Does the Torah want us to work for a living?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau answers that it does. “Torah never told you to be poor,” he says. “Torah says, ‘Six days you should work.’ That's a mitzvah to work, build, earn, and elevate it.”
He sees refusing to work as the real problem, not money. “A true sin isn't money. A true sin is refusing to work.” Earning is not a spiritual compromise; it is part of the command, as long as you elevate what you earn.
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that “six days you shall work” is not just background before Shabbos but a command in its own right. He cites the Sages' “Love work,” and points out that even before the first sin, Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden “to work it and to guard it.” Work came before the sin, not as a result of it.
His closing instruction is simple: “Work hard and elevate it.”
Related concepts: Business · Purpose
In A Soul at Peace: Holy Work in a Material World
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
“Six days you shall work” is a mitzvah: to work, build, earn and elevate.
Fear, vulnerability, or tension
Many people feel their work is a spiritual failure. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the man who sees his hard work as something to apologize for is mistaken.
Deepest human truth
Work is not a punishment but a calling. In A Soul at Peace he writes that through honest work the material world becomes a home for Hashem.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Wealth, Work, and Divine Sustenance · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz