Remember, and keep
The Torah gives the Ten Commandments twice, and this one opens with a different word each time.
Zachor means "remember." Shamor means "keep," in the sense of guarding something. So which word did Hashem say at Sinai? The Gemara quotes a teaching of the Tannaim (the Sages of the Mishnah) that answers: both, at once.
You may know these words from Friday night. Lecha Dodi, the song that welcomes Shabbat, written by Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz in the 1500s, opens its first stanza with them:
What does each word ask of you? The Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, Egypt, 1100s) counts four things in all: two from the Torah, and two that the Prophets spelled out.
Two words, then. And each version of the commandment gives a different reason.
Two reasons
Shemot ties Shabbat to creation. Devarim ties it to leaving Egypt. Switch between the two versions.
Devarim also spells out who else gets to rest:
The two reasons fit together. Shabbat looks back to the making of the world, and back to the night a nation of slaves went free. The Friday night Kiddush mentions both: it calls Shabbat a remembrance of the work of creation, and a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt.
Its partner on the other tablet
An early midrash reads the Ten Commandments in pairs, straight across the two tablets. Shabbat's partner is the ninth: do not bear false witness.
In the Mechilta (an early midrash on Shemot), Rabbi Chananya ben Gamliel (in some editions, Chanina) holds that the commandments were written five on each tablet. Read straight across, each one on the first tablet faces one on the second: the first faces the sixth, the second faces the seventh, and so on. The fourth faces the ninth. (The Sages there say all ten were written on each tablet.)
In plain words: a witness tells a court what happened. Shabbat is a statement, made every week, about what happened at the very beginning: six days of making, then a day of rest. When you keep Shabbat, the way you live says, "He made the world, and He rested." When a person breaks it, says the Mechilta, it is as if he stood up in court and said that Hashem did not rest. So the commandment about Shabbat faces the commandment against false testimony, because both are about telling the truth.
The Mechilta closes with a verse from Yeshayahu: "You are My witnesses, says Hashem" (Yeshayahu 43:12). Read the ninth commandment.
Remember it out loud
The Sages read "remember" as something you say: Kiddush, over a cup of wine.
Kiddush means "making holy." On Friday night, as Shabbat begins, you make it holy with words over a cup of wine. The Gemara goes on to the day: at the Shabbat lunch, the Kiddush is the blessing on wine, borei pri hagafen (Pesachim 106a).
The Rambam rules that the words are a mitzvah from the Torah, said as Shabbat comes in and as it goes out:
Havdalah means "separating": the blessing at the end of Shabbat that marks the line between holy time and the week. In the Rambam's ruling, the cup of wine for both comes from the Sages:
Who says Kiddush? Kiddush comes at a set time, and women are usually not obligated in positive mitzvot that do. Rav Adda bar Ahava teaches that Kiddush is different, and the reason goes back to the two words:
Keeping and remembering come as a pair. Whoever holds back from melachah also says Kiddush.
Delight and honor
The two things the Prophets added: make Shabbat a pleasure, and treat it with honor.
The Gemara turns each phrase into something you can do:
Honor is about how Shabbat looks: Shabbat clothes, a set table, a clean house. Delight is about how it feels: good food, rest, time with people you love. Neither has to cost much:
Why go to the trouble? Because Shabbat is a gift, and a baraita in the Gemara says Hashem wanted the Jewish people to know it:
The 39 melachot
What "keep" holds you back from. The Mishnah counts 39 kinds of creative work, and the Gemara ties them to the building of the Mishkan.
The Mishkan was the portable Temple the Jewish people carried through the desert. Right after the Torah finishes commanding how to build it, it says: "But keep My Shabbatot" (Shemot 31:13). Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, France, 1000s) explains:
Even building the Mishkan stopped for Shabbat. And the Gemara ties the kinds of work Shabbat stops to the work of the Mishkan:
Another view there counts the times the Torah uses the word melachah and its forms: 39. But a baraita (a teaching of the Tannaim) backs the Mishkan view:
The Mishnah's word is avot, "fathers." Each of the 39 is a main category, and each has toldot, "offspring": other acts that do the same job. Watering a garden is an offspring of sowing, and doing laundry is an offspring of whitening wool (Rambam, Laws of Shabbat 8:2, 9:11). The Gemara says the offspring count just like the fathers: תּוֹלְדוֹתֵיהֶן כַּיּוֹצֵא בָּהֶן, "their offspring are like them" (Bava Kamma 2a).
A melachah is defined by what it makes, not by how tiring it is. Writing two letters takes a second, and it is one of the 39.
Four sequences
The Mishnah lists the 39 in working order: from field to bread, from fleece to sewn cloth, from catching an animal to a finished hide and the writing on the boards, and then building, fire, the final blow and carrying. Rashi ties each step to work done for the Mishkan (Rashi on Shabbat 73a). The split into four groups is ours, to help you learn the list. Choose a sequence, then tap any melachah to see what it is and an everyday example.
About the examples. The everyday examples are ours, chosen to be clear, and many come straight from the Rambam's laws of Shabbat. Real life is often less clear, and the "Ask your rav" notes mark some of those cases. The laws of Shabbat fill whole books. This page teaches what Shabbat is. To learn how to keep it, learn with a rav.
Seven stories
Shammai's best animal, a spice called Shabbat, two bundles of myrtle, two angels at the door, a queen and a bride, great rabbis chopping beets, and a pearl in a fish. Step through them.
Where it stops
Shabbat holds back from all 39 melachot. It does not hold back from saving a life.
A life comes first
Shmuel is quoting Vayikra 18:5: the mitzvot are laws "which a person shall do and live by them." Rava says Shmuel's proof is the only one with no weak spot. The Gemara explains: the other proofs cover only a sure danger, and Shmuel's covers even a doubt (Yoma 85b). In the Mishnah, Rabbi Matya ben Charash states it as a rule:
Do not wait
Look at what the rescuer does: he spreads a fishing net, which is trapping. The same teaching goes on to digging out a step for a child who fell into a pit, which is building; breaking down a door that locked a child in; and putting out a fire (Yoma 84b). The melachot on this page step aside, and the person who hurries is the one the Sages praise. The Shulchan Aruch puts it sharply:
Shedding blood, because every minute spent asking can cost a life.
Mercy, not vengeance
Earlier in the same law, the Rambam says this work is not handed off to non-Jews or children, "so that Shabbat will not seem light in their eyes." The leaders of Israel and its sages do it themselves.
Not for less
A life pushes Shabbat aside. A parent's request to break it does not. More on that in Honor Your Father and Your Mother.
In an emergency, act. If someone may be in danger, call for help and do what is needed. Do not stop to ask, and do not wait for Shabbat to end. For things short of danger, like a mild illness, medicine or a small injury, the laws are detailed: ask your rav, before Shabbat if you can.
Common questions
Short answers, with sources.
What do zachor and shamor mean?
Zachor is "remember" and shamor is "keep" or "guard." Shemot 20:8 opens the commandment with the first, Devarim 5:12 with the second, and the Sages say both were said in one utterance (Shevuot 20b). You remember Shabbat in words, with Kiddush and Havdalah (Rambam, Laws of Shabbat 29:1). You keep it by holding back from melachah.
When does Shabbat start and end?
It begins at sunset on Friday and ends at nightfall on Saturday night. The Shulchan Aruch brings the view that you add some time from the weekday onto Shabbat, starting it a little early (Orach Chayim 261:2), and it rules that melachah waits until three small stars can be seen close together (Orach Chayim 293:2). Local calendars list the times; ask your rav about your community's practice.
Why are there 39 melachot?
The Mishnah counts the main kinds of melachah as "forty less one" (Shabbat 7:2). The Gemara brings two views on what the number matches: the kinds of work done to build the Mishkan, or the 39 times the Torah uses the word melachah and its forms (Shabbat 49b). A baraita backs the Mishkan view.
If something is not one of the 39, is it fine on Shabbat?
Not always. The Sages added rules, for example about muktzeh, "set aside": things not meant to be moved on Shabbat. The Rambam explains why: if a person could move things around and rearrange them all day the way he does during the week, Shabbat would feel like a weekday, and he would not really rest (Laws of Shabbat 24:12-13). The Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, Spain, 1200s), writing about the festivals, says the same holds for Shabbat itself: the Torah calls the day shabbaton so that it is "a day of stopping and rest, not a day of toil" (Ramban on Vayikra 23:24).
What about lights, phones and electricity?
The 39 were counted long before electricity. In Orthodox practice, electric lights and devices are not turned on or off on Shabbat, and poskim (rabbis who decide Jewish law) discuss which melachah or rule of the Sages each case involves. Timers, hotplates and devices are questions for your rav.
Do women say Kiddush?
Yes. Rav Adda bar Ahava teaches that women are obligated in Kiddush by Torah law, because whoever is commanded to keep Shabbat is commanded to remember it (Shevuot 20b).
Why light two candles?
The Shulchan Aruch mentions people who make two wicks, one for zachor and one for shamor. The Rema adds that you may light more, and that the custom is three or four (Orach Chayim 263:1).
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