Electricity / Electronics / Electric Cars (3) – What is Melakhah [Work]? (Part 1)

We have now reached the key question. The central commandment of Shabbat is the prohibition against doing any work: לא תעשה כל מלאכה – you shall not do any work. [Ex. 20:10]. But what counts as work?

The Mishnah gives a list of the different categories of work in the 7th chapter of tractate Shabbat:

The 39 categories of melakhah are:
ploughing, sowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking,

shearing wool, washing wool, beating wool, dyeing wool, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying, untying, sewing stitches, tearing,

trapping, slaughtering, flaying, tanning, scraping hide, marking hides, cutting hide to shape, writing two or more letters, erasing two or more letters,

building, demolishing, extinguishing a fire, kindling a fire, putting the finishing touch on an object
and transporting an object between the private domain and the public domain.

Mishnah Shabbat 7:2

The Mishnah doesn’t provide any explanation of the logic behind this list, but in the Rabbinic literature, we find at least 4 different narratives that attempt to explain the meaning of work on Shabbat. We will examine them below.

Narrative One: The Construction of the Mishkan

The best-known explanation of the Melakhot is that which is found Mekhilta of Rabbi Yishmael, and subsequently in the Babylonian Talmud, particularly amongst the Amoraim of the later generations. This explanation sees a link between the construction of the Mishkan and the prohibitions of Shabbat.

… It is, [therefore] written “Moses then convoked the whole Israelite community and said to them: These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do: On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord…” (Exod. 35:1-2) before charging the people with the work of the sanctuary — to teach that such work is to be done on a weekday, and not on the Shabbat.

Subsequent debates in the Talmud are ambiguous about the role of this narrative. However, it is frequently quoted in later literature, for example in the Aruch HaShulchan:

All labours that were performed in the construction of the Mishkan- those are the labours that are forbidden on Shabbat.

[Michael Yechiel Halevy-Epstein, Aruch Ha-Shulchan, OH 242:9 ]

This explanation is not found in the Mishnah. The Talmud never uses it to explain why something has been forbidden – for instance, by saying that a specific activity is forbidden because that is what they used to do in the Temple. The Mishnah provides three other definitions of forbidden work on Shabbat. For these reasons, we don’t consider this explanation as being the prime narrative to explain the Shabbat prohibitions.

Narrative Two: Carrying and Reassembling the Mishkan

There are several places where the Mishnah connects between the work done in carrying and assembling the Mishkan and the laws of Shabbat. For example:

הַמּוֹצִיא בֵּין בִּימִינוֹ בֵּין בִּשְׂמֹאלוֹ, בְּתוֹךְ חֵיקוֹ אוֹ עַל כְּתֵפוֹ, חַיָּב, שֶׁכֵּן מַשָּׂא בְנֵי קְהָת.

If one carries something out, whether with his right or with his left hand, in his lap or on his shoulder, he is liable, because this is the way of the carrying of the children of Kohat.
M.Shabbat 10:3

Or

הַכּוֹתֵב שְׁתֵּי אוֹתִיּוֹת…  חַיָּב. אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹסֵי, לֹא חִיְּבוּ שְׁתֵּי אוֹתִיּוֹת אֶלָּא מִשּׁוּם רֹשֶׁם, שֶׁכָּךְ הָיוּ כוֹתְבִין עַל קַרְשֵׁי הַמִּשְׁכָּן, לֵידַע אֵיזוֹ בֶן זוּגוֹ.

He who writes two letters… is liable. Rabbi Jose said: they made one liable for writing two letters only because [he makes] a mark, since this is how they would write on each board of the tabernacle, to know which its companion was.

M. Shabbat 12:3

None of these sources connect the prohibition to the work of constructing the Mishkan – only the work connected to carrying and reassembling it. Also, these sources are all concerned with establishing the degree of liability in the case of transgression – but not in the actual definition of work itself. So, in our quest to find the primary meaning of Melakhah, we will need to continue to look elsewhere.

There are two other narratives in the Talmud to explain the rationale behind the Shabbat prohibitions. I will present them in my next post.

Based on: A New Responsum on the Sabbath. Rabbi Mordecai Schwartz and Rabbi Chaim Weiner