EXOD391 It is a person's duty to work, and Judaism has always stressed the importance of the work ethic and being a productive worker. A person who works is enabled to be self-supporting. The rabbis have taught that, in addition to teaching his son Torah, a father must also teach him a trade or profession (Talmud Kiddushin 29a). Study, the rabbis insisted, cannot be complete when divorced from the world of active work. The Bible has always exalted work and the worker. God is pictured in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis as a laborer, and in creating the first human, God told Adam to work the soil. Just as the Torah was given to people as a covenant, as it is written in [this verse] "Six days shall you labor and do all of your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God". (Avot de Rabbi Natan, Chapter 11).