Several decades ago, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, one of the towering Jewish religious leaders of the past century, issued a new Haggadah for Passover. In it he wrote a masterful selection on modern forms of slavery. He singled out three ways that people are held captive today.

First of all, they are enslaved to themselves, because of destructive emotions like envy, jealousy, bitterness, and cowardice. Second, many are enslaved by poverty and inequality. In desperation, they resort to dishonesty and violence and to defending the guilty and accusing the innocent in order to get ahead. Others must perform work at starvation wages that fattens the coffers of their bosses, but deprives them of life's necessities.

Finally, people are also enslaved to intolerance. Kaplan wrote this selection in the early 1940s. At that time, many Jews were denying their religious identity in order to advance, both socially and vocationally. Bigotry and prejudice were far more severe then than they are today. Were Kaplan alive to revise this Haggadah selection today, he would probably add a fourth category, because, in the year 2000, we are enslaved to work.

Workaholism is a modern addiction. I have been afflicted by it, as much as anyone else. How many of us today are guilty of simultaneously reading our mail, talking on the telephone, writing a letter, and watching the clock so that we won't be late for our next appointment?

The pace of life today has quickened. Many of us seem to be chained to our computers, typing madly, complaining that our keyboards can't keep up with our thoughts. We skip lunch, rush through dinner, and cheat ourselves out of hours of sleep. Modern technology has not alleviated the problem; it has exacerbated and complicated it.

Not long ago, in our places of work, the only communications to which we had to respond were phone messages and regular mail, today called "snail mail," and we could take our time in answering our regular mail. Today, we have, in addition, e-mail and faxes. We are expected to respond to them instantly.

Not long ago, our telephones were confined to our offices and our homes. Now mobile phones are ubiquitous. People talk on them at restaurant tables, in public bathrooms, and in automobiles. In Israel, some forty years ago, one had to wait five or more years for the installation of a single telephone. Now everyone has a cell phone. A joke circulates in Israel that there is only one Israeli in the entire country without a cell phone and the Secret Service is still trying to find him.

A proliferation of airplane flights has shrunk our global community, but has it also enervated and exhausted us. Some people have careers that require them to spend more than half of every week in the air, going across the country, and even to Europe and Asia and back. Eventually, such travel takes its toll on their bodies and their psyches.

There is no question today the pressure is on to work longer hours, to produce more, to make more money, to become a dazzling success. This troubling phenomenon inspired the author, Jonathon Lazaer to write two self-help books: Meditations for Men Who Do Too Much and Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much. In each volume there are 365 pages of quotations and commentaries, one for each day of the annual calendar. They wisely advise us how to cope with our bondage to workaholism.

I believe the problem is particularly acute for Jews in America because we have been influenced by two cultural streams. One is the Puritan ethic, which places a supreme value on work. The other is the lingering heritage of the Jewish immigrants, who came to these shores from Eastern Europe. They believed that if one worked hard enough, one could pull oneself up by the boot straps and become a "good provider." This need was so strong among them that, even though they were otherwise observant Orthodox Jews, they violated an important religious commandment and worked on the Sabbath.

Women's liberation has also spread this addiction, once confined to men. Many women today feel under the same pressure to produce and get ahead, but, at the same time, to create a sound and sturdy family life. The expectation to become a "Super Woman" is intense.

Though many Jews are workaholics, workaholism is not prized in Judaism. We can see this notion clearly in the way that traditional Jews write dates in letters and in sacred documents. For example, Monday is written "Sheni b'Shabbat," the second day leading to the Shabbat. Tuesday is known as "Shlishi b'Shabbat," the third day leading to the Shabbat.

In Hebrew, the days of the week have no names. They are identified only by ordinal numbers. Only the Shabbat has a name. The reason is that we are encouraged to do whatever work is necessary during the week, so that we can welcome and observe Shabbat properly. The Shabbat is the climax of the week.

Of course, our tradition does recognize that earning one's own money honestly can bring a measure of personal satisfaction. Our Psalmist tells us: "When you eat the work of your hands, you shall be happy and it shall be well with you." (Psalm 128:2) Also making a living keeps a person off the charity rolls. No one should voluntarily become idle so as to depend on the largesse of others. In general, though, the workaholic is not a religious hero in Judaism. Work is regarded solely as means to an end. Work, per se, is not glorified in Judaism.

I believe that the cause of workaholism is that our vocational achievements are tied up with our self-image. We believe that, by working longer hours and completing more projects, we will enhance our self-worth. We will eventually discover that this approach is a terribly misguided one.

Often a signal accomplishment in our career offers us only a temporary quick fix. The person who makes a million dollars annually finds it is not enough. He or she soon wants to go for the second million and then the third. An author, after finishing a book, feels a sense of exhilaration. But, it is soon followed by emptiness and despair and a feeling of "Is that all there is?" Today, no one is satisfied to rest on his or her laurels any longer. We want more and more and never seem satisfied.

Also our workaholism tends to distance us from our immediate families. At one time, men were expected to become superior breadwinners and nothing more. Today, they need to be nurturers and communicators at home, as well. Workaholism impels us to labor longer and longer hours, and thus have no time to be physically and emotionally available to our loved ones. What happens in the process is that intimacy soon dies.

Perhaps the most serious result of workaholism is that it distances us from ourselves. Work can burn us out, leaving us to go "on empty." We are so busy that we have no time to reflect, to involve ourselves in deep and honest self-exploration, to engage in the kind of religious discipline required by the High Holy Days: to search our souls, to face our shortcomings, and to correct our errors.

Our busyness leads us to excessive denial and an estrangement from the core of our beings. It makes us less than full, human beings, who are unable to appreciate all the blessings that God has made available to us in this world. The author, Alice Walker, once observed that we make God angry, if we walk by the color purple in a field and do not notice it. "Smelling the roses" is a religious requirement, which workaholism prevents us from fulfilling. Workaholism stunts our spiritual growth.

That is why Judaism favors Shabbat, the day of rest, over the workaday week. On Shabbat, we are to be, not to do; to reflect and not to produce. It is on this day, more than on the weekdays, that we better realize that we are made in God's image, and, therefore, our self-worth is really inestimable. Our value is not dependent upon the size of our income, the magnitude of our homes, the number of our publications, or the volume of our awards. Each of us is a child of God, even without these outer trappings that are the fruits of our work.

Therefore, on this Sabbath of Passover, we ponder the various kinds of bondage that rob us of our personal freedom. Let us now begin to liberate ourselves from workaholism, so that we can restore our souls and grow them properly.

Amen.

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