המוציא לחם עם הארץ

Disclaimer: I like Josh Goldman’s blog a lot. No, there isn’t any political diatribe or deep philosophical discussion. There aren’t any heated debates over abortion and such things. Josh is, in my estimation, a very sincere and nice person. My comments here relate to a comment that Josh made on a certain subject, perhaps unknowingly, that point to a larger issue of how we view a certain segment of the American workforce. I am sure that Josh does not intend to malign this group, but his language is consistent with those who do.

Josh writes: “Every few months it seems that some factory worker wins some $300 million lottery.” Josh did not say “a factory worker”, he said “some factory worker” which, in common usage sounds a lot like “some shvartza” or “some goy”. Using the word ‘some’ implies a general, negative connotation toward the subjects in question. The word ‘some’ is a plural after all. Now before you jump down my throat over this and get all defensive, let me state my case.

Three things are valued in the Jewish world; wealth, intelligence, and good looks. Hard work is not a Jewish value. Jewish parents do not aspire to see their children becoming auto mechanics, dry wall installers, or factory workers and mine did not want that for me either. Whose parents do? Every parent wants better for the children than they had for themselves. No? Have you ever heard a Jewish parent kvell with nachas when his son earned his certification to do brake jobs? Not hardly. Anyone ever brag about it? (If that boy ends up opening a chain of brake shops, well that’s a different story.)

Many, many Jews (certainly not all) tend look down their noses at working class people. We Jews have become a mercantile and professionally based urban culture, and along with that bump in prestige and salary follows the usual disdain for anything of lesser status. There is nothing wrong with being smarter and making more money. By all means, use what you have to get ahead. Yet, when working class people are basically treated like servants or serfs by people who should know better, it bothers me to no end.

Maybe my question is a stupid question, but wasn’t my zeide o’h, my tatte o’h, and probably 90% of our European ancestors blue collar workers and farm laborers? Was there something so evil about carpentry, animal husbandry, or textile work that was so offensive to Jewish values that the holiest Jewish communities who thrived off such labor perhaps deserved punishment for allowing it? When exactly did we decide that hard work and a few grease stains was something to be looked down upon? One could argue that in the shtetl, there wasn’t much choice in the matter, so people did what they had to in order to survive. I get that. But why crap on those who do those jobs? We should be thankful enough that someone is there to do them.

I grew up around tools and workshops. My father was a blue collar man as was my zeide before him. Was there shame is being a working man? If something broke in our home, there was no scrambling around to find a Haitian or Russian immigrant to fix it. There was no haggling over price, and no waiting for the guy to show up. Today, I can repair my own car, rewire my own electrical, hang my own drywall, re-shingle my own roof, and perform many other tasks that would leave the average chosid and kollel yungermanchik completely baffled. Some of the families I knew growing up didn’t even have a screw driver in the house and I’m amazed they didn’t have to call a sheygitz every time a light bulb needed changing. I remember repairing a broken light fixture in yeshiva and the Mashgiach looking at me as if I was completely crazy for doing so. I saved the yeshiva $200 that day. He ended thanking me. I should have just billed him.

We should not take the blue collar worker, skilled or not, lightly. You want to ‘flick’ your own chickens? Go right ahead. My bubbe o’h did it. Can you mold steel that created the chassis your car sits on? Be my guest. Every time you hire a ‘goya’ to clean your home or to care for your elderly, infirmed grandparent, keep in mind that this person is saving you the trouble of doing it yourself, and they likely will be doing a better job anyhow. I’m not asking that anyone pay them huge sums of money for the jobs they do; there is a market that determines that value. I’m asking that we not take for granted those who do the 1000s of jobs that happen behind the scenes that offer us more leisure, so much so that we have become not just insensitive and unaware, but incompetent at it as well. The worst part is that we have become helpless regarding things that we shouldn’t be.

I am a grey collar worker. If you don’t know what that means I’ll tell you. It means that I am in management but not entirely. I utilize my brain to problem solve and organize. I am also not afraid to put my back into it and generally work alongside the people I manage. I don’t ask anyone to do anything I won’t do or haven’t done myself. My job is not rocket science, but you’d be amazed at how much overall knowledge and experience is needed and involved for seemingly simple tasks to run smoothly. That knowledge comes in very handy when machines break down, employees don’t show up, or things don’t go as planned. They are the ‘tricks of the trade’ and all trades have them. Sure it’s something you could know, but at present, it’s still something that you don’t know, and in that it has immense value. It’s not anything miraculous, just a cumulative know-how.

The saying goes “Out of sight, out of mind” and in this matter, that’s very, very true. It’s easy to take a thing for granted that job we haven’t done or don’t see being done on a daily basis. A fancy chandelier and big house is nice, but manufacturing, installing, and repairing those things requires skill, and it wouldn’t be hanging in your dining room if it weren’t for ‘some’ unseen non-descript factory worker or manual laborer who put his time and effort into making that happen for you.

We might pronounce with great kavana and simcha the brocho “Homotzei lechem min ha’aretz”, but that means only that we thank HaShem for making the grain grow and become accessible. Getting it from “ha’aretz” to “lechem” is another thing entirely. Perhaps it would be proper to at least add, albeit silently, “Homotzei lechem am ha’aretz.” That glazed chalah passed through many working hands before it reached the Shabbos tisch.

Kol Tuv

(Am Ha’aretz means “people of the land” and is used as a derogatory term by Orthodox Jews to describe those who are unversed in Talmudic Law. I do not use it that context. Am Ha’aretz are the ‘salt of the Earth’ in my opinion; hard working and honest people of all kinds.)