Words You Don’t Find in Hebrew: Retirement
I love studying the Hebrew language. There is a simplicity and genuineness to The Lord’s language that I have not found in any other culture.
One of the concepts in Hebrew that I find fascinating is that when a word does not exist in the language it is not to be a principle for our lives.
For instance, the Hebrew language does not have a word for retirement. What this suggests is that work is to be an integral part of our lives.
Think about it, in the book of Genesis work exists before sin enters the world. God commanded Adam to keep the garden and multiply in it before he ate of the forbidden fruit with his wife, Eve.
“Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”
Genesis 2:15
Therefore, work is not inherently a bad thing but a blessing we are given in order to produce fruit for ourselves and those in our community.
The idea of retirement from work implies that we are done blessing other people with the gifts and talents we have.
If work is no longer something we wish to do then what is our reason to wake up in the morning? Furthermore, what purpose does God have to keep us alive if we are not willing to serve His children through the work we do?
"And the pleasantness of the Lord, our G-d, be upon us and may He establish the work of our hands for us and may the work of our hands establish Him." (Tehillim/Psalm 90:17)
A wonderful and faith/hopeful post, B"H!~
Thanks!
You are most welcome! Thank you for the good word!
Establish is a verb right? ^~
Yw too :)
I have another way of looking at it. Humans were placed in Eden to cultivate paradise. However, when they were kicked out they were cursed to toil for survival. I take that to mean that working for survival is a curse but working for a noble cause is a blessing.
Oh, I like that. Well said!
Goes along with "idle hands are the devil's workshop" I suppose.
Ahh, an old saying with much truth.
Oh dear......what do I do now that I'm retired???? bahahaha.....never stop doing the work of the Lord is what. :)
"Television" isn't in biblical Hebrew either. Now, what will I do with my time??? 😂
Lol, oh I imagine you will keep taking beautiful photos. 😄
What are the two most common things retirees do 6 months after retiring?
Perhaps we'll all be better off working part-time until the moment we move on from this life to the next.
So true. Our creativity needs an outlet to flourish.
Huh?
Reading this as a plain statement, I find it completely contradicted by the very next sentence, and by what appears to be the thesis of your article...
BTW, I am in violent agreement with your thesis - work is definitely a blessing. The curse merely coupled work with the necessity of survival...
What am I missing about the sentence I quoted?
I also find Hebrew fascinating on many levels, but I am worse than novice at it... Much better at Greek. I have a friend who has been studying it for years. Another friend on Steemit with fascinating insights into Hebrew... Do you know @inphiknit?
😄😇😄
Lol, wow.... not sure how I did that. Thank you for pointing that out my friend.
Yes, I follow @inphiknit’s work. I just posted a meme for his meme4life contest actually.
such an Orwellian spin - narrowing the range of thought by not having a word for certain concepts - I always hated the word trump, even in cards - could we please all agree to eliminate that one? lol
Lol! Yes, it does feel incredibly awkward to say trump card now. 😄
:)
Interesting. Only by knowing the language you could truly learn the culture of a place.
Quite true
It's interesting how words can be a window into a culture. The concept of retirement is pretty recent too... late 19th/early 20th century, i believe.
Good point. Consumerism has had a massive effect on how we live.
the best thing about this is that you can learn more on the steemit blog known as @hebrew :D