This week's portion talks about building the tabernacle in the wilderness. It begins with a reminder that one does not work on Shabbat (the Sabbath) and in fact one cannot have a fire burning in one's home!
If observing Shabbat takes precedence over this most holy of work why is it so hard for us to take a break from our work from Friday night through Saturday afternoon? How can we make that time "sacred," "set apart," qualitatively different than the other days of the week?
(1) And Moses assembled all the congregation of the children of Israel, and said to them: ‘These are the words which the ETERNAL has commanded, that you should do them. (2) 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 ETERNAL; whoever does any work shall be put to death. (3) You shall burn no fire throughout your habitations on the sabbath day.’
(1) "Six Days" - He (Moses) prefaced (the discussion of the details of) the work of the Mishkan with the warning to keep the Sabbath, denoting that it (i.e. the work of building the Tabernacle) does not supersede the Sabbath laws.