פרשת ויקהל - פקודי תשי"ב - שבת שבתון

And Moses assembled all the congregation of the children of Israel, and said unto them: ‘These are the words which the LORD hath commanded, that ye should do them.

That Ad-noy commanded you to do. This cannot refer to the obligation to refrain from working on Shabbos because that would be a command of what not to do. Rather it refers to the statement, “Work may (or, “shall”) be done six days,” which is an injunction to proceed with the building of the Tabernacle throughout the week. This is followed by the prohibition against working on Shabbos to indicate that although the construction of the Tabernacle is obligatory, it must be halted on Shabbos.

Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of solemn rest to the LORD; whosoever doeth any work therein shall be put to death.

ועשית כל מלאכתך [SIX DAYS SHALT THOU LABOUR] AND DO ALL THY WORK — When the Sabbath comes it should be in thy eyes as though all thy work were done (completed), so that thou shouldst not think at all about work (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:9).

Six days thou shalt do thy work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may have rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD; whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of solemn rest to the LORD; whosoever doeth any work therein shall be put to death.

ואת שבתתי תשמרו AND MY SABBATHS SHALL YE KEEP — Scripture places the commandment of observing the Sabbath immediately after that of fearing one’s father in order to suggest the following: “Although I admonish you regarding the fear due to your father, yet if he bids you: "Desecrate the Sabbath", do not listen to him” — and the same is the case with any of the other commandments. This, it is evident, is the meaning since Scripture adds —

Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.’

לא תבערו אש, seeing that in connection with the festivals the Torah wrote that work in connection with the preparation of food was permitted on such days, meaning that the handling of fire was permitted. (Exodus 12.16) Moses had specifically permitted baking and cooking (Exodus 16,23). In view of this the Torah considered it as necessary to repeat the prohibition of handling fire on the Sabbath. If this kind of work was prohibited on the Sabbath, other work which was far less urgent was certainly prohibited also.

לא תבערו אש, “do not kindle a fire;” some of our Rabbis claim that the reason that of all the work prohibitions on the Sabbath, only the act of kindling a fire has been singled out by name, is to teach us that lighting a fire is the only one of these prohibitions which, instead of being punishable by death when performed knowingly, is punishable only by 39 lashes, as are other negative commandments when violated on purpose. This is the view of Rabbi Yossi in the Talmud, tractate Shabbat folio 70. Rabbi Nathan, on the other hand, holds that the reason why this mode of activity has been singled out by name is: לחלק, i.e. to give us a definition of the nature of the activities that are prohibited on the Sabbath. It was singled out as a basic activity. Just as this activity is prohibited on the Sabbath on pain of death, so are all the other activities which were indispensable for building a Tabernacle equally forbidden to be performed on any Sabbath for any purpose. Any activity required to be performed for building or functioning of the Tabernacle is considered a basic activity, or אב מלאכה, in Hebrew, and is punishable separately even if performed as part of a number of activities. We have a rule in the Talmud, that if something had at one time been part of a number of items under the same heading, and had subsequently been singled out, it was singled out as an example in order to teach that what applies to it now, also applies to the other items that it had been part of under the same heading, i.e. been under the same “umbrella.” In our situation it means that the other 38 types of basic activities connected with the construction of the Tabernacle or its functions must also not be performed on the Sabbath, each such on pain of death. This is the way in which Rashi explains the verse in general terms. The reason why just the activity of kindling light was chosen by the Torah as the example in question, is that lighting a fire is something that for the onlooker hardly seems like an activity at all, involving neither skill, nor physical strain. If you were to say that granted that actually lighting a fire on the Sabbath is forbidden, but activities preparatory to lighting a fire after the Sabbath are permitted, this too is prohibited. The Sabbath is not a day to be used as a preparation for the activities on the six weekdays. A different interpretation: the reason that the legislation about work prohibition is repeated here is in order that people would not say that just as in Parshat Bo (Exodus 12,16) certain kinds of work were prohibited on the festivals, but preparation of foodnecessitating lighting a fire was exempted, the same was true during the Sabbaths during which work on the Tabernacle was in progress. The Torah therefore categorically prohibited this kind of work, implying that, of course, all other kind of work would be prohibited also.