I. What constitutes “work” on the Shabbat?
The word the Torah uses In regards to the prohibitions of Sabbath which is translated into English as “work” is the Hebrew word m’lawkhaw meaning “all and any kind of creative ‘generative’ endeavor, changes to the environment or any object.” (Lev. 23:3; Ex. 34:21; Ex. 16:21-30).
How do we define work?
ELOHIM rested from creative activity on Shabbat (Gen. 2:1-3). In Is. 58:13-14 “work” on the Sabbath seems to mean “doing your will” or “doing your own ways” or “wording words.” Thus resting from “work” on the Shabbat means to rest from creative activities and to rest from inflicting our own will on the universe.
The Torah gives us a very good clue as to how to understand the word “work” in this context.
The word מְלָאכָֽה (work) appears in Ex. 31:3 referring to the work of the artisans in building the tabernacle. This section of Torah is immediately followed by a reminder to rest from “work” on the Shabbat (Ex. 31:12-17). It seems then that מְלָאכָֽה in Ex. 31:12-17 must include the meaning of מְלָאכָֽה in Ex. 31:3. Thus the activities involved in making the Tabernacle are among those not normally permitted on Shabbat.
The Mishnah breaks the types of tasks performed in the building of the Tabernacle and the crafting of its artifacts into thirty nine categories of “work” as follows:
אֲבוֹת מְלָאכוֹת אַרְבָּעִים חָסֵר אֶחָת. הַזּוֹרֵעַ. וְהַחוֹרֵשׁ. וְהַקּוֹצֵר. וְהַמְעַמֵּר. הַדָּשׁ. וְהַזּוֹרֶה. הַבּוֹרֵר. הַטּוֹחֵן. וְהַמְרַקֵּד. וְהַלָּשׁ. וְהָאוֹפֶה. הַגּוֹזֵז אֶת הַצֶּמֶר. הַמְלַבְּנוֹ. וְהַמְנַפְּצוֹ. וְהַצּוֹבְעוֹ. וְהַטּוֹוֶה. וְהַמֵּסֵךְ. וְהָעוֹשֶׂה שְׁנֵי בָתֵּי נִירִין. וְהָאוֹרֵג שְׁנֵי חוּטִין. וְהַפּוֹצֵעַ שְׁנֵי חוּטִין. הַקּוֹשֵׁר. וְהַמַּתִּיר. וְהַתּוֹפֵר שְׁתֵּי תְפִירוֹת. הַקּוֹרֵעַ עַל מְנָת לִתְפֹּר שְׁתֵּי תְפִירוֹת. הַצָּד צְבִי. הַשּׁוֹחֲטוֹ. וְהַמַּפְשִׁיטוֹ. הַמּוֹלְחוֹ, וְהַמְעַבֵּד אֶת עוֹרוֹ. וְהַמּוֹחֲקוֹ. וְהַמְחַתְּכוֹ. הַכּוֹתֵב שְׁתֵּי אוֹתִיּוֹת. וְהַמּוֹחֵק עַל מְנָת לִכְתֹּב שְׁתֵּי אוֹתִיּוֹת. הַבּוֹנֶה. וְהַסּוֹתֵר. הַמְכַבֶּה. וְהַמַּבְעִיר. הַמַּכֶּה בַפַּטִּישׁ. הַמּוֹצִיא מֵרְשׁוּת לִרְשׁוּת. הֲרֵי אֵלּוּ אֲבוֹת מְלָאכוֹת אַרְבָּעִים חָסֵר אֶחָת:
THE PRIMARY LABOURS ARE FORTY LESS ONE, [VIZ.:] SOWING, PLOUGHING, REAPING, BINDING SHEAVES, THRESHING, WINNOWING, SELECTING, GRINDING, SIFTING, KNEADING, BAKING, SHEARING WOOL, BLEACHING, HACKLING, DYEING, SPINNING, STRETCHING THE THREADS, THE MAKING OF TWO MESHES, WEAVING TWO THREADS, DIVIDING TWO THREADS, TYING [KNOTTING] AND UNTYING, SEWING TWO STITCHES, TEARING IN ORDER TO SEW TWO STITCHES, CAPTURING A DEER, SLAUGHTERING, OR FLAYING, OR SALTING IT, CURING ITS HIDE, SCRAPING IT [OF ITS HAIR], CUTTING IT UP, WRITING TWO LETTERS, ERASING IN ORDER TO WRITE TWO LETTERS [OVER THE ERASURE], BUILDING, PULLING DOWN, EXTINGUISHING, KINDLING, STRIKING WITH A HAMMER, [AND] CARRYING OUT FROM ONE DOMAIN TO ANOTHER: THESE ARE THE FORTY PRIMARY LABOURS LESS ONE.
(m.Shabbat 7:2)
Three of these are specifically mentioned elsewhere in Scripture:
1. Preparation and cooking of food.
(Lev. 23:3; Ex. 34:21; Ex. 16:21-30)
2. Kindling a fire.
(Ex. 35:3)
The Hebrew word here is תְבַעֲר֣וּ which means to “cause to combust” and includes causing anything to burn. This includes causing fuel to burn, as in an internal combustion engine.
3. Carrying anything out of a “domain”.
(Jer. 17:21-22)
The Talmud examines these thirty nine categories, further breaking them down some of them into more detailed sub-categories (b.Shabbat 73a-75b).
II. Travel Limits on Sabbath
We read in the Torah “let no man go out of his place [on the Sabbath]” (Ex. 16:29) How are we to understand “place”?
The Mishna permits travel up to 2,000 cubits in any direction:
“He who went forth [on the Sabbath] on a permissible mission, but they said to him, `The mission has already been completed,’ has two thousand cubits in every direction [in which to travel].” (m.Eruvin 4:3)
However the Essenes only allowed travel up to 1,000 cubits, unless one is following an animal to graze it, in which case they allowed 2,000 cubits:
“One may not travel outside his city more than 1,000 cubits… A man may not voluntarily cross Sabbath borders on the Sabbath Day. A man may walk behind an animal to graze it outside his city up to 2,000 cubits.” (Damascus Document 10, 20; 11, 3)
When Israel was in the wilderness, the “camp” had a radius of 2000 cubits in all directions (see m.Rosh HaShanna 2:5) and the “place outside the camp” where offering of the red heifer was made, was located at the Mount of Olives (m.Middot 1:3). Thus, when we read of the Emissaries that they: `Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.’ (Acts 1:12) we are to understand (with the Mishna) that a “Sabbath Day’s Journey” is 2,000 cubits ( .7 miles).
III. When is the Sabbath “Loosed”?
A. The Sabbath is loosed to fulfill the commandment to “love YHWH with all your heart, with all your soul and all your might” (Deut. 6:4). This includes using an internal combustion engine to drive to a Sabbath convocation; carrying books used for worship or Torah study, and acts involved in worship and Torah study.
Yeshua says:
5 Have you not read in the Torah, that the cohenim profane the Sabbath; in the Temple, and are blameless?
6 But I tell you, that here, is greater than the Temple.
7 But if you had known what it means, For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,(Hosea 6:6) you would not have condemned the guiltless.
(Matthew 12:5-7 HRV)
Yeshua is quoting Hosea:
For I desire mercy (chesed), and not sacrifice:
and the knowledge of Elohim, rather than burnt offerings.
(Hosea 6:6 HRV)
Chesed outweighs the sacrifices, and the sacrifices outweigh the Sabbath, such that chesed outweighs the Sabbath. Likewise the knowledge of Elohim outweighs the burnt offerings and the burnt offerings outweigh the Sabbath, such that the knowledge of Elohim outweighs the Sabbath.
B. The Sabbath is loosed to fulfill the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). Yeshua says:
5 Have you not read in the Torah, that the cohenim profane the Sabbath; in the Temple, and are blameless?
6 But I tell you, that here, is greater than the Temple.
7 But if you had known what it means, For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,(Hosea 6:6) you would not have condemned the guiltless.
(Matthew 12:5-7 HRV)
Yeshua is quoting Hosea:
For I desire mercy (chesed), and not sacrifice:
and the knowledge of Elohim, rather than burntofferings.
(Hosea 6:6 HRV)
The word for “mercy” here is “CHESED” which is a Hebrew word meaning “mercy, grace, undue favor, loving kindness.”
From this verse we learn that any matter of CHESED overrides the sacrifices.
Yeshua reveals to us the weightiest and second weightiest commandments in the Torah, when he is asked:
36 Rabbi, which is the great commandment in the Torah?
37 And Yeshua answered him and said, You shalt love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your nefesh, and with all your might. (Deut. 6:5)
38 This is the greatest commandment in the whole Torah.
39 And this is the first, but the second is like it, And you shalt love your neighbour as yourself. (Lev. 19:18)
40 On these two commandments hang all the Torah and the prophets.
(Matt. 22:36-40)
Mark’s account continues with:
32 And the scribe said to him, Good, Rabbi, you hast said the truth: for he is one; and there are none others apart from him:
33 And that a man should love him with all the heart, and with the entire mind and with all the nefesh, and with all might, (Deut. 6:5) and that he should love his neighbour as himself (Lev. 19:18), greater is this than all the offerings and sacrifices (Hosea 6:6).
34 And Yeshua saw that he answered the matter wisely. He answered and said to him, You are not far from the Kingdom of Elohim. And no man dared to ask him again.
(Mark 12:32-33 HRV)
Here we learn that the two greatest commandments are first to “Love YHWH” (Deut. 6:5) and second to “Love your neighbor” (Lev. 19:18). But Mark 12:33 reveals that these two are connected to Hosea 6:6, which Yeshua had cited in Matthew 12:5-7.
The Sabbath is therefore loosed for healing or health, including ravenous hunger.
1 At that time, Yeshua went through the grain on the Sabbath: and His talmidim were hungry, and began to pluck the ears from the stalks, and to eat.
2 But the P’rushim seeing, said, Behold, your talmidim do that which is not right to do on the Sabbath.
3 But He said to them: Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, both he and they that were with him?
4 For he entered into the House of Elohim, and did eat the showbread: which was not lawful for him to eat them, neither for them which were with him, but only for the cohenim.
5 Have you not read in the Torah, that the cohenim profane the Sabbath; in the Temple, and are blameless?
6 But I tell you, that here, is greater than the Temple.
7 But if you had known what it means, For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,(Hosea 6:6) you would not have condemned the guiltless.
8 For the Son of Man is Adonai; even of the Sabbath.
(Matt. 12:1-8 HRV see also Mark. 2:23-28; Luke 6:1-5)
A longer version of Matthew 12:8 appears in Mark’s account:
27 And He said to them: The Sabbath was made for a son of man, and not a son of man for the Sabbath.
28 Thus also, the Son of Man is the Adonai of the Sabbath.
(Mark 2:27-28 HRV)
A similar saying is given in the Talmud by Rabbi Jonathan ben Joseph, citing the Scriptural basis:
R. Jonathan b. Joseph said: For it is holy unto you (Ex. 30:22; 31:14); I.e., it [the Sabbath] is committed to your hands, not you to its hands.
(b.Yoma 85b)
Since the Sabbath is holy to us (Ex. 30:22; 31:14), and not vice versa, the Sabbath was committed to our hands, and was made for us, not vice versa.
9 And when He had passed over from there, He entered into their synagogue.
10 And behold, a man which had his hand withered. And they asked Him, saying, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to heal the sick? And all this was, that they might accuse Him before the beit din.
11 And He said to them: What man among you, having one sheep that shall fall into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold on it, and lift it out?
12 And is not a man better than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.
13 Then said He to the man: Stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and it was restored to health, like as the other.
(Matthew 12:9-13 HRV see also Luke 6:6-11)
The fourth Century “Church Father” Jerome gives the following additional information about this story taken from the Goodnews according to the Hebrews:
In the Gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use
which I have lately translated into Greek from the Hebrew
and which is called by many people the original of Matthew,
this man who has the withered hand is described as a mason,
who prays for help in such words as these: “I was a mason
seeking a livelihood with my hands: I pray you Yeshua,
to restore me my health, that I may not beg meanly for food.”
(Jerome; On. Mt. 12:13)
Moreover an 8th to 9th century Commentary on Matthew gives further information which it also cites from the Goodnews according to the Hebrews:
“a man” by name Malchus [Melekh] and he was a mason.
(Commentary on Matthew 12:10; MS: Wurzburg, M.p.th.
fol. 61, 8th-9th Century; cited by Bischoff in
Sacris Erudiri VI, 1954, 252)
The account in the Goodnews according to the Hebrews adds the added dimension that a mason is here praying on the Sabbath that his hand be healed so that he may engage in work. This tells us that such a prayer is permitted on Sabbath.
There is much we can learn from this short segment of Matthew.
First, we learn that the Sabbath is loosed for healing and health. (We also see Yeshua healing on the Sabbath in Luke 13:10-17; 14:1-6; Jn. 5:1-9 and John 9:1-41). In John 9:11, 14 Yeshua makes clay in order to heal a man’s blindness. Making clay is one of the 39 categories of prohibited types of “work”. This is here specifically to make it clear that these 39 types of activities are loosed on the Sabbath in order to fulfill the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself).
The sabbath can be loosed for hunger (i.e. ravenous hunger, where health may be at stake, such as low blood sugar). As Yeshua says:
3 But He said to them: Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, both he and they that were with him?
4 For he entered into the House of Elohim, and did eat the showbread: which was not lawful for him to eat them, neither for them which were with him, but only for the cohenim.
(Matthew 12:3-4 HRV)
Yeshua cites the story of 1Sam. 21:1-6 (2-7 gentile versions) where David and his men ate the show bread which was only loosed to the cohanim (Lev. 24:5-9).
The Talmud addresses the account in 1Sam. 21:1-6 as follows:
R. Judah maintains that he [David] found [the priests] baking [the Shewbread] on a weekday and said to them, You are baking it on a weekday? But since it has been sanctified this day in the vessel it will become invalid by being kept overnight! R. Simeon maintains that he found them baking it on the Sabbath and said to them, Should you not have baked it on a weekday? After all it is not the oven that hallows the bread but the table. But how can it be said that he found them baking [the Shewbread]? Is it not written, So the priest gave him hallowed bread; for there was no bread there but the Shewbread that was taken from before the Lord? — Rather it is this that he meant by ‘in a manner common’. They said to him, There is no bread here but the Shewbread that has been taken from before the Lord. And he [David] replied, As to that bread there is no doubt at all, for since it is no more subject to the law of sacrilege it is in a manner common. But even that which has been sanctified this day in the vessel you may give him to eat for he is in danger of his life.
(b.Menachot 95b)
Thus Rashi, in his commentary to 1Sam. 21: 6 writes:
and even if today it would be hallowed in the vessel: and even if today were the commencement of its sanctity on the table, I should (or perhaps it should read, ‘you would’) be obliged to take it from there and feed us, for a ravenous hunger has seized me, and my life is in danger. Thus it is explained in Men. (95b).
By Yeshua’s halacha, as explained in the following verses, the Sabbath is loosed when mere health and not necessarily life is in danger. Yeshua and his talmidim, like David and his men, were permitted to eat, because they had traveled a long distance without food, and their health was at issue.
Doing other good deeds (Matthew 12:12) is also permitted on Sabbath. This can include including saving a human life, rescuing an animal from a pit (Matt. 12:11) and loosing an animal to water it on Sabbath (Luke. 13:15).
C. The Sabbath is loosed to perform any of the Mishpatim, and those of the Edot which are of greater weight than the Sabbath. These include:
Circumcision, as Yeshua says:
2 Because of this, Moshe gave you circumcision; not because it was from the fathers: and on the Sabbath, you circumcise a man.
23 If a man is circumcised on the day of the Sabbath, that the Torah of Moshe be not loosed, do you murmur against Me, because I have healed the whole man on the day of the Sabbath?
(Yochanan 7:22-23 HRV)
Similarly we read in the Talmud:
“R. Eleazar answered and said: If circumcision, which attaches to one only of the two hundred and forty-eight members of the human body, suspends the Sabbath, how much more shall [the saving of] the whole body suspend the Sabbath!”
(b.Yoma 85b)
And is in keeping with the Mishnah, which states:
All of the requirements of circumcision may be done on the Sabbath.
(m.Shabbat 18:1; b.Shabbat 128b)
D. Sacrificial offerings also outweigh the Sabbath (Matthew 12:5-7 & Hosea 6:6)
IV. When does Shabbat begin? Shabbat begins at sunset. However this is a case where we are wise to make a hedge about the Torah by starting Shabbat 18 minutes before sunset (the traditional Jewish custom).
V. When does Shabbat end? The Shabbat also ends at sunset, however to make a hedge about the Torah we should follow the custom laid out in the Shulchan Arukh (Orach Chayim 293:2):
צריך ליזהר מלעשות מלאכה עד שיראו שלשה כוכבים קטנים ולא יהיו מפוזרים אלא רצופים ואם הוא יום המעונן ימתין עד שיצא הספק מלבו:
One must be careful not to do work until he sees three small stars that are not scattered, but rather in a row in one place [in the sky]. If it is a cloudy day, one should wait until he is no longer uncertain at all [that three stars will have appeared].
[Under Construction]