GEN220 Jewish tradition teaches that work is a source of kavod [honor]. When we have done our economic share, we have a different relationship to what we consume.  The idea that labor is a critical source of human dignity has powerful biblical and rabbinic support. The rabbis required fathers to teach their sons a trade; we would broaden this to include all parents and children. “You will eat the fruit of your labor and be happy, and it will be well with you” says the psalmist. (Psalms 128:2).  The Talmud (Berakhot 8A) interprets this verse to mean “happy” in this world and “well with you” in the world to come, and goes on to point out that reverence for God (yirat shamayim) does not by itself guarantee that things will go well in the next world.  Work is thus seen as having a redemptive power for the person who undertakes it.  Productivity has value beyond the external goods produced. Producing value also has worth in terms of the workers’ experience of the world and their place in it.  … The God in whose image we are created is pictured, from the very first chapter of Genesis, as a working God, one who creates on every one of the first six days and then creates daily, as is stated in the first blessing of the morning service hamehadesh betuvo bekhol yam tamid ma’asey v’reyshit, ‘who is goodness renews the work of Creation every day.” Some people picture perfection as immutable.  Not the Jews.  Thank God that God does finally rest on the seventh day, reminding us that rest, as well as work, is godly. AGTJL 327-8