What does “work” mean to you? Does it mean earning a paycheck? Breaking a sweat? As most of us know, the Torah prohibits work on the Sabbath -- but the word means different things to different people. Can you run a marathon on the Sabbath? What if it doesn’t feel like “work”?
The Talmud answers these questions in detail, listing fully thirty-nine different categories of work, along with all of their sub-categories and sub-sub-categories. The Sages identify hundreds of laws that govern the observance of the Sabbath: laws about how to cut and heat your food, about what and where to carry, and about how to tie your shoes. And where do they look to formulate these laws? The Sages say that the basis for understanding what “work” is comes from this week’s parsha, Parshat Vayakhel.

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