Escaping Modern Slavery! Shabbat Shalom!

As recently as the late 1800s, steel mill workers were expected to work twelve hour shifts, seven days a week, 363 days a year, with only two public holidays. Judaism didn’t need a workers union to know this was wrong. The Ten Commandments forbids treating even animals the way human beings were treated just a century ago.

Today, the battle against slavery has largely been won. Most of us don’t know anyone labouring under a whip. Yet the modern world hasn’t realised that we ourselves can be our own cruellest taskmasters.

A person may have a beautiful home, a thriving career and every material comfort, yet if they cannot take a single day off to think, breathe or spend time with his children, they are not in control. They do not own their time. And if you do not own his time, you are not free.

Such freedom is becoming more and more elusive.  How many of us spend our days in pointless meetings about meetings, drowning in to-do lists and staring at an inbox that never gets smaller?

A recent survey by Allianz Australia found that half of all Australian employees are experiencing work related mental distress. People reported crushing workloads, meeting overload and tasks that added no real value . Almost a third said they felt unable to take proper breaks.  It’s no wonder, workers compensation claims for mental stress have surged almost 30%.

These findings confirm what many of us feel in our bones. Literal slavery may be long gone, but a new form of bondage has taken hold.   People feel trapped by overwork, pressure, expectations and the inability to switch off. And it is not only the workplace. Our phones, social feeds and constant digital noise have become modern taskmasters.  Instead of giving us more free time, they’ve become the biggest thieves of it! 

Teens, young adults and even grandparents feel chained to screens that never stop demanding attention.  The very tools designed to lighten our load, now weigh us down.  This weeks Parshat Toldot offers a powerful insight into this modern condition.

The Torah describes Esav as an ish sadeh, a man of the field – hunting, running, chasing, reacting, striving to keep up. His life is outward, loud, urgent, impulsive. Yaakov, by contrast, is described as an ish tam yoshev ohalim, wholesome, centred, dwelling in tents. He represents reflection, calm, clarity and a life guided by values.

Esav symbolises the chaos of the external world. Yaakov symbolises a life governed from within, guided by purpose, balance and inner truth. Both voices live within us. The world pushes us into Esav mode, running, chasing, surviving. But deep inside is the Yaakov voice longing to breathe, reflect and return to what matters.

This is where the gift of Shabbat becomes so vital.

Every single week as we lift the Kiddush cup we recite the words of the Ten Commandments. “Six days shall you labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is Shabbat to G d. You shall not do any work, not you, not your children, not your servant and not even your cattle.”

On Shabbat something remarkable happens. The emails stop. The phone is silent. The world waits outside the door. The Esav inside us finally rests. The Yaakov inside us finally speaks. Our time returns to our soul, our family and our Creator.

When we raise the Kiddush cup, we declare: on Shabbat I am free. Free from work, free from pressure and free from the glowing screen that so often own us. And in that quiet space something even deeper happens. We begin to hear the inner voice of Yaakov that we are part of a People with a mission and a destiny. The voice that calls us back to our faith, our heritage, our families and our truest selves.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Levi and Chanie