Joy in Life – Sunday, April 26, 1981
There is joy in life: the joy of participation, of sharing and involvement. Among the most basic and rewarding joys of life is that of work. To actively use our intellect, brawn and spirit in the achievement of worthwhile tasks is a right as inalienable as liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The divine mandate to “work by the sweat of our brow” was not given as a punishment for man’s past sins but as a medium for the fulfillment of man’s future development. Regardless of the tools used or the goods produced, there is no honest toil which is degrading or ignoble.
David Ben-Gurion, former Israeli prime minister, spoke these words concerning the value of work in the building of a new nation: “We do not consider…work as a curse… We consider it as a high human function, as a basis for human life, the most dignified thing in the life of a human being, and which ought to be free, creative. Men ought to be proud of (work)”.1
We, too, believe in the dignity of work. Labor in all of its forms—intellectual, technical, and manual—is to be valued and respected. Every productive occupation adds to the collective welfare of the nation. The shovel, the typewriter, the forge, and the painter’s brush have all made their unique and necessary contribution to the progress of mankind.
Thus, all work is noble. It is only idleness which is degrading. To produce nothing, when there is freedom to be active, is the choice of fools. That person is to be pitied who has not learned the value of productive employment.
The self-fulfillment which springs from personal achievement never results from total leisure.
All people, including the handicapped and aged, have the right to active production and work which is geared to individual aptitude and ability.
This inalienable right to work must be accompanied by the right to receive both the pleasure and wages of one’s own labors. The difference between the free man and the slave is not in the nature of the task but in the reason for its completion. He who digs a ditch to water his own crops or for his wages is a free man.
We salute all the workers of America: those who drive the trucks and raise the crops; those who forge the steel and manage the offices; those who run the machines and teach the students. May theirs be the knowledge that in work there is value; in work there is dignity; in work there is happiness.
1 Ben-Gurion, David, “Work”. The Great Quotations. Pocket Books, New York 1967 Pg. 985
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April 26, 1981
Broadcast Number 2,697