Since clothing is especially significant, there are thirteen melakhot dealing with clothes, from preparing the threads to sewing the garment. The melakha relevant to most people not involved in clothing manufacture is Laundering. There are three stages in the Laundering process:
- Soaking an item of clothing in water, which removes some of the dirt.
- Scrubbing the wet item, which removes more dirt.
- Wringing out the clothing to get rid of the dirty water.
As each stage involves removing some of the dirt in the clothing, each stage is prohibited in its own right. Even simply removing a stain with water or a cleaning agent is biblically prohibited. However, a stain may be removed without water, as long as it is scratched off using a shinui.
