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1The former chief psychologist of Israel’s Employment Service read the Bible closely to glean sage advice and tips for a successful career, and has presented it all in an interesting, practical and informative book.
By: Rochel Sylvetsky
Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden and forced to work to survive. Was this a punishment or a blessing?
-Why was it crucial for Abraham to leave his father’s home? What role do family dynamics play in career development?
-What can we learn from Joseph’s networking while in prison and how he prepared his brothers for their meeting with Pharaoh?
-What does Judah’s approach to Joseph teach us about talking to the person in charge?
-What can we learn from Jethro’s organizational consulting advice to Moses?
I doubt that you have asked these questions, even if you are familiar with the Bible, because you have probably never thought about Biblical narrative and the Bible’s commandments as a guide to career development. A student of the Bible for almost all of my life, I certainly never did until I read Dr. Benny Benjamin’s recent book: “Ascending the Ladder, 9 Biblical Lessons for Reaching Your Career Goals and Thriving at Work,” an out-of-the-box approach to the life lessons the Bible teaches us.
Study of the Mishnaic work Ethics of the Fathers, the preface to Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin (called Pirkei Avot in Hebrew), provides, as the Chabad website says: timeless wisdom.., ethics, honesty, and advice. But, as the Chabad site also says, at its very beginning Pirkei Avot tells us that even this part of Jewish life came from Sinai. And in Chapter 5, one of the Tannaitic Sages is quoted, when referring to the Torah, as saying: “Delve and delve into it, for all is in it.”
What is meant by “all”? Obviously, it means that the Torah and Talmud contain G-d’s commandments and the details of how to keep them, as they are the building blocks of Judaism. But it also means that we can learn how to live our lives optimally as individuals and as part of society by delving into the Torah’s behavioral lessons, starting with the fathers and mothers of the Jewish people, their experiences, actions, problems, challenges and relationships, and going on to seek the many layers of wisdom contained in the commandments themselves.
(Note: How to do that is a source of ongoing controversy over whether one may analyze the lives of the founders of the Jewish People critically and learn from that criticism, or whether these are larger than life figures beyond criticism whose every action has an explanation from which we can learn . A deeper discussion is beyond the scope of this review, but either way, both sides of the dispute agree that everything can be found in the Torah, that “all is in it.”.)
Even career counselling.
It turns out that this, too, is part of “everything,” as the book’s author ground breakingly shows readers, while at the same time providing invaluable advice and tips on workplace skills, leadership qualities and personal growth throughout its pages.
Dr. Benny Benjamin was chief psychologist for many years at the Israel National Employment Service after making aliya with his family several decades ago, and is the editor-in-chief of Israel’s career counseling e-journal in Hebrew, which certainly gives him invaluable expertise in “reaching your career goals and thriving at work”. Dr. Benjamin also loves studying the Chumash (Bible) and with his wife Nancy, who shares that love (full disclosure, the Benjamin family are longtime friends), continues to do so with his children and grandchildren. Using Biblical lessons to gain insights about his field seems natural to him, and he has expounded on nine of these important insights.
Reading them, learning from them and thinking about how to apply them will help anyone choose and advance their career. I could not help thinking of how helpful this book could be to all the soldiers who are going to go back to civilian life after the war is won, with G-d’s help. I am sure that many of them will find that the long hiatus from work or study and what they have experienced has made them rethink their previous plans for study or career.
The first step is self-knowledge and the book begins with the crucial subject heading Career Identity, using the creation of the world in which form was separated from void as the image for a person’s sifting through the way he sees himself to realize what is important to him in his career choice.
After explaining the idea of Career Identity, the rest of the subject headings include Coping with Change, Career Uncertainty, Meaning and Purpose in One’s Career, Job-seeking Skills, Workplace Dynamics, Communication, Leadership and Ethics, all-in-all a practical how-to encyclopedia for succeeding at work. The subject headings are each broken down into chapters that begin with applicable aphorisms such as George Bernard Shaw’s words on identity: “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” This is followed by an explanation of the biblical reference suited to the chapter’s subject. Continuing, the second part of each chapter includes a practical career section connected to the subject and each chapter ends with most applicable career tips.
For example, the verse “It is not in the heavens” is an introduction to the G-d given accessibility of change, which is a springboard for the question of whether a person can really change. This is followed by a practical section on how the workplace can be a place to effect change–or expect others to change (!)–and tips on how to modify long-established habits when necessary.
In another chapter, the Sabbath is a vehicle to explain the importance of taking planned time off, how learning from G-d’s time management system allows differentiating between ”creation, recreation and creativity.” The career section discusses the value of discretionary breaks from pressure-filled activity and continues with tips for disconnecting in the days of pervasive communication, smartphones.
Then there is Joseph’s dreamcoat as an illustration of the cost of favoritism in the workplace, the encounter with his boss Potiphar’s wife as an introduction to sexual harassment on the job, the courageous choice of the two midwives when they ignore Pharaoh’s orders to drown newborn Israelite sons as a preface to the question of ethical challenges at work, the broadening of the Biblical injunction not to oppress or exploit a stranger to protecting precarious workers, and much, much more.
The original way each Biblical association is interpreted induces thought and analysis, while the rest of the chapter adds practical and behavioral methods that bring to fruition what has been revealed to the reader by the author’s reading the Bible through the lens of career goals.
It seems that the Bible can really help advance one’s career! The book’s title has the reader learning how to ascend the ladder as the angels in Jacob’s dream did, but its sage advice is intended to prevent their joining the angels going down the ladder.
Read this book, one which is also an enjoyable good read for its originality and easygoing style, and which can give all of us pointers on the challenging situations in our lives. You will find that the Sages were right – everything is in it – everything that can improve your life and career, especially in these days when the two are often indistinguishable and connected.
Remember what Rabbi Sacks said (brought in the book): “Where what you want to do meets what needs to be done, that is where G-d wants you to be” – this book will help you discover where that is, and if you are already well into your career or looking back on it from retirement, it can help you in whatever it is you are doing in life.
