“It is not for you to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”
--Pirkei Avot 2:21
Upon creating Adam and Eve, God took them around the Garden of Eden,
showing them its marvels and gifts, uses and wonders. Afterward, God
said to them: “Look what I have made - how beautiful it all is.
Everything I have made, I have made for you. Take care, lest you spoil
and destroy my world, because if you do, there is no one after you to
make it right again.”
--(Kohelet Rabbah 7:13)
"Judaism is not a science of nature but a science of what man ought to
do with nature. It is concerned above all with the problem of living.
It takes deeds more seriously than things. Jewish law is, in a sense, a
science of deeds. Its main concern is not only how to worship Him at
certain times, but how to live with Him at all times. Every deed is a
problem; there is a unique task at every moment. All of life at all
moments is the problem and the task."
--God in Search of Man, Abraham Joshua Heschel, p. 292
