By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, until you return to the ground for from it [the ground] were you taken. For you are dust and to dust you shall return. (Genesis)
“After the sweat of your face”- After you will toil much. (Rashi)
The sentence in the book of Genesis raises a lot of questions in my mind about the relationship between career and man. Here are some of the questions.
Do all men have to toil much? How much toiling do we have to do? Is this a negative thing? Can toiling for your bread be a positive thing? Is toiling a punishment, a consequence, or just a plain old fact?
This is one question that has had a profound nagging effect on me. Is it possible to avoid toiling for your bread? Are there alternatives? If someone won the lottery how does he fulfill this biblical verse? Can someone invest really well in the market and just live off the dividends? If you don’t toil for your bread does something bad happen? If we have an opportunity not to work so hard for our bread are we supposed to take it?
Is this toiling for your bread applicable to the modern day working woman? Does this verse only describe the relationship of man and not woman?
Why does God decide that sweating for our bread is important after the eating of the fruit? Is there a specific reason? What was Gods initial plan for man? To have a free ride in the garden of Eden without having to work for it? Why does eating the fruit change everything?
These are some of the questions that come to mind when I try to understand this verse. I think some of these questions can easily be answered, some not. However, I think answers to these questions can clarify what the role of career has in the life of man.
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