Parshas Noach
By Rabbi Dovid Zauderer
And you thought you had a tough job! Check out this news item from May 2020:
_Sydney (CNN) A zookeeper in Australia is in critical condition after being mauled by two lions while cleaning their enclosure on Friday, authorities said. The 35-year-old woman was bitten in the head and neck in what one paramedic called an "extremely vicious" attack at Shoalhaven Zoo, about 100 miles (162 kilometers) south of Sydney in New South Wales state. Paramedics were called to the facility at about 10:30 a.m. local time, police said in a statement. They arrived to find the woman unconscious in the lion enclosure and needed to enter it to retrieve her safely, according to 9 News Australia. She was then airlifted to a Sydney hospital in "a critical but stable condition," police said. Faye Stockmen, a duty operations manager at NSW Ambulance, told 9 News Australia it was "one of the most frightening experiences" of her career. "We literally had to walk into a lion's den," she said. "This is one of the worst jobs I have ever experienced."_
Now some of you may not know this, but the first recorded instance of a lion mauling a zookeeper is in this week’s Torah portion, Parshas Noach.
That’s right! On the verse in Genesis 7:23: “Only Noach survived …†Rashi cites a Midrash Aggadah which states that Noach was coughing and retching blood because of the trouble of caring for the animals and beasts. Others say that Noach was injured because he delayed giving food to the lion and the lion attacked him.
Truth be told, most jobs are not nearly as dangerous as a zookeeper. Yet it can still be challenging to find a normal job these days.
I mean, there are so many crazy, weird jobs out there…
I know a guy who was a proofreader for a skywriting company.
Another guy I know used to be a price checker at a dollar store. [This is actually not so funny anymore, now that dollar stores usually charge more than a dollar on many items in their stores!]
One of my aunt’s first office jobs was cleaning the windows on the envelopes.
My brother-in-law was a translator for bad mimes.
My next-door neighbor had a whole string of unusual (and useless) jobs: First he was a lifeguard at a car wash; then he became a night watchman in a day camp; after that he got a job as a deckhand on a submarine.
My friend George got a job naming the furniture at IKEA. [You know… Doop, Flugbo, Zork, Proptor, Undolatta, etc.]
All kidding aside, sometimes it can be very difficult to choose the right job for oneself.
Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Pakudah (c. 1050–1120), in his classic ethical work Chovos HaLevavos (“Duties of the Heartâ€) in Shaar HaBitachon Chapter Three, offers a unique approach to choosing one’s job - as well as what to do when the job one has chosen is not working out so well:
Since it has been clarified the obligation for a man to pursue the means for a livelihood, now we will clarify that there is no need for every person to seek out every means of sustenance that presents itself. [Rather, each person has the option of choosing the occupation that is most suited to his personality.]
Some occupations are easy, requiring little strain such as shop keeping or light work with the hands such as sewing, writing, contracting businesses, hiring sharecroppers or workers, supervisors. Some occupations require hard physical labor such as tanning, mining iron or copper, smelting metals, heavy transport, constant travel to faraway places, working and plowing land, and the like.
For one who is physically strong and intellectually weak, it is fitting to choose an occupation among those that require physical exertion according to what he can bear. He who is physically weak but intellectually strong should not seek among those which tire the body but should instead tend towards those who are light on the body and that he will be able to sustain.
Also, every person has an inclination for one particular type of work or business over another, because G-d has already imbued a liking and preference for it into his nature, as He implanted in a cat's nature the hunting of mice, or the falcon to hunt smaller birds, the deer to trap snakes. Some birds hunt only fish, and likewise, each animal species has a liking and desire for particular plants or animals, which G-d has implanted to be the means for its sustenance, and the structure of its body and limbs is suited for that thing. The long bill and legs of a fish catching bird, or the strong teeth and claws of the lion, horns of the ox and deer, while animals whose sustenance is from plants do not have the tools to hunt and kill.
Similarly, you will find among human beings character traits and body structures suited for certain businesses or activity. One who finds his nature and personality attracted to a certain occupation, and his body is suited for it, that he will be able to bear its demands - he should pursue it, and make it his means of earning a livelihood, and he should bear its pleasures and pains, and not be upset when sometimes his income is withheld, rather let him trust in G-d that He will support him all of his days.
Having settled on this occupation because it is the one best suited for his nature, he should recognize that it is the one that G-d wants him to pursue, and by doing so he fulfills G-d’s will. He must therefore not be deterred by the inevitable difficulties that arise in every occupation. Rather, he should rely on G-d, Who can provide sustenance for all His creations through any means that He so desires. [Obviously, this does not apply to an obsolete occupation or an unsalvageable business endeavor; in those cases, one should indeed look for a different means of earning a living.]
Let’s conclude with a Talmudic teaching in Kiddushin 82a which really puts the entire job question into proper Torah perspective:
Rabbi Meir says: A person should always teach his son a clean and easy trade and pray for success to the One to Whom wealth and property belong, as ultimately there is no trade that does not include both poverty and wealth, since a person can become rich from any profession. Poverty does not come from a particular trade, nor does wealth come from a particular trade, but rather, all is in accordance with a person’s merit. Therefore, one should choose a clean and easy trade, and pray to G-d for success.
http://www.torchweb.org/torah_detail.php?id=637