Shabbat Basics

(1) The heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array. (2) On the seventh day God finished the work that He had been doing, and He ceased on the seventh day from all the work that He had done. (3) And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation that He had done.

(8) Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. (9) Six days you shall labor and do all your work, (10) but the seventh day is a sabbath of Adonai your God: you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. (11) For in six days Adonai made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; therefore Adonai blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.

(13) Six days you shall labor and do all your work, (14) but the seventh day is a sabbath of Adonai, your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. (15) Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and Adonai your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore Adonai your God has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

Come, my beloved to greet the bride!

Let us receive the Shabbat.

"Guard" and "remember" in a single utterance we heard the Singular One say, God is One and God's name is One, in name and in beauty and in praise!

(2) The primary categories of labor prohibited on Shabbat (melachah) number forty-less-one: One who sows, and one who plows, and one who reaps, and one who gathers, and one who threshes, and one who winnows, one who selects, one who grinds, and one who sifts, and one who kneads, and one who bakes. One who shears wool, and one who whitens it, ... one who ties, and one who unties, and one who sews two stitches, one who tears in order to sew two stitches. ... One who writes two letters and one who erases in order to write two letters. One who builds, and one who dismantles, one who extinguishes a fire, and one who kindles a fire. One who strikes a blow with a hammer, one who carries out an object from domain to domain. All these are primary categories of labor, and they number forty-less-one.