Shabbat Part 6: Finding the Spirit From Within

Positive and Negative Commandments on Shabbat

Shabbat is a central pillar of observant Jewish life; it is a day of physical rest and spiritual rejuvenation. During the week people work and don’t have time to engage in their spiritual sides (although daily prayer is a way to meditate and work on self-awareness). For this reason Shabbat is not simply a time to cease from all work-related activity but also a time to find the spirit from within and develop it.

The Torah mentions Shabbat at several junctures—in the very first chapter of the Bible, in Genesis, during the creation of the earth, as well as several times after the exodus from Egypt. Sometimes the Torah focuses on the positive aspects of Shabbat — the honor of preparing for the special day and the delight of celebrating Shabbat in positive and joyous ways; while other times it focuses on the negative commandments, the prohibitions and the guarding of the sanctity of Shabbat.

Remembering and Guarding the Sabbath

This is generally encapsulated by two words ‘zachor’ (remember the positive aspects) and ‘shamor’ (guard and protect the holiness through prohibitions). Both comprise the fulfillment of the day in its best form. This duality of Shabbat is manifest in many rabbinic traditions and customs during Shabbat such as lighting two candles before Shabbat, two loaves of bread, etc.

With regard to the positive commandments, we are required to prepare for Shabbat BEFORE Shabbat begins, through cleansing oneself, cleaning one’s home, preparing special food for Shabbat, removing all ‘non-Shabbat utensils’ from one’s home and other activities.

All these actions are part of the positive mitzvah of ‘honoring the Shabbat’. The second half of that equation is the obligation on Shabbat to share in its ‘delight’. This by eating three delicious meals, making Kiddush at the beginning of the meals and Birkat HaMazon (the blessing at the end of a meal where one ate bread) at the end of each meal—thanking God for the food, singing wonderful songs of Shabbat and trying to speak about Judaism, Torah, God, philosophy while resisting to talk about non-Shabbat themes.

The ‘shamor’ part of Shabbat is the more familiar aspect of not engaging in creative work. This is interpreted by the Talmud as 39 distinct categories which are prohibited such as planting, baking, dyeing, writing, sewing, trapping, selecting, lighting a fire, carrying from one domain to another, building, slaughtering, erasing, creating a vessel, and several more. Altogether, they afford us the opportunity to have serenity during Shabbat with the week’s work and busy schedules on break.

It is truly a joy to put down my smart phone for 24 hours and not be subject to every post, WhatsApp, or FB post the whole day. How wonderful is it to just spend time with family and loved ones and to re-engage with our spirits on this day! ‘Zachor’ and ‘shamor’ is the recipe for Shabbat bliss!

Melachot on Shabbat

The negative commandments on Shabbat are presented in a way that could seem cryptic in the Torah. In one place the Torah states explicitly: “Do not ignite a fire on the Shabbat day in any of your dwellings”. Other than that verse, the rest of the prohibitions are encapsulated in a very general verse: “Do not work (melacha)”. Several times the word melacha is used to describe work but the Torah does not elaborate. Does it mean going to your workplace? Does it mean driving a car? Planting a seed? What about moving furniture? Exercise? Smartphones? Turning on a light switch doesn’t seem like ‘work’, is that permitted?

The answer to these questions is an important key to understanding the two systems of Torah—written and oral. The written Torah is finite, it has several hundred thousand letters, no more, no less. It could not possibly outline every detail of every law of the 613 commandments. It could only provide the general idea of the mitzvah and a salient feature of it. For the detailed explanation of each mitzvah Moshe at Mount Sinai would teach it to the children of Israel at the time. And the second generation would have more questions and more permutations of the mitzvah to discuss. Moshe would then explain to them the expanded definition of the mitzvah. Both explanations would be considered part of the biblical word, as explained by Moshe at the time.

Tools of How to Understand the Torah are Part and Parcel of the Torah as Well

But Moshe of course could not address every question, every variable that would come up in later years related to the mitzvot. So Moshe handed down to the future teachers of Israel a code of how to interpret the verses which could be applied for each generation. The tools of how to understand the Torah are part and parcel of the Torah as well.

The Word ‘Melacha’ Contains All the Variables

For example, with regard to Shabbat, the Torah could not detail all the variables in what work is, so it provided one word—melacha—which would be explained by Moshe to Joshua and to the prophets, elders and leaders of Israel. Moshe explained that the word melacha appears prominently when the children of Israel were commanded to build the Mishkan, the temporary dwelling for God in the desert. That tabernacle required ‘melacha’ in order to build it, transport it, and make sure it functions.

When building the walls of the Mishkan it is called ‘melacha’ and therefore that is one of the prohibitions on Shabbat when referring to melacha. When putting the panels next to each other they needed to write down the order and details—writing is another melacha. They needed to erase at times to write a new number—erasing is another category. They needed to sew the curtains—sewing; they needed to process the wool for the curtains—combing and spinning wool; they would cook the dye for the wool—cooking; they needed be involved in planting and harvesting wheat in order to bake the breads for the Tabernacle—11 melachot were associated with it!

39 Categories

All in all, the rabbis learned from Moshe that 39 categories of creative work were used in order to fulfill the ‘melacha’ of building the Mishkan and making it function. These 39 categories became the foundation of the biblical prohibitions on Shabbat.

Recognizing the True Creator

Why so many prohibitions? Why can’t Shabbat be ‘fun’ allowing us to do as we please? Shabbat is a gift from God to allow us to focus inwards and cultivate our spiritual selves, something very hard to do when there are so many distractions. Shabbat also reminds us that though during six days out of the week we are obligated to build, create, innovate, advance the world, act in a similar manner God acted when creating the world—Shabbat reminds us that we are not gods; we cease creating to recognize the One true Creator.

Why then was fire singled out in the Torah? Because fire throughout history has been the basis for all of civilization’s advancement and creation. Using fire we create and fashion the world in an almost divine way—until Shabbat comes and we no longer create fire, instead we prepare everything the day before and bask in the warmth of the Shabbat spirit.