Abstract
The Talmudic definition of work/labor (melakhah) is based on the activities for building the holy temple in Jerusalem. The list amounts to 39 works which are forbidden on the day of Shabbat. The rest of the seventh day is therefore the lent through which the Jewish tradition understands and gives sense to human activities made to transform the world. The main source for the rabbinical ethics of work are the Chapter of the Fathers (Pirqe Avot) where we find a substantially positive attitude towards working the land, commerce, and any other human activity. In the Talmud almost every rabbi (teacher) has a manual work in order to make a living, and studying the Torah is a religious duty, not an economic enterprise. In addition, working is considered by many masters of Israel a form of co-operation with God in the continuous process of the creation of the world, therefore a form of imitatio Dei.
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