39 Melakhot
The 39 Melakhot are thirty-nine categories of activity which Jewish law identifies as prohibited by biblical law on Shabbat. These activities are also prohibited on the Jewish holidays listed in the Torah, but there are significant exceptions that permit carrying and preparing food under specific circumstances on holidays.
In addition to the 39 melakhot, certain other activities are forbidden on Shabbat due to rabbinic law.
The observance of Shabbat is often seen as a benchmark for orthodoxy and indeed has legal bearing on the way a Jew is seen by an Orthodox religious court regarding their affiliation to Judaism.
The commandment
The commandment to keep Shabbat as a day of rest is repeated many times in the Hebrew Bible. Its importance is also stressed in Exodus 31:12–17:Meaning of "work"
Though melakha is usually translated as "work" in English, the term does not correspond to the ordinary definition of the term, as explained below.The traditional analysis and explanation of the term, as well as the logic for identifying the activities prohibited to be done on the Sabbath, is recorded in tractate Shabbat.
The rabbis there noted the symmetry between Genesis 2:1–3 and Exodus 31:1–11 and derive the rule on this basis based on the Thirteen Rules of Rabbi Ishmael. The same term melakha is used in both places:
- uses the term melakha in reference to the Creation:
- provides detailed instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle, again using the term melakha. The word is usually translated as "workmanship", which has a strong element of "creation" or "creativity". This section immediately precedes the section concerning Sabbath rest quoted above.
In the first passage, there is a "ceasing from" "creation" or "creating", thus melakha in the latter paragraph is also taken to refer to creative, and mindful, activity. As regards the listing: similarly, the activities required for the construction of the Tabernacle and preparing the showbread form the thirty-nine categories of activity listed below.
Definition
All the categories of work prohibited on the Sabbath are derived from activities which were required in the setting up, and maintenance of, the Tabernacle known as the "Mishkan". The first group of eleven activities are involved in the making of the showbreads that were always present in the Mishkan. Or, according to another opinion, the exact same eleven activities were required for the procurement and manufacture of dyes required for the making of the tapestries that were used as part of the roofing of the Tabernacle. The next grouping was for the manufacture of the tapestries, starting with the manufacture of wool right from the shearing process. The next group were for the manufacture of the leather hides also used in the Tabernacle's covering starting right from the trapping of animals. The last group of activities are grouped together for things that were required in the construction, disassembly and running of the Tabernacle itself.The thirty-nine melakhot are not so much activities as categories of activity. For example, "threshing" usually refers exclusively to the loosening of the edible part of grain attached to its chaff. From this heading the Talmudic legal discussion applies this to any separation of intermixed materials where a desirable inner portion is extracted from an undesirable exterior element. So, "threshing" was the heading of the topic that was used to describe this process as it was familiar to all in Talmudic times.
Many rabbinical scholars have, as above, pointed out that these regulations of labor have something in common – they prohibit any activity that is externally creative, or that exercises control or dominion over one's environment.
The extension of the definition is consistent with the common etymology -melakha for "work" and malach for messenger / agent or "angel": just as the malach is the agent used to bring about the realization and execution of a certain idea, so does melakha take a thought or idea and carry through to turn it into a reality.
The definitions presented in this article are only 'headings' for in-depth topics and without study of the relevant laws it would be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to properly keep the Sabbath according to Halacha/Jewish Law.
The thirty-nine creative activities
The 39 melakhot are discussed in the Talmud in tractate Shabbat. As listed in the Mishna , they are as follows:Transferring between domains and preparing food are permitted on Jewish holidays. These are the only exceptions to the rule that activities prohibited on the Sabbath are likewise prohibited on holidays.
Note: The thirty-nine prohibited activities are bolded.
The Order of Bread
Ploughing">Plough">Ploughing
Hebrew:Definition: Promotion of substrate in readiness for plant growth.
Included in this prohibition is any preparation or improvement of any material for agricultural use, be it soil, water for hydroponics, etc.. This activity is standalone; irrespective of whether seeding takes place in the substrate subsequently.
This includes dragging chair legs in soft soil thereby unintentionally making furrows, or pouring water on arable land that is not saturated. Making a hole in the soil would also provide protection for a seed placed there from rain and runoff; even if no seed is ever placed there, the soil is now enhanced for the process of planting.
The Mishna lists ploughing after planting, although one must plow a field before planting. The Gemara asks why this order occurs and answers that the author of this Mishna was a Tanna living in the Land of Israel, where the ground is hard. Since the ground is so hard in Israel, it needed to be ploughed both before planting and after planting. The Mishna lists ploughing second, teaching that the second ploughing is prohibited.. The Rambam lists ploughing first and planting second.
See further: Mishneh Torah Shabbat 7:3, 8:1, 21:2–4; Ḥayei Adam Shabbat 10
Planting">Sowing">Planting
Definition: Promotion of plant growth.Not only planting is included in this category; other activities that promote plant growth are also prohibited. This includes watering, fertilizing, planting seeds, or planting grown plants.
See further: Mishneh Torah Shabbat 8:2, 21:5; Shulḥan Arukh Oraḥ Ḥayim 336; Ḥayei Adam Shabbat 11
Reaping">Harvest">Reaping
Hebrew:Definition: Severing a plant from its source of growth.
Removing all or part of a plant from its source of growth is reaping. Climbing a tree is rabbinically forbidden, for fear this may lead to one tearing off a branch. Riding an animal is also rabbinically forbidden, as one may unthinkingly detach a stick with which to hit the animal.
See further: Mishneh Torah Shabbat 8:3–5, 21:6–10; Ḥayei Adam Shabbat 12
Gathering">Harvest">Gathering
Hebrew:Definition: Initial gathering of earth-borne/organic material in its original place.
E.g. After picking strawberries, forming a pile or collecting them into one's pockets, or a basket. Collecting rock salt or any mineral they do not grow in that environment and 2) they were already initially gathered in the orchard.
However, subsequent gathering, which improves the object affected is included in this law. For example, stringing diamonds together to form a necklace is a significant improvement of their gathered status. This may well extend to pearls as well.
See further: Mishneh Torah Shabbat 8:5, 21:11; Ḥayei Adam Shabbat 13
[Threshing]/extraction">Resource extraction">extraction
Hebrew:Definition: Extraction of a desirable inner from an undesirable outer.
This is derived from the cracking of the husks that encase the kernels of wheat. These undesirable husks have to be cracked open in order to extract the desirable inner kernels in order to process them further.
This is a large topic of study. It refers to any productive extraction and includes juicing fruits and vegetables and wringing out of cloths, as the juice or water inside the fruit is considered 'desirable' for these purposes, while the pulp of the fruit would be the 'undesirable.'
As such, squeezing to extract a desirable inner is generally forbidden unless certain rules are applicable dependant upon the case. The wringing of undesirable water out of cloths may also come under scouring/laundering. This activity should be viewed more accurately as extraction, while sorting is more akin to purification.
See further: Mishneh Torah Shabbat 8:7–10, 21:12–16; Shulḥan Arukh Oraḥ Ḥayim 319–321; Ḥayei Adam Shabbat 14
[Winnowing]
Hebrew:Definition: Sorting undesirable from desirable via the force of air, or dispersal via the force of air.
In the Babylonian Talmud this refers exclusively to an act of separation, for example, chaff from grain – i.e. to any separation of intermixed materials. Example: If one has a handful of peanuts, in their paper-thin brown skins, and one blows on the mixture of peanuts and skins, dispersing the unwanted skins from the peanuts, this would be an act of winnowing according to both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud.
The Jerusalem Talmud has a more inclusive and general definition of Zoreh. By this definition, use of the Venturi tube spray system and spray painting, would come under this prohibition, while butane or propane propelled sprays are permissible to operate as the dispersal force generated is not from air, rather from the propellant within the can. According to the Babylonian Talmud's definition, neither of the above spraying methods is involved in sorting undesirable from desirable and therefore not part of this heading.
Rabbi Moses Isserles holds that, unusually, the Jerusalem Talmud's definition should also be taken into account. As there's no argument between the Rema and the Beit Yosef on this point, Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews do not disagree with the Rema's extended inclusion of the Jerusalem Talmud's definition in this case.
See further: Shulḥan Arukh Oraḥ Ḥayim 219:7; Ḥayei Adam Shabbat 15.