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It is a mitzva to abstain from work on Shabbat, as we read, “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease” (Exodus 23:12). Many nations learned from us to take off one day a week. However, the Jewish Sabbath has additional sanctity and restrictions. Anyone who engages in melakha (creative labor), even something minor, damages Shabbat’s holiness and transgresses biblically. As we read, “The seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; you shall not do any work (melakha)” (Exodus 20:10), and “You shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy for you. He who profanes it shall be put to death; whoever does work (melakha) on it shall be cut off from among his people” (ibid. 31:14). The mitzva to rest applies to children, servants, and even animals, as we read, “You shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your donkey, any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do” (Deuteronomy 5:13).
