GEN277 A Jew is supposed to stay usefully busy.  Our legendary first ancestors weren’t plopped down in paradise to develop the perfect suntan or watch the fruit ripen: “Adonai Elohim took Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and tend it [this verse].  He and Eve were expected to plant and to reap, to sow and to harvest—how else could they feed themselves? And then their apple-eating caused God to make the ground difficult to till, prone to thorns and thistles, so that “the sweat of your brow” became the only way to get bread from the earth. Genesis 3:17-19. As the Yiddish proverb puts it: “Roasted chicken doesn’t simply fly into your mouth.” Our sages, who deemed very little to be more valuable than study, knew that only a concentrated amount of labor makes learning possible. “Rava said to the rabbis: don’t come to me to study during the month of Nisan [harvest time] or the month of Tishei [when the grapes and olives are ready for pressing]. Do your work then so you won’t be threatened by poverty” Berachot 35b. The rabbis believe diligence arises not simply from nature or from our personal needs, but from God’s very purpose in creating the world. Isaiah 45:18 provides the critical phrase: “Adonai, the Creator of heaven, the only real God, the one who formed the earth, said this, Adonai set up the land and made it as it is. But Adonai but did not create it to be a waste, but lashevet, for habitation.”  When the rabbis want to say that we have a religious obligation to be constructively busy, they simply say, lashevet.  We are God’s partners by working on concrete projects that create decent places to live and raise families. This carries through from an individual to a communal activity. Midrash describes this spirited model for Jewish zeal: “Israel entered into the work of building the Tabernacle with zest, doing it joyfully and enthusiastically” Exodus Rabbah 48:16: BOROJMV 82