What Has God Been Doing Since Creation Finished

Midrash Aggadah Gaster, Exempla of the Rabbis, no. 16; cf. Bereshit Rabbah 68:4

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 8, 2025

A Roman matrona — a noblewoman who liked to corner rabbis with hard questions — came to Rabbi Joshua and asked him something she thought he could not answer.

"If God finished His work in six days and rested on the seventh, what has He been doing ever since? Is He idle?"

Rabbi Joshua answered her calmly. "He pairs people. He makes matches."

The matrona laughed. "That is all? I can do that." And she went home and ordered every male slave in her household to marry a female slave, pairing them off by decree.

The next morning her slaves came back to her in ruins. One had a broken head. Another had scratched eyes. A third was bleeding. Every single match had ended in disaster overnight.

The matrona returned to Rabbi Joshua, her pride gone. "Your God," she said, "knows how to match them. I do not."

Rabbi Joshua nodded and added one more thing. "God also builds ladders. He makes one ladder for people to climb up, and another for people to climb down. He makes some poor who were rich, and rich those who were poor. The whole economy of the world is still His work — still daily, still hands-on."

Creation is not finished. Gaster's Exempla (no. 16, 1924) preserves the story because the midrash wanted us to know: the God of Genesis 1 is also the God of Tuesday afternoon. He did not retire on Friday at sundown.

Themes

Creation Marriage Rabbis Divine justice Parables

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