In recent years, there has been extensive public discussion about a four day workweek. The idea is no longer merely theoretical, and it raises a deeper question: if technology eventually frees people from the need to work, what will they do with that freedom?
The Four Day Week
In recent years, there has been extensive public discussion about the four day workweek. There is still no country where the entire economy has moved to a four day, 32 hour workweek with full pay. But the idea is no longer merely theoretical. In Iceland, following successful trials, a large majority of workers were given the option of reduced working hours; in Belgium, the law allows full time employees to concentrate their working hours into four days; and in other countries, including Japan, trials and programs for a shorter workweek have been conducted.
In a recent discussion in the media, economists argued that America is already ready for a shorter workweek, and they presented an interesting range of opinions. Steve Cohen, a hedge fund manager, says that a four day workweek is coming soon. The CEO of Zoom says that in the future we will work three days. Bill Gates says that in the future we will work two days. And “the chief rabbi,” Elon Musk, says that ultimately, thanks to artificial intelligence, work will become entirely optional.
And here comes the paradox: the same executives who predict that in the future we will work less are themselves currently demanding that employees work five days a week in person and even work long hours. For example, Musk, who says that work will be optional in the future, says that in order to be an influential employee, you need to work 80 hours a week!
And then we come to the next question: which day would be the best day to turn into a day off? In that same discussion, everyone agreed that it should be “Friday.”
I actually think that is not a bad idea at all. Especially in the winter, when Shabbat begins early, having Friday free would give people much more time to prepare for Shabbat, without the pressure of leaving work and trying to get everything done at the last minute.
In Israel, many workplaces moved years ago from a six day workweek to a five day workweek. But interesting enough, people generally work from Sunday through Thursday, and on Friday many workplaces and businesses are not operating in their regular format anyway, because people need the day to prepare for Shabbat.
So in America as well, if we are already looking for the day that is most suitable for a four day workweek, I agree Friday is the best choice. People could prepare for Shabbat and enter it with peace of mind rather than in a mad rush.
Interestingly, in 1940, when America moved to a five day workweek, this was an especially significant change for Jews. Until then, the only day of rest was Sunday, and therefore Jews were sometimes forced to work on Shabbat, because they had no way to be absent from work without risking losing their jobs.
The transition to a five day workweek changed everything. From then on, Jews were able to observe Shabbat, attend synagogue, and so on. Today, a transition to a four day workweek could create a similar change. Friday could become an additional day that would enable Jews in America to observe Shabbat more easily, light candles, participate in Kabbalat Shabbat, and so on. A change that appears to be economic and social could turn out to have great significance for Jewish life in America.
But here comes the question: what will happen in educational institutions? If parents work only four days a week, will schools also move to four days of classes? If children also study only four days, we are no longer talking only about a change in the labor market, but the question is how parents will deal with this change.
Anyone who has young children knows this: after a long weekend, when the little ones return to preschool, sometimes the parents want to hug the teachers out of sheer joy that they can finally bring the children back to preschool…
Those who have already gone through that period may have forgotten a little, but it is enough simply to remember what it is like to have the children at home for one additional day, and to ask whether we are really ready to have the children at home for three days after every four days?
First, I am sure that if Friday becomes a day off in the education system as well, Chabad will open a Hebrew School on Friday. Just as there is Sunday School, there will be Friday School. We will use that day to teach the children Judaism, the weekly Torah portion, and above all, to prepare them for Shabbat. As far as I am concerned, all the better! If we are already shortening the schoolweek, we will turn Friday into an opportunity.
But when we come to the question of education, we cannot look only at what the world is doing. We need to ask how the Torah looks at education. How much Torah should a Jewish child receive?
In Judaism, learning is not something limited to a specific number of days each week. The Torah says: “And you shall teach them diligently to your children.” We must teach our children Torah on a constant and ongoing basis. Therefore, when the world asks whether four days of school are enough, in Judaism the question is not only how many days a week the child sits in a classroom, but how we use every day and every opportunity to teach him Torah, values, and Jewish identity.
Chana’s Children
Today, on Rosh Hashanah, we just read the haftarah about Chana the prophetess. The story begins with Elkanah, who was a leader in Israel and had two wives. One was Chana, who was a prophetess, a spiritual and great woman, but she had no children. In contrast, Penina had many children. “A mother of many children.”
Penina would provoke Chana and cause her pain because she had children while Chana did not. Until Chana came to the House of G-d in Shiloh, where she stood, prayed, and cried. Eli the High Priest saw her praying and thought she was drunk. Chana turned to him and said: I am not drunk. “I am a woman of a difficult spirit,” and I am praying from the depths of my heart. I am asking for one thing, to have a child. Eli was sorry that he had suspected her, and immediately blessed her that G-d would fulfill her request. Her prayer was answered, and Samuel the prophet was born to her.
What does it mean that Penina has children and Chana does not? The Rebbe brought many times the Baal Shem Tov’s interpretation of this story:
“The matter is based on the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov concerning the distinction between Penina and Chana: “Penina” is from the language of pearls, precious stones, which are even more valuable than gold, as we see in reality, and therefore, regarding the praise and preciousness of Torah, it says: “It is more precious than pearls.” And concerning this it says, “And Penina had children, but Chana had no children”: There are more Jews who are occupied with worldly matters (“pearls”) than Jews who are occupied solely with matters of holiness;
There are so many Jewish children, may their numbers increase, but the number of children who study in yeshivas is nowhere near the number that should be. Penina’s children are indeed Jewish children … but nevertheless, they are in a state and position in which they are occupied with worldly matters, “pearls,” which are worldly matters. And Chana, whose name indicates the matter of supplication to G-d and finding favor in the eyes of G-d, … her desire is to have children who all the days of their lives will engage in Torah study in the “House of G-d in Shiloh.” (Torat Menachem, Volume 66, p. 33)
Chana represents the spiritual side, the Jewish side. Penina represents the other side, the material side, the general world. And the general world has many “children”: many students, many people who study its wisdom and are drawn after its ideas. But Chana, the spiritual side, the Jewish side, seemingly stands without children.
And this was Chana’s pain, but she did not remain with the pain. She asked G-d that she should have children. And ultimately, her prayer was answered, and Samuel was born. And this, the Rebbe says in the talk, is the lesson we need to take from today’s haftarah: we need to make sure that Chana has children.
In Judaism, we are not trying to reduce the number of days on which Torah is studied, but on the contrary. Jewish day schools in America, and particularly religious schools, study six days a week. Sunday is also a school day, and then more emphasis is placed on religious studies.
In Judaism, this is not only a question of knowledge: can the same knowledge be achieved in four days, three days, or five days? Yes, maybe knowledge can be acquired in a shorter week, but Torah study is a mitzvah, and therefore, every available moment should be used to study Torah. Every additional hour of learning is not something that can simply be given up, but an opportunity to connect with G-d.
A World Without Work
But here a troubling question arises as Elon Musk says: it is possible that with the help of artificial intelligence, work as we know it will in the future become something that is a matter of free choice. A person will be able to choose whether to work or not work, because intelligent systems will perform a large portion of the tasks that human beings do today.
And if so, what will people do all day? People who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday, what will they do every day when they have no reason to get up in the morning, no purpose in life? Could a situation in which people do not work and are not committed to any framework, G-d forbid, become a catastrophe? Will freedom enable them to live fuller lives, or will they find themselves bored and without direction?
This is not only an economic or technological question. It is a question about the human being himself: what gives life meaning when there is no necessity to work? Will a person know how to use his freedom, or does he need a purpose and commitment in order not to lose his way?
The answer to this can already be found in Maimonides, at the end of the Laws of Kings, at the conclusion of the entire Mishneh Torah. Maimonides describes the Messianic era and writes: “There will be neither famine nor war, neither jealousy nor competition, for goodness will be abundant, and all delicacies will be as plentiful as dust. And the entire occupation of the world will be only to know G-d.”
Maimonides, who wrote these words 850 years ago, describes a world in which there is, in effect, no longer any need to worry about earning a living as we know it today. There is no famine, there is no war, abundance is great, and all delicacies are as plentiful as dust. A person does not need to dedicate his life to the pursuit of a livelihood. And this sounds almost like the description of the revolution in artificial intelligence that we are talking about today.
Maimonides has already given us the answer to what we will do all day: “And the entire occupation of the world will be only to know G-d.” This does not mean that in the future everyone will sit all day and only study Talmud, Chassidic teachings, or Kabbalah. In addition to actually acquiring Jewish knowledge, it can be said that “to know G-d” means something much broader: to live with the awareness that in everything we do, we can discover G-d.
Imagine a world in which a person finally has time to do what he truly loves and what he is truly talented at. A person who loves music will be able to create music. He will be able to compose another melody, another song, another movement, and discover the infinity contained within music itself, because one can create more and more, and there is no end.
A person who has a talent for painting will be able to paint and discover more and more of the incredible abilities that G-d has given human beings to create. The same is true in science, nature, medicine, and every field of knowledge. A person who loves to investigate nature can discover an infinite number of things. Just think about what science has discovered over the past two hundred years, things that no person two hundred years ago could even have imagined. And a person who loves reading and learning how many more new things can still be found and discovered within the world that G-d created?
And this, perhaps, is the meaning of “to know G-d”: to discover divine wisdom within music, within painting, within science, within nature, within medicine, within the human being, and within all the tremendous powers that G-d embedded in the world. The world is filled with infinite possibilities. And the more free a person is, the more he will be able to discover this infinity.
And this is the Jewish vision: not a world in which human beings stop doing things, but a world in which they can finally do the things for which their talents and abilities were given to them, and through every such discovery, come to know the One who spoke and brought the world into being!
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