WORK WILL SET YOU FREE

Shabbos and the Holocaust
Video

Last night was Shabbos. And I worked.

I had to. As a musician, and one who lives in the Bible Belt of the USA, my career options are limited. As much as I wish CAN CAN and Punk Torah could pay my bills, which are pretty small since I'm a minimalist, the reality is that I need a day job.

So I worked as a temp at the convention center. For eight hours, I sat at a booth and gave people directions to the bathroom and the food court. Not a grueling job, but it's not as much fun as blogging and being Mr. Punk Rock guy.

While I was there, I felt guilty about working on G_d's holy day. I've been accused of being a workaholic and I have tried my best to chill out. But it's really hard. My friends like to make the joke about Patrick the Greedy Jew, always working to make that extra buck.

Then I remembered something I saw in a documentary on the Holocaust: a sign above the Auschwitz Concentration Camp that read, "Hard Work Will Set You Free".

If there is any truth to the idea that Jews are workaholics, it's pretty ironic that the agent of our undoing would be a work camp. Jews have always been the target of ridicule for their relationship to money and employment. Jews were barred from holding certain kinds of jobs and got into areas of the economy only when they were allowed: banking, media, brokering, and peddling, which eventually became retail. Anything they could take with them, when they were rejected from their temporary homes and forced to relocate like social pariahs.

I like to think that Punk Torah and CAN CAN are my mitzvot. They are the one thing I can do to please G_d and help the Jewish people. But I realize, too, that work will not set me free...even if it is work for Hashem.

Human beings are not meant to be work machines. We aren't supposed to be defined by what we do to pay the bills. We are defined by how we live our lives and the kind of people we are. That is the true meaning of Shabbos and the true meaning of being a punk rocker.

Check out the Facebook page!

Also check out the Punk Torah YouTube channel!