When your working lunch brings its own reward

Towards the end of the fifth chapter of Avot we find a lengthy Mishnah (Avot 5:22) that contrasts both the qualities of the disciples of Abraham and Balaam and the fate that awaits them:

Whoever possesses these three traits is of the disciples of our father Abraham, but whoever possesses three different traits is of the disciples of the wicked Balaam. The disciples of our father Abraham are magnanimous, having a meek spirit and a humble soul. The disciples of the wicked Balaam are mean, having a haughty spirit and a greedy soul. What is the difference between the disciples of our father Abraham and the disciples of the wicked Balaam? The disciples of our father Abraham eat [ochelin] in this world and inherit [nochalin] the world to come... The disciples of the wicked Balaam inherit purgatory and descent into the pit of destruction… [citations omitted].

There is a pleasing resonance between the Hebrew words for eat and inherit—ochelin and nochalin. However, ochelin is a word that is not generally translated or explained literally. Rather, it is taken as a metaphor. ArtScroll and the Sacks and Birnbaum siddur translations render the word as “enjoy”, while Chabad.org prefers “benefit”. Those commentators who do render the word literally as “eat” usually feel obliged to explain that it is a metaphor for enjoying a benefit. The idea of ochelin meaning “enjoying” or “benefiting” is not unique to this mishnah; it is paralleled by a mishnah at Pe’ah 1:1, which lists mitzvot which one is ochel in this world while the keren kayemet (the capital remains intact) in the world to come.

In his Tiferet Tzion al Masechet Avot R’ Yitzchak Ze'ev Yadler focuses on the idea of eating in its literal sense rather than on the metaphor for benefit or enjoyment. It is a commonplace that the Jew who is committed to Torah study and observance can clock up credit in the world to come for every bit of learning he engages and every mitzvah he does. But nobody can spend all their time learning and performing mitzvot. Even a talmid chacham has to take time off to eat, and many people spend a significant proportion of their productive day in working for a living in order to put food on their table for themselves and their families. The point of this mishnah, R’ Yadler says, is that, when one’s eating, drinking and going out to work is done leshem Shamayim (“for the sake of Heaven”), even those activities will clock up credit in the world to come.

This perspective is important for us in terms of our attitude towards what we and others do. Whether we are drawn away from Torah learning, from performing mitzvot and from generally doing good deeds in order to work for a living, we should not consider this to be Torah time that has been lost forever but rather as time that has been invested in a different portfolio and which is also meritorious—if it is done in the right frame of mind and with the right intentions. And those of us who have time to sit and learn Torah should be aware that this is not the only route to serving God.