Working Hard... Enough: Keeping Our Toiling For Hashem

all the artisans who were engaged in the tasks of the sanctuary came, from the task upon which each one was engaged,

and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than is needed for the tasks entailed in the work that יהוה has commanded to be done.”

Moses thereupon had this proclamation made throughout the camp: “Let no man or woman make further effort toward gifts for the sanctuary!” So the people stopped bringing:

their efforts had been more than enough for all the tasks to be done.

לעשות אותה והותר, in order to complete the work, and more. The craftsmen did not have to skimp on anything for fear that there would not be sufficient materials of the required quality to execute the plan in the best possible fashion.

דים…והותר, sufficient and too much. How could there be "too much" and "sufficient" at the same time? There seems to be something contradictory here. Why did the Torah have to mention that "the work was sufficient" at all? The Torah only needed to inform us that the requirements for the Holy Tabernacle were oversubscribed! Besides, the entire verse seems superfluous as we have already been told in verse five that the people brought more than was required and had to be restrained. Obviously, such a statement had to be based on the quantities having already been either counted, weighed or measured!

Perhaps the Torah wished to tell us that G'd's fondness for the Jewish people increased as a result of the oversubscription of the materials needed for G'd's Sanctuary. As an act of recognition, G'd miraculously absorbed all these donations and they were used in the Tabernacle, i.e. דים, they were sufficient, none was rejected, i.e. remained unused. The word דים refers to המלאכה, the finished work was all used, though והותר, the raw material contained therein seemed quite excessive. There was a miracle which reconciled the paradox which the report of the Torah implies. Alternatively, the Torah means that the ready-made work which the people contributed appeared to be adequate, whereas in terms of the raw materials used it was actually excessive. It required a miracle for nothing to remain as "left-over."

Shemaya and Avatalyon received from them. Shemaya would say: Love work, hate power, and do not become too familiar with the authorities.Love work.” How so? This teaches us that a person should love work, and not hate work. For just as the Torah was given in a covenant, so work was given in a covenant, as it says (Exodus 20:10), “For six days you shall labor and do all your work, and the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Eternal your God.” Rabbi Akiva would say: Sometimes a person labors and escapes death, and sometimes a person does not labor and becomes liable for death from Heaven. How so? Say a person sat around all week and did no labor, and then on the eve of the Sabbath he had nothing to eat. But he had money that had been designated [to the Temple] in his house. So he took from this and ate, and thus became liable to death from Heaven. However, if he had labored on the building of the Temple, then even though they paid him in money designated for the Temple and he took that money and used it for food, he would still escape the death penalty.Rabbi Dostai would say: How do we know that if someone did no work all six days, he will end up doing work on the seventh? For, see, if he sat all the days of the week and did no work, and then on the eve of the Sabbath he had nothing to eat, he would then go out looking, and end up seized by conscription officers, who would grab him by the collar and force him to do on the Sabbath all the work that he did not do for six days.Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar would say: Even Adam did not taste anything until he worked, as it says (Genesis 2:15–16), “And God placed him in the garden, to work it and guard it”; and then [it says (verse 17)], “From every tree of the garden you may certainly eat.”Rabbi Tarfon would say: Even the Holy Blessed One did not rest His presence upon Israel until they had done work, as it says (Exodus 25:5), “Make Me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell among them.”Rabbi Yehudah ben Beteira would say: If someone who has no work to do, what should he do? If he has a dilapidated yard or field, he should go and work on them, as it says (Exodus 20:10), “Six days you shall labor and do all your work.” What do we learn from the phrase, “do all your work”? That even someone who has dilapidated yards or fields should work on them.Rabbi Yosei HaGalili would say: A person dies only because of idleness, as it says (Genesis 49:33), “And he expired [or: exhausted himself], and so was gathered to his people.” And see, if someone is pushed and falls over on his own craftwork and dies, we know his death was because of idleness. And if he was standing on the top of the roof, the top of a palace, or the top of any building, or at the edge of the river, and he fell and died, we know his death was because of idleness.All this we know to be true for men. And how do we know it is also true for women? For it says (Exodus 36:6), “Let no man or woman do any more work for the donations to the Sanctuary.” And how do we know it is true also for children? For it says (there), “So the people stopped bringing.”Rabbi Natan said: When Moses was carrying out the work of the Tabernacle, he did not want to take direction from the chiefs of Israel. So the chiefs of Israel sat there quietly and said: Perhaps now Moses will need our help. When they heard the announcement in the camp that said enough work had been done, they said: Alas, we have not participated at all in the work of the Tabernacle! So they got up and added a great thing by themselves, as it says (Exodus 35:27), “And the chiefs brought the shoham stones [for the breastplate of the high priest].”

To Adam [God] said, “Because you did as your wife said and ate of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’Cursed be the ground because of you;By hard labor shall you eat of itAll the days of your life:

Thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you.But your food shall be the grasses of the field;

By the sweat of your browShall you get bread to eat,Until you return to the ground—For from it you were taken.For dust^° you are,And to dust you shall return.”

God יהוה settled the Human in the garden of Eden, to till it and tend it.

Moses then convoked the whole Israelite community and said to them:These are the things that יהוה has commanded you to do:

On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a sabbath of complete rest, holy to יהוה; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.

You shall kindle no fire throughout your settlements on the sabbath day.