Historia de’ riti Ebraici (History of the Jewish Rites): On the Sabbath

Part III, Chapter One: On the Feast of the Sabbath

1. Jews hold the Sabbath, above all other feasts, with the greatest veneration on account of it being named so often in the Scripture and being ordered, from the beginning, in the book of Genesis, in chapter 2 and twice in the Decalogue and in so many other places where the prohibition from any activity and the obligation of rest appears.
2. Rabbis have summed up thirty-nine forms of work which are prohibited: plowing, sowing, winnowing, reaping, binding the sheaves, threshing, selecting grain, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, scouring, combing, spinning, threading needles, weaving threads, making loops, dyeing, tying a knot, spinning, untying a knot, sewing, tearing, building, breaking down, striking the final hammer blow, hunting, slaughtering, skinning, tanning leather, smoothing, cutting, ruling lines, writing, erasing, kindling a fire, extinguishing a fire, transferring something from one place to another in public. These are the principles and all the species that derive from the genus such as filing which derives from grinding because in both cases other objects are produced, in the case of constructing from building as in both cases many objects are reduced to one and so on.

This is all subtly affirmed in the declarations of the rabbis when they state the following:

3. Fire cannot be lit or stoked as is declared in Exodus 35:3, You shall kindle no fire throughout your settlements on the Sabbath; neither fire, nor wood that is on fire, can be touched or stoked and a flame cannot be lit or rekindled. In places that are cold, stoves can be heated before Shabbat begins. If a non-Jew lights a fire for them, if they do not ask him to do so it is acceptable, otherwise they must do without it.
4. They cannot cook anything on Shabbat nor can they have anything cooked, nor can they eat anything cooked, born, or picked on Shabbat.
5. They cannot carry anything and cannot wear anything that it is not necessary to wear or to attach because otherwise it can be said that they are carrying something or something weighs them down. This can be said about the clothing of women, children, or servants as the Decalogue states, in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy 5, that you will not do work, nor will your son or daughter, male or female servants, ox or donkey.
6. It is not permitted to speak about business, nor the price of anything nor conclude a transaction, nor sell, nor give, nor have as is stated in Isaiah chapter 58[:13]. “You will refrain from trampling the Sabbath . . . nor look to your affairs nor strike bargains.”
7. They cannot touch or handle anything that weighs, nor an instrument of art, or some other thing which they cannot do on Shabbat.
8. They cannot walk more than a mile outside of the city or town, that is, two thousand fathoms.
9. Rabbis have prohibited many things for greater caution regarding the carrying out of business and manual labor such as not touching money, nor riding a horse, nor entering a boat, nor touching an instrument, nor washing oneself.
10. Rabbis have restricted the activity of surgeons with regards to the sick, but in the case of physicians, when doctors deem there to be danger, even if it is minor, or in the case of a woman in labor, they have granted permission for them to work.
11. Thus on Friday each person should make sure that they have all that will be needed on Saturday, as in the case of manna as Moses said in Exodus 19 [sic]: on the sixth day, when they apportion, etc. They consider it right to spend liberally in order to honor the sixth day as is stated in Isaiah 58[:13]: and you shall honor it. And they must strive to honor it personally even in humble tasks.
12. Nothing on Friday can begin if it will not be concluded in the evening an hour before sundown; everything must be warmed and cooked in the best possible way for the next day. All work is concluded and in many cities someone even cries out a half hour before to signal the beginning of the feast so that people can hurry up and finish what they have begun.
13. When it is the twenty-third hour on Friday, about half an hour before sundown, the feast is said to begin, with all of its prohibitions and women are expected to light an oil candle which has four or six wicks which should last the better part of the night. The table is to be set with a white tablecloth and bread and another white tablecloth which is long and tight-fitting is to be placed over the bread. It is said that this is to be done in honor of the manna which descended and was covered on the top and on the bottom in dew and which did not arrive on the Sabbath.
14. Many men change their shirts and wash their hands and faces and go to the synagogue, where they recite Psalm 91 [sic]: It is good to praise the Lord and the usual prayers, also naming the Sabbath and the verses in Genesis 2[:1, 3]: Thus the heavens were completed and Then God blessed the seventh day.
15. Then each one goes to their house and in greeting they do not say “Good evening” or “Good morning” but rather “Good Sabbath” and fathers bless their children, and masters their disciples, and some recite verses in praise of the Sabbath according to custom, some before and some after the meal.
16. They sit down at the table and the host of the home takes a cup of wine in hand saying the following words from Genesis 2[:1]: Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in their vast array, etc. Then he blesses the wine and drinks and gives some of it to all present at the meal and recites Psalm 23, For the leader [sic], and he blesses the bread and gives some to all and all eat in the most fitting way possible according to their means as they do the next day. Then he kisses his hands and does what is what is described during the meal in Part 1, Chapter 9 [of this book]. After the meal some people recite Psalm 103: Bless the Lord, O my soul.