We often picture them strolling among the trees, maybe tending to the flowers. But was there something more to their task?
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating early medieval text, tackles this very question. It asks, point blank: was there some other work to be done, like, say, watering the garden?
Seems logical. A garden needs tending.
But then the text throws a curveball. Didn't a river flow through Eden, watering the garden automatically? As Genesis 2:10 tells us, "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden." So, if they weren't irrigating, what does it mean when the Torah says Adam was placed in the Garden "to dress it and to keep it?"
The answer, according to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, isn't about horticulture at all. The phrase "to dress it and to keep it" is interpreted metaphorically. It's not about physical labor, but about something far more profound: engaging with the words of Torah and observing its commandments. The text connects this idea to the phrase "to keep the way of the tree of life" (Genesis 3:24). And what, pray tell, is the Tree of Life? Here's where it gets really interesting. The text equates the Tree of Life with the Torah itself! As Proverbs 3:18 states, "It is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon it."
So, Adam's job wasn't weeding or pruning. His true calling was to immerse himself in Torah, to live by its principles. In Eden, paradise wasn't just a place; it was a state of being achieved through connection to the divine wisdom embodied in the Torah.
It makes you wonder, doesn't it? What kind of "garden" are we tending? And are we watering it with the right things? Perhaps the real work, like Adam's, is less about the physical and more about cultivating our spiritual selves through Torah and its commandments.