When I first entered the workforce in the late 1900s (๐ฑ really?!), there was a thing called "vacation time." Companies offered vacation time as a bargaining chip to lure potential employees. When comparing job offers, one might weigh the benefit of a higher salary from one company with more vacation time from the other. Eventually the phrase "vacation time" went out of style and it became PTO (paid time off), which also included sick days, personal holidays, etc. Also the personnel departments rebranded themselves as "Human Resources" (kind of a sick and demented term, if you think about it: the status of being a human being has been demoted to just another resource, like computers and desks). The HR departments also invented (in 1970s, but really took off in 1980s) the term "work-life balance" to make everybody feel like the company cared more about you than just a vehicle to make money. (They don't. They just discovered that they can attract more productive employees and keep them more productive by promoting work-life balance as a company goal. It is just another opportunity cost.)
Ahem... where am I going with this? I recently resolved a deeply disturbing misunderstanding that I had regarding a well-known Chazal. Twice (or thrice) daily, we (the male we's, anyway) recite kriyas sh'ma. One of the pledges we accept to fulfill is to love HaShem -- ืืื ืืืื ืืืื ื ืคืฉื ืืืื ืืืื/with all of one's heart, soul, and resources/money. The gemara analyzes this verse. Here is how I always remembered it:
Question: Once the verse has said "all of your soul/life", why does it continue with "all of your money"?
Answer: For some people, their money is more important than their life, so the verse says both your life and your money.
Here's my problem with that. There was a well known and very funny comedian (some of you are also old enough to remember him) who portrayed himself as very stingy. One of his bits was being accosted by a mugger who announces: Your money or your life! ....<dramatic pause>... I am not kidding, I said your money or your life! Finally, the comedian responded, "I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" (Google "jack benny your money or your life"; it still cracks me up.)
But no real person thinks that way, right? This time when I read the gemara -- much, much more carefully than I ever have before, I realized my error. The gemara (Brachos 61a), actually says that there are people whose body is more precious to them than their money, and there are people whose money is more precious to them than their body. Oh... the gemara is noting that this tension between the need to make money and the need to enjoy the pleasures of this world is part of the human condition. Much more than something that companies need to address, this feeling of needing a work-life balance is built into the human condition. Like anything else, HaShem created people with character traits that span the entire range of the work-life seesaw. And now the gemara adds another point: whichever is more precious and valuable to you -- your free time or your personal pleasures or your bank account -- HaShem wants that one, whatever is most precious to you, we pledge to love HaShem with whatever resource is more precious to us.
Understanding that makes the continuation of that gemara all the more poignant. R' Akiva says: even when He takes your life from you. R' Akiva was eventually executed in a gruesome public spectacle. The gemara tells us that it was z'man kryias sh'man/the time for the recital of sh'ma. The Romans just happened to execute R' Akiva as the sun was rising? No. R' Akiva saw that he finally had the opportunity to truly show his great love for HaShem by giving him his most precious asset -- his own life. That was not time for for the daily recital of kryias sh'ma -- that was the time to walk the talk and live the word and ideas to which R' Akiva had dedicated his whole being: ืืืืืชื ืืช ื' ืืืืงื ืืื ืืืื ืืืื ื ืคืฉื ืืืื ืืืื
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