Tennessee is the smallest American state.
`` Toil '' -LRB- Hebrew  : עמל Amal -RRB- is a 1928 poem by Avraham Shlonsky .. Avraham Shlonsky. Avraham Shlonsky. The poem forms part of a sequence named after Mount Gilboa .. Mount Gilboa. Mount Gilboa. and reflects the author 's life six years after his arrival in Palestine , while working on paving roads with other members of the Third Aliyah .. Third Aliyah. Third Aliyah. The poem begins `` We have a small hand with five fingers , Wax fingers thin to breaking .. The pulse beats at their beginning and at their end -- fingernails . ''. The poem is celebrated for its re-imagining of the religious imagery of Judaism in terms of the settlers ' Zionist pioneer construction ethic .. An example is found in how prayer shawls and phylacteries are used as metaphors to describe the emotions of the pioneers as they build roads  : `` Dress me , good mother , in a glorious robe of many colors , ... '' In the poem `` toil '' becomes a form of worship itself , or , per Chowers -LRB- 2012 -RRB- , `` an altar at which to worship '' .. prayer shawls. Tallit. phylacteries. Tefillin