8 | The Jewish Press | September 9, 2022
Voices The Jewish Press (Founded in 1920) Margie Gutnik President Annette van de Kamp-Wright Editor Richard Busse Creative Director Susan Bernard Advertising Executive Lori Kooper-Schwarz Assistant Editor Gabby Blair Staff Writer Sam Kricsfeld Digital support Mary Bachteler Accounting Jewish Press Board Margie Gutnik, President; Abigail Kutler, Ex-Officio; Seth Feldman; David Finkelstein; Ally Freeman; Mary Sue Grossman; Les Kay; Natasha Kraft; Chuck Lucoff; David Phillips; and Joseph Pinson. The mission of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to build and sustain a strong and vibrant Omaha Jewish Community and to support Jews in Israel and around the world. Agencies of the JFO are: Institute for Holocaust Education, Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Social Services and the Jewish Press. Guidelines and highlights of the Jewish Press, including front page stories and announcements, can be found online at: www.jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press.’ Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole. The Jewish Press reserves the right to edit signed letters and articles for space and content. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the Kashrut of any product or establishment. Editorial The Jewish Press is an agency of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Deadline for copy, ads and photos is: Thursday, 9 a.m., eight days prior to publication. E-mail editorial material and photos to: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org; send ads (in TIF or PDF format) to: rbusse@jewishomaha.org. Letters to the Editor Guidelines The Jewish Press welcomes Letters to the Editor. They may be sent via regular mail to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154; via fax: 1.402.334.5422 or via e-mail to the Editor at: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org. Letters should be no longer than 250 words and must be single-spaced typed, not hand-written. Published letters should be confined to opinions and comments on articles or events. News items should not be submitted and printed as a “Letter to the Editor.” The Editor may edit letters for content and space restrictions. Letters may be published without giving an opposing view. Information shall be verified before printing. All letters must be signed by the writer. The Jewish Press will not publish letters that appear to be part of an organized campaign, nor letters copied from the Internet. No letters should be published from candidates running for office, but others may write on their behalf. Letters of thanks should be confined to commending an institution for a program, project or event, rather than personally thanking paid staff, unless the writer chooses to turn the “Letter to the Editor” into a paid personal ad or a news article about the event, project or program which the professional staff supervised. For information, contact Annette van de Kamp-Wright, Jewish Press Editor, 402.334.6450. Postal The Jewish Press (USPS 275620) is published weekly (except for the first week of January and July) on Friday for $40 per calendar year U.S.; $80 foreign, by the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Phone: 402.334.6448; FAX: 402.334.5422. Periodical postage paid at Omaha, NE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154-2198 or email to: jpress@jewishomaha.org.
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Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole.
Preparing for the Holidays ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor The other day, I was at Temple Israel and someone mentioned the words ‘live’ and ‘goat’ in the same sentence. I’m not saying who it was. Okay, fine, it was Jennie Gates-Beckman. That was probably the moment it hit me: the High Holidays are really almost here. Really, really. This always happens: I prepare for the Holidays two ways: getting all the work done (New Year’s issue, Sept. 23!!) with all the craziness and writing and planning, doing double duty because there’s the regular paper and all that comes with it. It starts in April and it’s such a hectic time, I always forget that at some point I get to look forward to the actual holidays. Not as something that gives our office pressing deadlines, but as a cause for celebrating with family and friends. Peace, instead of stress. Reward, renewal, a chance to breathe and re-engage, Why do I have to learn that lesson anew every single year? Recently, Rabbi Erin Boxt wrote: Have you ever sat down and just emptied your brain of all of the tensions and stresses that are affecting you? This may sound crazy. Go ahead, try. Sit down, take a deep breath, and just relax. Let your worries fade away…find yourself in a safe, comfortable place. The month of Elul gives us this opportunity to reflect and look deep within ourselves for hidden comfort and possibility. This possibility allows us to focus on what we need. Our health – mental, physical, and spiritual – is of utmost importance.
Part of Teshuvah – repentance – is just letting go. Rather than dwell on what may or may not have upset you in the past, allow yourself to live in the present, to be holy and let the holiness of others shine through. Teshuvah is not just about repentance – it is also about returning. Let us all return to a place of healing and wholeness. It’s no coincidence that email arrived the day after my goat-related epiphany. I guess this is why it’s so important the High Holidays come every year—we need that reminder every year, that voice that tells us to ‘just breathe.’ At least, I do; maybe you are better at this than I am. I kind of hope so. So why is it that it doesn’t stick throughout the year? Is my attention span that short? I think it has to do with Ego. For many of us, being busy makes us feel important. No time to waste, we are adults and we are essential. Does the world turn just fine when we take a day off ? It does, but we don’t like to think about that. We’d rather focus on completing tangible tasks, paperwork we can point at and say: “I did that.” We want spreadsheets and meetings and endless data that tells the world we are here and
we matter. Here’s a thought: what if we think of collecting a different kind of data, the kind that can’t be measured in office hours or pay stubs? What if we do what that Rabbi said, and simply breathe? The Holidays will get here, whether the shopping is done, whether the brisket is cooked or not, whether we leave a perfectly clean desk or a mount of unfinished reports. All we have to do to be present is just that: be present. The mere thought of letting go lowers my heart rate. The notion that Judaism allows us space to calm down, to slow down and relax, even if it is only temporary, is comforting. Maybe I’ll even take a few extra days off this time around and maybe I’ll convince myself to not spend those days frantically working on my house. Maybe. I know better than to make promises to myself I’ll have a hard time keeping. But then, part of learning how to breathe is knowing that even if I am not perfect, G-d willing, there is always next year.
‘Quiet quitting,’ the sudden trend in work, sounds sort of ... Jewish? (Hear me out.) ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL JTA I hadn’t heard of “quiet quitting” until about 10 minutes ago. Since then every major news outlet has done a story on this purported trend, defined as a movement among office workers to draw firmer work-life boundaries by doing less work. It means closing your laptop at 5 p.m. when your cubicle-mate is staying late to finish a project. It means turning off notifications on your phone so you can’t check your work emails after hours. It can mean doing the bare minimum and still hanging onto your job. On a grander scale, it means cooling your hottest ambitions in favor of a saner work-life balance. Of course, to a certain kind of devotee of the attention economy, this sounds like nothing less than slacking off. “Quiet quitting isn’t just about quitting on a job, it’s a step toward quitting on life,” huffed Arianna Huffington, in a LinkedIn post. The Fox News host Tomi Lahren said it’s just a euphemism for being “LAZY” (she added an expletive). I don’t have a dog in this fight, since I am not a “quiet quitter.” (I am more a “person without any hobbies or little kids, who if he closes his laptop at 5 p.m. doesn’t know what to do with himself.”) But I understand the impulse. Technology and corporate culture conspire to blur the lines between work and office. The demise of unions has shifted the workplace power balance to employers. For those who could work at home, the pandemic obliterated the boundaries between on and off hours. “Quitting” is a terrible way to describe what is really doing your job, no more and no less. It only feels like “quitting” to a culture that demands that you sacrifice private time to your employer or career. This peculiarly American “ethic” shows up, for instance, in vacations: Americans get on average 10 fewer vacation days a year than Europeans because, unlike the European Union, the United States does not federally mandate paid vacation or holidays. Just reading a New York Times article about how eight of the 10 largest private U.S. employers are using tracking software to monitor their employees made me feel guilty and anxious — even though I was reading the article as part of my job.
If quiet quitting were actually slacking, it would run afoul of Jewish law. “Jewish employees are obligated to work at full capacity during their work hours and not to ‘steal time’ from their employers,” writes Rabbi Jill Jacobs in a responsa — legal opinion — called “Work, Workers and the Jewish Owner,” written for the Conservative movement in 2008. And yet this warning aside, Jewish law is much more concerned with employers who take advantage of employees rather than the other way around.
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Jacobs — now the executive director of T’ruah, the rabbinic human rights group — describes nine principles of workplace justice in the Torah, and nearly all are addressed to the employer. These include treating workers with “dignity and respect” and paying them a living wage and on time. “The ideal worker-employer relationship should be one of trusted partnership,” she writes, “in which each party looks out for the well-being of the other, and in which the two parties consider themselves to be working together for the perfection of the divine world.” This is not exactly what we now know as the “Protestant work ethic.” The rabbis of the Talmud did not tie hard work and economic success to divine salvation. No doubt, they understand that people need to and should work for a living. “In traditional sources, work is often regarded as necessary, and certainly better than idleness (which can lead to sin),” according to a helpful article from My Jewish Learning. And yet, because the study of Torah is considered the ideal use of one’s time (assuming you are a man, anyway) the rabbis were clearly wary of occupa-
tions and ambitions that demanded too much of a worker. In Pirkei Avot, the collection of ethical sayings from the Mishnah, Rabbi Meir says, “Minimize business and engage in Torah.” The rabbis, My Jewish Learning explains, “were clearly worried that excessive pursuit of material well-being would distract from higher pursuits.” The artist Jenny Odell’s 2019 manifesto about quitting the “attention economy,” How to Do Nothing, similarly rejects “a frame of reference in which value is determined by productivity, the strength of one’s career, and individual entrepreneurship.” Easier said than done, however. Her antidote — to “stand apart,” to embrace “solitude, observation, and simple conviviality” — is perhaps more feasible if you are an artist rather than an office-worker, let alone a factory worker, home health aide or Amazon warehouse runner. (She spends a lot of time birdwatching and retreating to mountain cabins.) To her credit, Odell quotes Samuel Gompers, the Jewish-British immigrant and labor leader who championed the eight-hour work week as far back as 1886. In an address asking What Does Labor Want?, Gompers answered by quoting Psalms: “It wants the earth and the fullness thereof.” What most people want, I suspect, is simply more control over their time and mind-space, and to keep work from leaking into their private lives — and maybe vice-versa. They want to do work that matters, and the private time to decompress, reconnect and take care of stuff. It’s telling that there is no commandment in Torah to work, but there are plenty to rest. Shabbat is a literal day of rest, but it is also a mindset. It strictly defines profane productivity, in order to carve out space and time for the sacred. This Jewish attitude toward work and rest is not about quitting, but it is about occasional quiet. Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor in chief of the New York Jewish Week and senior editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He previously served as JTA’s editor in chief and as editor in chief and CEO of the New Jersey Jewish News. @SilowCarroll The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.