EXOD387 Sanctify the Shabbos with words. At the start and end of the Sabbath, speak of the greatness of the Sabbath and how it differs from the other days of the week. Our Sages explained that this mitzvah is performed over wine--Kiddush at the start of the Sabbath and Havdalah at the end. Performance of this mitzvah awakens us to recall the greatness of the Sabbath and internalizes our belief that Hashem created the world. The mitzvah is performed over wine because wine has unique power to stir a person's heart. These matters become a part of us through our actions and the stirrings of our hearts.

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EXOD388 What can words do that are unethical? The power of a person to do harm through communication is so great that it even appears as one of the Ten Commandments: The ninth commandment states: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." That is to say, when one is giving testimony against one's neighbor, one ought to be extremely cautious in giving such testimony. Even if the greatest saint and scholar revealed that one's neighbor had committed a crime, one should not testify unless he or she actually witnesses the crime.

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EXOD389 Th[e] exaltation of labor marks all Jewish literature. The leaders of the people are pictured not as hero-warriors, but as hero-workers, brave toilers, cheerful shepherds and ploughman. In whatever field they engaged they served their Maker by performing their tasks in His spirit. The story of the building of the Tabernacle tells that God put His work into Bezalel to enable him to perform all manner of work. The same spirit that prompted the Prophets to prophecy, Psalmists to sing, and Kings to rule, also prompted artisans to work. Rabbi Eliezer well characterizes labor as a form of Divine worship and adds: "Great is labor for even as the people of Israel were enjoined concerning the Sabbath, so were they commanded to labor, for it is said [this verse]." [Ab. R.N. B, 21; cf. 1:11; Midr. Hagadol, Yitro, 9, where the idea is ascribed to R. Judah Hanasi]. (Continued at [[DEUT699]] Deuteronomy 14:29 work COHON 179-80)

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EXOD395 Unlike most religions, which demand holiness only from their leaders, Judaism demands holiness from each and every person. One of the goals of Judaism is to have an entire nation of holy people [this verse], as was stated by God immediately prior to giving the Torah. There is a specific biblical commandment for each person to be holy. Leviticus 19:2 This was only one of two commandments in the entire Torah specifically given to the entire people.

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EXOD393 The idea that man creates new creations in the world seems to be a fundamentally Jewish idea.… The fact that man is supposed to create in the world seems to give him carte blanche to develop any and all technologies that will advance mankind, including cloning. King David may have been referring to this concept when he wrote that the realm above, the heavens, belong to God, while the realm below, the earth, was given by God to man. Psalms 116:27

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EXOD394 This idea of man's obligation to create in the world is not just a good idea or an extrapolation. The word in the Torah usually mistranslated as "work" is "Melacha" (i.e., the activities that are forbidden on Shabbat). But this word is used in only three in contexts in the entire Torah-regarding Creation by God, what is forbidden for man to do on Shabbat, and the building of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. (Genesis 2:2, Exodus 20:10, Exodus 36:4-5). Thus, what God did to create the world is Melacha. But right before the Torah forbids Jews to do Melacha on Shabbat, it says that man must to do Melacha during the other six days.[This verse] (According to many commentaries, this is a command rather than only a dispensation of allowing men to do this kind of activity.) If so, man is commanded to create, to invent, and to come up with new ideas and new inventions in the world, just like God.

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EXOD392 The earth is full of the fruit of thy labor. (Psalm 104:13). The Bible and the Talmud hold labor in high regard. "When thou eatest the labor of thy hands, happy shalt thy be, and it shall be well with thee" (Psalm 128:2). A laborer contributes to the welfare of society and is instrumental in advancing God's design for building up the world. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath" (Exodus 20:8-9). In the view of Rabbi Judah haNasi (2nd cent.), these verses convey a dual command. "Just as Israel was instructed regarding the Sabbath [when they must rest], so are they instructed regarding work [that they must work the rest of the week]" (Mechilta deRabbi Simon b. Yochai on Exod. 20:9). Labor was thus invested with the theological virtue of the performance of a mitzvah. The Judaic attitude to labor was shaped by two divergent social religious motivations: a strong opposition to idleness and an equally deep opposition to any servitude which diminishes man's freedom of action. The labor of self-employed people was highly lauded, but exploitation of other people's work for one's own interest was severely criticized and curtailed. Abhorrence of idleness was forcefully asserted in the Bible and Talmud. "Everyone that is slack in his work is a brother to him that is a destroyer" (Proverbs 19:9). "Rabbi Judah b. Bateira said: 'If one is not occupied by any work, what shall he do? If he has a yard which is in disrepair, or a pasture which has been neglected, let him go and repair it [so as not to be idle], for it is written: "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work" [this verse]. What is the implication of "and do all thy work" [a redundant phrase]? To teacher us that he who has a neglected yard or pasture shall busy himself with it'" (Avot deRabbi Natan 11).

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EXOD390 In contemporary society, marriage and family are often balanced against the values of work. Judaism prizes work: "Six days show you labor and do all your work [this verse]. Jewish sources make it clear that work is important for the welfare of society as a whole, for its contribution to the psychological health and self-worth of the individual, and for the economic support it affords to oneself and to one's family.[See, for example, M. Ketubot 5:5; Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 2:2; Avot de Rabbi Natan 11; B. Nedarim 49b; and Tanhuma Vayetze, sec. 13]. For some people, though, the secular work ethic prevalent in contemporary society has made work the sole value, a virtual idol. Judaism would have us recognize the idolatry inherent in a life devoted exclusively to work and would have us balance our commitments to work with serious time and energy spent on other important values, most especially those of family. Overzealous commitment to work does have a deleterious effect on one's sexual and family relationships, and the Jewish tradition would have us remember that one's family should take precedence over one's job.

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EXOD391 It is a person's duty to work, and Judaism has always stressed the importance of the work ethic and being a productive worker. A person who works is enabled to be self-supporting. The rabbis have taught that, in addition to teaching his son Torah, a father must also teach him a trade or profession (Talmud Kiddushin 29a). Study, the rabbis insisted, cannot be complete when divorced from the world of active work. The Bible has always exalted work and the worker. God is pictured in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis as a laborer, and in creating the first human, God told Adam to work the soil. Just as the Torah was given to people as a covenant, as it is written in [this verse] "Six days shall you labor and do all of your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God". (Avot de Rabbi Natan, Chapter 11).

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EXOD398 The Torah imposes moral obligations even toward animals. Their welfare is to be taken into consideration even when it involves an injury to the owner. Three passages in the Pentateuch specifically enjoin consideration for the welfare of animals. One is part of the fourth commandment. On the seventh day, not only are old and young, male and female, free and slave, stranger and citizen to rest, but beasts of burden may also not be worked [this verse, Deuteronomy 5:14]. Hence a Jew is not permitted to sell or hire out his animal to anyone who is known to work his animals on the Sabbath. [Avodah Zarah 14b] The Torah also commands that one shall not team an ox with the donkey when plowing [Deuteronomy 22:10]. As the human laborer is permitted to eat from the crop he was gathering, [Bava Metzia 87a-b, J.T. Ma'aserot chap. 2, halakhah 4] so is the animal [ibid, 25:4]. Animals are to be treated humanely, and their slaughter for food or Temple sacrifice is to be accomplished in a manner that inflicts the minimum of pain. The ancient Greeks and Romans had no sympathy with these laws, which involves economic sacrifices. Spinoza is of the opinion that "the law against killing animals was based upon an empty superstition and womanish tenderness, rather than upon sound wisdom." [Spinoza, Ethics, pt. 4, prop. 37, scholium, p. 209.]

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