page_title: Torah im Derech Eretz
section_title: Earning a livelihood
hierarchical_section_title: Torah im Derech Eretz / Derech Eretz / Earning a livelihood
caption_attribution_description: English: Blacksmith, by Ephraim Moses Lilien (1874–1925) &#160;Alternative namesEphraim Moses Lilien; Ephraim Lilien; Lilien; E M Lilien; אפריים משה ליליאן; אפרים משה ליליאן; א.מ. ליליין; א"מ ליליין; אפרים ליליאן; אפרים משה לילין; ליליין, אפרים משה־־תערוכות; לילין, אפרים משה בן יעקב; אפרים משה ליליען; E. M. Lilien; Ephraim Moshe Lilien; Ephraim Mose Lilien; Efrayim Mosheh Lilyan; Efrayim Mosheh Liliyan; Lilien, E. M.‏; Lilien, Efrayim Moshe; Lilien, Ephraim Mose Ben Jacob Hakohen; Lilien, Ephraim Moses; Lilyen, Efrayim MošeDescription Austrian Israeli artistDate of birth/death23 May 187418 July 1925Location of birth/deathDrohobychBadenweilerAuthority control VIAF: 59876406 ISNI: 0000 0001 1065 1227 ULAN: 500040863 LCCN: n81093755 GND: 118572938 SELIBR: 235222 SUDOC: 06844902X NKC: xx0157212 NLP: A11392629 RKD: 252568 NLI: 000084584 WorldCat .
context_page_description: Torah im Derech Eretz
  is a phrase common in Rabbinic literature referring to various aspects of one's interaction with the wider world.
  It also refers to a philosophy of Orthodox Judaism articulated by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, which formalizes a relationship between traditionally observant Judaism and the modern world. Some refer to the resultant mode of Orthodox Judaism as Neo-Orthodoxy.
context_section_description: The meaning of Derech Eretz in the above Mishna is generally taken as "earning a livelihood", and the Mishna is thus read as "Beautiful is the study of Torah combined with 'earning a livelihood'". In consonance, Rabbinic opinion has a general requirement for earning a livelihood, but in such a fashion that one may also study, and live, Torah.
   
  This opinion, in fact, extends to codification in Jewish Law: 
  "[One] should work every day, sufficient for his living... and should busy himself with Torah the rest of the day and night; one who supports himself with his own hands is on a great level".
  The language of this codification is representative of the general value assigned by Rabbinic literature to work in and of itself, and of the simultaneous requirement that work be seen as means to spiritual, and not material, goals. 
  (See also Kohelet Rabbah 1:34). Thus, as formulated in Pirkei Avot 4:1:
  Who is rich? One who is satisfied with his lot. As is stated (Psalms 128:2): "If you eat of toil of your hands, fortunate are you, and good is to you"; "fortunate are you" in this world, "and good is to you" in the World to Come.
  Rashi, on the verse, similarly states that one who supports himself inherits this world and the next. 
  At the same time, in this widely quoted Mishna, the requirement to work is clearly presented with a simultaneous warning against materialism. In fact similar teachings are widespread in the Tanakh ("God made one to balance the other" Ecclesiastes 7:14), Midrash, and Rabbinic literature generally.
  Even the choice of occupation is circumscribed: 
  The Mishna Berurah states  that בעלי בתים (working laymen) should ensure that their business activities are secondary to their Torah study, and, regardless, should set aside 3 or 4 hours each day to study — if required, limiting one's lifestyle such that this amount of study is possible. 
  The popular Kitzur Shulchan Aruch more generally requires that:
  "when you are engaged in business or in a trade [or profession] to earn a livelihood, you should not aspire to accumulate wealth, but pursue your work in order to support your family, to give charity, and to raise your children to study the Torah..."   
  See also Jewish business ethics #Ethical perspective.
  Rabbinic tradition therefore recognizes that achieving an appropriate balance could pose both practical and philosophic challenges (e.g. the requirement for secular education as opposed to limited vocational training), and the various issues are therefore widely discussed: 
  (i) in various tractates in the Talmud;
  
  (ii) in the halakhic literature;
  
  (iii) as well as in Jewish philosophy, Hasidic thought and Musar (ethical) literature - see discussion under Divine providence in Judaism.
  In Kabbalistic and Chassidic thought, also,  work is seen as having positive value: Thirty-Nine Acts of Labor, encompassing all the types of work, were necessary in order to build the Tabernacle. Work became a necessity when Adam ate from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, causing the sparks of holiness to fall to the Other Side. All our work, regardless of its spiritual or material purpose, serves to rebuild those Shattered Vessels. One who conducts his work or business honorably is considered as though he builds the Tabernacle.
caption: A blacksmith at work. Illustration by Ephraim Moses Lilien (1874–1925).
exif: {}