GEN272 Partnership with God.  Few things have the ability to bring us closer to God than planting and growing food in a garden.  It is the ultimate example of our partnership with God and a manifestation of living Judaism.  But in actuality, it is a three-way relationship between humans, the earth, and God.  “The Lord God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to till it and tend it” [this verse]. Let us not underestimate the importance of [this] deceptively simple [this verse] … God needed human help so that the entire life/growth process might move forward.  The early rabbinic commentators jumped on this thought: “The edible fruits of the earth required not only God’s gift of rain but also man’s cultivation.  Man must be a co-worker with God in making this earth a garden” (J.H. Hertz, ed., Pentateuch Haforahs). In other words, paradise was perfect—almost.  It was complete—almost. For all its beauty, for all its wonderful design, something was missing.  Us! God needed a partner: us.  [citing Balfour Brickner, Finding God in the Garden (Boston: Little, Brown, 2002), 15. (By Barbara Lerman-Golomb, "Getting Back to the Garden")  SACTAB 199-200