What is to be understood by the term “labour” or “work” in the prohibition “Thou shalt not do any manner of work”? The Pentateuch gives no definition of the term. But the Israelites, when they were told that work was prohibited on Sabbath, and that [[350]]any breach of the law was to be punished with death, must have received orally a full explanation of the prohibition. A case is mentioned of one who profaned the Sabbath by gathering sticks, and was put to death; this could not have been done if any doubt had been left in his mind whether the act of gathering sticks was included in the prohibition.
A few instances of work prohibited on a Sabbath-day are met with in the Bible. In connection with the manna, the prohibition of cooking and baking is mentioned; also the commandment, “Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day” (Exod. xvi. 29); i.e., we must not travel or go beyond a certain distance[35] on the Sabbath. Another act distinctly forbidden is contained in the words, “Ye shall kindle no fire in all your dwellings on the day of rest” (ibid. xxxv. 3). The prophet Amos (viii. 5), in rebuking the Israelites for cheating their fellow-men, puts the following words into their mouth: “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may open our stores of wheat?” This shows that the Israelites conducted no business on New-moon and Sabbath. Jeremiah (xvii. 21 sqq.) says as follows: “Thus saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in [[351]]by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day.”—Nehemiah relates (xiii. 15): “In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. Then I said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do and profane the sabbath day?” As a general rule, we may say that the work prohibited on Sabbath and Festivals embraces two classes: viz., (1) All such acts as are legally—i.e., in the Oral Law—defined as מלאכה “work.” It makes no difference whether we consider any of them as labour or not. Under thirty-nine different heads[36] they are enumerated in the Mishnah (Shabbath vii. 2). The following are a few of them:—Ploughing, sowing, reaping, threshing, [[352]]grinding, baking, hunting, killing an animal, tanning, sewing, writing, kindling light or fire, and carrying things abroad.
(2.) Everything which our conscience tells us to be inappropriate for the Sabbath; acts which come neither under the head of מלאכה nor under that of שבות, but which would tend to change the Sabbath into an ordinary day; e.g., preparing for our daily business transactions, although such preparation does not involve an actual breach of any of the Sabbath laws.
Whatever we are not allowed to do ourselves, we must not have done for us by a co-religionist, who deliberately disregards the fourth commandment. Neither must we employ non-Israelites to do our work on Sabbath, except in case of need; e.g., in case of illness or fear of illness.
As regards Holy-days, there is the general rule that work (מלאכה) prohibited on Sabbath must not be done on Holy-days: “Save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you” (Exod. xii. 16); that is to say, it is allowed on Festivals to cook, to bake, or to prepare food in any other way.[37] Of course, for the Festival that happens to fall on a Sabbath, the [[353]]laws of Sabbath remain in force. The Day of Atonement is in this respect equal to Sabbath.
c. ענג “Delight.”
The principal and noblest delight yielded by Holy-days is the pleasure we feel in more frequent communion with the Divine Being, in the purer and holier thoughts with which we are inspired when at rest from ordinary work, and able to devote ourselves more fully [[354]]to the contemplation of the works and words of God. In this sense the day of rest is described in one of the hymns (זמירות) after supper as “a foretaste of the world to come” (מעין עולם הבא יום שבת מנוחה).
But oneg shabbath includes also delight of a less spiritual character. We are not commanded on the days of rest to forget altogether the wants of the body. On the contrary. Nehemiah, when on the first day of the seventh month, that is, on New-year, he perceived that his brethren were sad, addressed them thus: “Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions unto him for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto the Lord: neither be ye grieved; for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. viii. 10). The same conception of “the sabbath unto the Lord” is met with in Talmud, Midrash, and throughout the whole of the Rabbinical literature. In one of our Sabbath-hymns (זמירות) we say: “This day is for Israel, light and joy, a sabbath of rest;” and in our prayers for Sabbath we glory in being shom’re shabbath ve-kor’e oneg, “observers of the sabbath, and such as call it a delight.”—With regard to the Festivals, the duty of rejoicing is repeatedly enjoined (Deut. xvi. 11, 14).
In our regulations, customs, and prayers for Sabbath and Festivals, this duty is clearly indicated. All fasting and mourning is prohibited. Care was taken that Divine Service should be free from such prayers as would be likely to create feelings of grief and sadness.[38] A special formula has also been introduced for the [[355]]expression of our sympathy with the sick and the mourner on Sabbath and Festivals.[39]
When any of the obligatory fasts—except the Day of Atonement—happens to fall on a Sabbath, the fasting is put off (נדחה) till the next day, or kept, as in the case of the fast of Esther, on the preceding Thursday. Tradition has raised the taking of the three regular meals on Sabbath (שלש סעודות), viz., supper, breakfast, and dinner, to a religious act—a mitsvah, and the religious character of the meals is shown by the special prayers and hymns—zemiroth—which accompany them. A fourth meal is, according to some authority, likewise obligatory; whilst, according to another authority, it may be replaced by spiritual food, by reading and studying the Torah.