plagued with this sort of Egyptian bondage. This can be attributed to the fact that we are on the verge of another Exodus, the Redemption from the exile we have been living through for close to two thousand years since the destruction of the Holy Temple. Our souls yearn to be free, and our souls are sending us messages that we very often misconstrue for the opposite.

Our souls are profoundly undernourished. They crave the spiritual benefits, both intrinsic as well as fringe, that accrue from total devotion to being G-d’s partner in His plan to transform this world into His “dwelling-place.” Instead, we harness the soul’s energy to building sandcastles that cannot and will not endure.

Our own personal exodus from our own form of Egyptian bondage, by listening to our soul’s voice and cry, will definitely prepare us and serve as a catalyst for the ultimate and imminent Redemption from physical exile.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Shmos by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.