Are you working for a living or living for your work?
We all know the juggle. On one hand, we believe that everything comes from G-d. On the other hand, we've got bills, deadlines, clients, and a business to run. So does G-d provide or do we need to hustle?
In this week’s parsha, Parshas Vayakhel, the Torah says, "Six days work shall be performed." The Chassidic masters point out something fascinating about this phrasing: it doesn't say, as is commonly mistranslated, "six days you shall work." It says work shall be performed, passively, as if the work happens on its own. That's a strange way to talk about your 9-to-5 (or, let's be honest, your 7-to-10).
But here's what the Parsha is getting at. The root of idol worship was never about people bowing to rocks for no reason. It started when people recognized that G-d channels His blessings through intermediaries like the sun, stars, and other natural forces, and they began treating those channels as if they had independent power. They started honoring the messengers and forgetting the Sender.
When a person gets too invested in their business, not just working hard, but believing that their success depends on their cleverness and their hustle, that's a subtle form of the same mistake. You're treating the intermediary (your job, your business) as if it's the source. You're bowing to the pipeline instead of Hashem who fills it.
Your business is like an ax cutting a tree. You need to hold the ax and swing it. But the moment you start thinking the ax is doing the cutting on its own, you've lost your mind.
Our work should be done as a matter of course and not with the frantic energy of someone who thinks it's all dependent on them. It should be with the confidence of someone who knows that their sustenance is coming from Above, and the work is simply the channel.
Before you close your laptop and take a nap, this doesn't mean you shouldn't work hard. Quite the opposite. The teaching says: invest your effort, do your job well, show up and labor. However, do it with the trust that it's G-d who's providing. As the verse says, "G-d your L-rd will bless you in all that you do". There needs to be something "you do" for the blessing to flow through.
The key is your mindset. Work hard, but don't worship the work. Put in the effort and recognize that success isn't coming from your brilliance alone. When you do that, something remarkable happens: the stress drops, but the productivity doesn't.
This week, try this: before you dive into your workday, take a moment to remind yourself that your business is a channel, not a source. You'll still put in the hours. You'll still make the calls. And you'll do it with a lighter grip; like someone who knows the Boss upstairs has already signed off on the paycheck.
That's not laziness, it's faith in action.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Kushi Schusterman
P.S. This is exactly the lesson embedded in the aftermath of the Golden Calf, which we just read about last week. The Calf wasn't just a random mistake. It was the ultimate example of people investing spiritual energy into an intermediary and treating it as the source. The process of rectifying that sin plays out in this week’s Torah portion, where the Torah reframes how we approach our work and our material lives. When you conduct your business "as a matter of course", doing what needs to be done while knowing it's really G-d running the show, you're actively fixing the spiritual root of the Golden Calf. You're saying: "I use tools, but I don't worship them."