This week’s Torah commentary from Hebrew Seminary has been sponsored by Benjamin Rank.
To sustain Hebrew Seminary’s work of bringing the words of the Torah to life, please consider sponsoring an upcoming Torah commentary through your gift of any amount.
* * *
Enough is Holy Enough: Commentary on Parashat Vayyak’hel 5785
By Rabbi Jonah Rank, Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary
In a memo in 2012, Elon Musk advised his Tesla employees, “Please prepare yourself for a level of intensity that is greater than anything most of you have ever experienced before.”
Five years later, Jose Moran, a production worker at the Tesla plant in Fremont, California, shared that most of his “5,000-plus coworkers work well over 40 hours a week, including excessive mandatory overtime. The hard, manual labor we put in to make Tesla successful is done at great risk to our bodies.” Moran observed further:
Preventable injuries happen often… Six out of eight people in my work team were out on medical leave at the same time due to… work-related injuries. I hear… concerns in other departments are even more severe… I hear coworkers quietly say that they are hurting but they are too afraid to report it for fear of being labeled as a complainer or bad worker by management.
Legal filings from Askari Hunt, who worked at a Tesla factory until 2022, stated that Hunt’s fellow employees variously called the Tesla factory “the plantation” and “the slave ship.” Caitlin Dewey of Vanity Fair reported that, after Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, employees “were instructed to work ‘24/7’ to meet ambitious deadlines; many reportedly began logging 84-hour work weeks and sleeping in their offices.” A 2023 investigation by Marisa Taylor of Reuters uncovered more than 600 previously unreported workplace injuries—including one death—at SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company.
In November of 2024, Musk’s developing Department of Government Efficiency advertised on social media, “We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week.” Musk himself published to social media the same day, “This will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero.” In February, he reported to social media that DOGE’s workers were working 120 hours per week. This week, Tesla’s employees in Germany have asked for time to go to the bathroom.
The Jewish people have a heritage that endorses a committed work ethic—just as the first law Moses reports in God’s name in Exodus 35:2 teaches that, “for six days, work shall be done.” The Moroccan kabbalist Rabbi Chayyim ibn Attar (c. 1696–1743) even affirmed, in his commentary on this verse, that working these six days is a mitzvah. However, the Jewish people have paid far greater attention to how this verse continues: “On the seventh day, there will be a holy Shabbat of ceasing—for the sake of Adonai.” Commenting on this verse, the French commentator Rashi (c. 1028 – 1105) understood that, after Moses had called together the Israelites (Exodus 35:1), Moses understood it was necessary to heighten the Israelites’ attention to Shabbat. In Rashi’s words:
הקדים להם אזהרת שבת לצווי מלאכת המשכן, לומר, שאינו דוחה את השבת:
He prefaced the commandment for working on the Tabernacle with a warning about Shabbat. This is to say: [The creation of the Tabernacle] should not override [the laws of] Shabbat.
Though Moses was soon to instruct humans in the how-to and necessity of crafting the Tabernacle—the holiest concretization of the wandering Israelites’ religion—even this holy cause was an insufficient excuse for ignoring Shabbat as a day of rest.
In 1954, the German-educated British Dayan (“rabbinic judge”) Dr. Isidor Grunfeld, in his quickly sold-out book The Sabbath: A Guide to Its Understanding and Observance, wrote:
Work can make man free, but one can also be a slave to work. When [God] created heaven and earth, says the [Babylonian] Talmud, they went on unreeling endlessly, “like two bobbins of thread,” until their Creator called out to them “Enough!” (Chagigah 12a). God’s] creativity was followed by the Sabbath, when He deliberately ceased from His creative work. This more than anything shows Him to us as the free Creator controlling and limiting the creation He brought into being… It is thus not ‘work,’ but ‘ceasing from work’ which [God] chose as the sign of His free creation of the world. (Pp. 4–5.)
Dayan Grunfeld, who had fled Bavaria when the Nazis rose to power in 1933, developed a healthy fear of any human civilization that would venerate work above all else in life. He explained:
Man is truly great… only if he willingly co-operates in [God’s] plan for the world, making use of his freedom to serve [God] and his fellow-men. Then he becomes, as the Rabbis put it, “a partner in the work of creation” (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 10a). Yet man’s very freedom can lead to his downfall. His great powers over the world of nature, which enable him to control and master it, harness its energies, mould and adapt it to his will… make it fatally easy for man to think of himself in the guise of creator, responsible to no-one higher than himself. We of the twentieth century have seen what happens to the world and to mankind when such ideas prevail. (Pp. 5–6.)
Work for the sake of work alone ultimately is the opposite of creation; work without a purpose greater than work itself is destructive, damaging the worker’s sense of meaning in the greatest part of one’s waking hours. Work needs its boundaries, or life loses its significance.
When the Israelite artisans Betzal’el and Oholi’av began the construction of the Tabernacle, Exodus 36:1 recalls that they were joined “וְכֹ֣ל ׀ אִ֣ישׁ חֲכַם־לֵ֗ב” (vekhol ish chakham lev, “with every person of a wise heart”), who had a depth of understanding how to perform the task God had designated. In Exodus 36:2 Mosheh, not necessarily a craftsperson himself, called these talented individuals over to him, and, as Exodus 36:3 hints, appears to have assigned them an unwieldy job:
וַיִּקְח֞וּ מִלִּפְנֵ֣י מֹשֶׁ֗ה אֵ֤ת כׇּל־הַתְּרוּמָה֙ אֲשֶׁ֨ר הֵבִ֜יאוּ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל לִמְלֶ֛אכֶת עֲבֹדַ֥ת הַקֹּ֖דֶשׁ לַעֲשֹׂ֣ת אֹתָ֑הּ וְ֠הֵ֠ם הֵבִ֨יאוּ אֵלָ֥יו ע֛וֹד נְדָבָ֖ה בַּבֹּ֥קֶר בַּבֹּֽקֶר׃
They took from Mosheh every offering that the children of Israel brought for the sake of the holy work of making that [Tabernacle]. However, those [Israelites] brought to him a[nother] voluntary offering [for the construction] each and every morning.
This is when the creative types who had been enlisted for Tabernacle work walked away from their job (Exodus 36:4) and complained to Mosheh: “מַרְבִּ֥ים הָעָ֖ם לְהָבִ֑יא מִדֵּ֤י הָֽעֲבֹדָה֙ לַמְּלָאכָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּ֥ה יְהֹוָ֖ה לַעֲשֹׂ֥ת אֹתָֽהּ׃” (“The nation is bringing far too much—more than the labor necessary for this job that Adonai has commanded to be done”) (Exodus 36:5). Lucky for the laborers, Mosheh got it and, after sharing this concern with the Israelites, “וַיִּכָּלֵ֥א הָעָ֖ם מֵהָבִֽיא” (vayyikkale ha’am mehavi, “the nation ceased bringing [offerings]”).
The word וַיִּכָּלֵ֥א (vayyikkale, “ceased”) shares most of the same Hebrew letters as וַיְכֻלּ֛וּ (vaykhullu, “were completed”)—the word that begins—and first introduces Shabbat in—Genesis 2:1–3. In this passage, recalling the first sabbath day, when God rested after six days of creating the cosmos (recalled in Genesis, chapter 1), the story of the first time there was a seventh day—the Hebrew word Shabbat (שַׁבָּת) never appears. Nonetheless, the passage accentuates the three-consonant root of the Hebrew word Shabbat (שׁ־ב־ת, shin–bet–tav or shin–vet–tav) and the letter combination כל (kaf–lamed or khaf–lamed), like in the words vayyikale, vaykhullu, or kol (כֹּל, “everything”):
וַיְכֻלּ֛וּ הַשָּׁמַ֥יִם וְהָאָ֖רֶץ וְכׇל־צְבָאָֽם׃ וַיְכַ֤ל אֱלֹהִים֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י מְלַאכְתּ֖וֹ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֑ה וַיִּשְׁבֹּת֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּ֖וֹ אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשָֽׂה׃ וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י ב֤וֹ שָׁבַת֙ מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃
The Heavens and the earth vekhol (וְכׇל, “and all of”) its celestial hosts vaykhullu (“were completed”). God vaykhal (וַיְכַ֤ל, “completed”) on the seventh day God’s work that God had done. [God] vayyishbot (וַיִּשְׁבֹּת֙, “rested”) on the seventh day mikkol (מִכׇּל, “from all”) of God’s work that God had done. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. For then [God] shavat (שָׁבַת֙, “ceased”) mikkol (“from all”) of God’s work that God had created to be made.
This passage juxtaposes the feeling of kol (“everything”) with the desire for Shabbat (“rest”). Even if our responsibilities in life never feel done, we cannot be constantly working. The only way to find respite in this world is to partake in the sacred fantasy every now and then that what we have is kol: we have accomplished everything we can, at least for now. That permits us the gift of Shabbat, of taking a break.
At the beginning of this week’s Torah reading, Mosheh needed to remind the Israelites of Shabbat not only because Shabbat is a sacred time, but Shabbat is an ethos. There was bound to be a moment when Betzal’el, Oholi’av, and company would have to let the Israelites know that the job has to end at a certain point. We must decide when to end any task that feels, otherwise, endless.
It is no coincidence that the story of the artisans asking for a cap to the Israelites’ donations of Tabernacle materials includes other literary callbacks to Genesis’ story of the first Shabbat. Both speak of melakhah (מְלָאכָה, “work”) (twice in Genesis 2:2 and once in 2:3; and once per verse in Exodus 36:1–7); repeat kol and related words (see above; and, three times in Exodus 36:1, twice in 36:2, once in 36:3, twice in 36:4, and once in 36:7); and use multiple times the root of ayin–sin–heh (ע-שֹ-ה, “making” or “doing”) (twice in Genesis 2:2 and once in 2:3; and twice in Exodus 36:1 and 36:4 each, and once in 36:2, 36:3, 36:5, and 36:7).
The subliminal message: Doing all of this work means nothing—unless give ourselves a break. But Shabbat is not for us alone. Dayan Grunfeld taught:
The blessings of Sabbath are not confined to the life of the individual. After helping the Jew to find himself, Sabbath helps him to find his fellow-man. One of the basic motives… for the Sabbath commandment is “that your manservant and maidservant may rest as well as you” (Deuteronomy 5:14)… On the Sabbath servant and master meet as equals, as free human personalities. Sabbath restored to the slave his human dignity… Sabbath is thus a weekly-recurring divine protest against slavery and oppression. Lifting up his Kiddush-cup on Friday night, the Jew links the creation of the world with man’s freedom, so declaring slavery and oppression deadly sins against the very foundation of the universe. Can one be surprised that tyrants of all times would not permit Israel to celebrate the Sabbath? (Pp. 9–10.)
A classical Jewish work ethos demands of us a unique spiritual balancing act. We must accept two truths: we have meaningful contributions to offer this world through honest hard work; and no work should ever deny us any part of our humanity. We all deserve vocations we value and jobs that value us. Without being able to step away from work, we can never witness the possible worth of the work we perform—nor can we perform well without stopping for self-care. We all deserve Shabbat—especially in a world that idolizes efficiency.
* * *
Every week, Hebrew Seminary publishes words of contemporary Torah commentary, linking the words of our past to the values of our here and now. Committed to making Jewish life accessible, Hebrew Seminary’s weekly Torah commentary allows readers around the world to nourish their neshamot (“souls”) with words of Torah composed by Hebrew Seminary’s students, faculty, graduates, and friends.