Things forbidden on the Sabbath

Click on this link for more detail about what is enjoined on the Sabbath.

Things forbidden on the Sabbath:

1. Anything connected with your regular work, or manual labour
2. No creative activity or creative work
3. No making people serve you, or giving orders to do things

4. No carrying of loads or burdens
5. No kindling or extinguishing of flame or fire
6. No buying or selling
7. No doing of evil; no killing or destruction of anything

And in detail:

1. Anything connected with regular work, or manual labour

“but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHVH your God. On it you shall not do any work” (Ex 20:10a, Deut 5:14a)
“For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to YHVH” (Ex 31:15)
“Six days you shall labour, but on the seventh day you shall rest” (Ex 34:21a)
“even during the ploughing season and harvest you must rest” (Ex 34:21b)

The Hebrew word for work here is melakhah. It is from the verb root le’akh, and has the idea of commissioned work, like that of a craftsman or artisan, or physical labour that is carried out as part of one’s normal work. So no housework, no creative work or manual work.

A. at home
* No domestic chores
* No preparing of meals or processing of food
* No making or mending of cloth or clothes
* No washing or cleaning things

B. At work
* No gathering or harvesting of things to make things
* No field labour
* No processing of harvested items

* No manual labour of any kind
* No clerical or administrative work
* No hunting, or killing animals or preparation of carcasses
* No working as a servant or slave, or serving anyone in any way

C. Rest
One Passage in Isaiah 58:13 speaks of the rewards of not travelling on the Sabbath ‘If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath …… then you will find your joy in YHVH’.
By the commandment to rest, traditionally has been extrapolated the idea that we should not travel long distances on the Sabbath. Again, traditionally, this was set at a limit of 2000 paces (about 2 miles, or 40 minutes walk at average pace).

2. No creative activity or creative work

“By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done” (Gen 2:2-3)

* No working of textile materials
* No crafting, forming, shaping or making anything
* No leather-making or preparing of hides
* No writing of an original work
* No making any item of art
* No manufacture of anything
* No playing games or sports

3. No making people serve you, or giving orders to do things (by logical extrapolation)

“On it you shall not do any work, neither …… your manservant or maidservant” (Ex 20:10b, Deut 5:14b)
“so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do” (Deut 5:14c)

* No one serves you. You do everything yourself
* No doing anything that causes another person to have to do work for you directly or indirectly
* No ill-treatment of servants or animals, no making animals serve you or do things for you. (Deut 5:14 – “nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals”)
* Even the land must rest, so no digging, ploughing, sowing, plucking etc. (Ex 34:21b – “even during the ploughing season and harvest you must rest”)

4. No carrying of loads or burdens

“This is what YHVH says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day” (Jer 17:21)
“Do not bring a load out of your houses ………, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors” (Jer 17:22)

* Not to gather things to form a load (e.g. Num 15:32 – gathering firewood, or Ex 16:29 – gathering manna)
* Not to take loads out of the house (Jer 17:22)
* Not to bring loads into Jerusalem (Neh 13:19, Jer 17:21-24)

5. No kindling or extinguishing of fire

“Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day” (Ex 35:3)

* No lighting of any kinds of fire or flame (this was originally to prevent people going out to find kindling and so doing a form of work, but it is also to do with no creating anything, since God rested from God’s creation on the Sabbath)

* No extinguishing flame (this is not openly commanded in Torah; however, light on the Sabbath represents the goodness and holiness of God, so to extinguish it would be to extinguish a sacred feature of the Sabbath, and so breaks the sacred principle not to desecrate the Sabbath {Isa 56:2}. Also, there is an natural aversion to destroying anything on the Sabbath, and to extinguish a flame would be to destroy light. The only exception to this would be where the flame or fire presents a clear danger to life or property).

6. No buying or selling

“When the neighbouring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath” (Neh 10:31a)
“Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, ‘When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?” (Am 8:4-5)

* No engaging in any kind of business
* No conducting of business transactions
* No discussing work or business

7. No doing of evil

“Blessed is the one who does this, the one who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps their hand from doing any evil”
(Isa 56:2)

From the sacred principle not to desecrate the Sabbath, we have the following:

* Don’t discuss bad or unhappy things
* No saying unkind things about others (Isa 58:13 ‘you honour it by not… …speaking idle words’)

* No presenting worries to people or creating anxieties
* No fighting (except to defend or protect yourself or others)

* No killing (this includes no killing of plants or animals)

* No destruction of anything

We have several prayerbooks which are used on the Sabbath, which are available for purchase from Amazon.

In the US:

Home Services for the opening of the Sabbath, Sabbath afternoon and the close of the Sabbath

A Siddur for the Shabbat Morning Services for Home and Synagogue (Black & White)

A Siddur for the Shabbat Morning Services for Home and Synagogue (in Colour)

In the UK:

Home Services for the opening of the Sabbath, Sabbath afternoon and the close of the Sabbath

A Siddur for the Shabbat Morning Services for Home and Synagogue (Black & White)

A Siddur for the Shabbat Morning Services for Home and Synagogue (in Colour)