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| The curse and blessing of work |
In the opening chapters of the Bible, God curses humanity with work.
Cursed is the ground because of you
By the sweat of your brow will you eat food
Until you return to the ground
It's true work is a kind of curse. I often see people lamenting that we have to work. "I just want to stay home and do [leisure activity]." A viral post made the rounds a few weeks ago on X:
Genuinely, I DO NOT like the concept of capitalism. I don’t want to work my job every day. I want to make art. I want to be in my garden. I want to feel something.
— ً (@omgsidewalks) July 26, 2026
Lots of people dunked on this guy for wanting spend time in his garden instead of working; an antediluvian desire if there ever was one! Of course, capitalism isn't to blame for work. Stalin's Soviet Russia had plenty of work, comrade.
But I get it. Work does suck sometimes and I would sure rather be hiking, fishing, watching movies, reading books, or playing video games.
But work is also a kind of blessing. How can a curse be a blessing?
I've found that lots of idleness and lack of productivity isn't great either, long-term. Work is a kind of blessing that keeps us occupied in productive pursuits that benefit society. Work allows us to provide for ourselves and our families. In that sense, the curse of work is really an alternative form of blessing.
This is not foreign to Biblical interpreters.
In Torah portion Re'ee, Deuteronomy 11, God says to Israel,
See, I give before you today a blessing and a curse.
The blessing would come if Israel kept God's commandments. And a curse would come if they didn't follow God's commandments.
What does this have to do with work?
Two famous scholars interpret Deuteronomy 11 differently.
Onkelos translates it as we do today: "a blessing and a curse."
But Yonatan ben Uziel translated it as "blessing and its alternative."
Why "alternative", when a curse is the opposite of a blessing?
Onkelos lived in a dark time: Babylonian captivity after the Temple was destroyed. He translated it as curse because it's how people felt. (And indeed, the Babylonian exile was a curse from God; a plain, literal, tangible fulfillment of God's words in Deuteronomy 11.)
In contrast, Ben Uziel lived in good times when the Temple was standing and Israel was secure. He translated curse as an alternative form of good.
When it comes to work, I side with Ben Uziel: it's not just a curse, it's an alternative form of good. And like Ben Uziel, I live in a good time with a good job, so perhaps it colors my view. But I remain convinced from my own life experience: work is a net good for humanity.
How can a curse from God be good? Because God corrects those he loves. God's curse isn't intended to destroy us, but to bring us in line with good.
The curse of work in Genesis, then, is meant to bring us in line with good.
How so?
By engaging humanity into creative and productive pursuits that improve humanity and strengthens our dominion over the world.
Work is a curse and a blessing.
And if you're one of the few who love your work, well, the blessing will outweigh the curse.