Throughout the millennia, when a Jew sought to become more “progressive,” to distance himself from “archaic” tradition, the first tennet that went was Shabbos. The student of history is quite aware that this was the area that caved in first. Almost two hundred years ago, the self-styled secular Jew in Germany took a more intellectual approach to doing away first, with Shabbos, and then, with the rest of the Torah, by defining the above pasuk as, “You shall not do any kind of work.” This distorted the entire concept of Shabbos and undermined its laws of observance. This was the home of those who denounced their allegiance to Sinai with the claim “bring the law into line with life,” rather than follow the path of the Torah Jew who understands that “life must be brought into line with the law.” Thus, Shabbos, which forms the basis of all Jewish life, was reinterpreted to conform with the demands of life. Accordingly, the melachah which was prohibited on Shabbos was interpreted simply as work, which was then defined incorrectly as any activity involving physical exertion.
Given this misinterpretation, any work that was in fact creative but not physically exertive, was not prohibited. Light physical activities, or tasks performed for intellectual activity, were not forbidden. After all, they were not work. Thus, their idea of reconciling the law with life was accomplished.
Indeed, melachah has a deeper meaning, one which goes to the very core of defining work and its relationship with Hashem’s resting from the act of creating the world. Observance of Shabbos is defined as cessation of all activities classed as “creation”, with the desecration of Shabbos being the direct opposite: performance of melachah, or what might be referred to as intelligent labor, creative work.
In his commentary to the Chumash, Horav S. R. Hirsch, zl, notes that the mechallel Shabbos, desecrator of Shabbos, is not one who does not go to the synagogue on Shabbos, but the one who performs a melachah. The mekoshesh eitzim, the first Shabbos desecrator, who gathered brushwood on Shabbos, was sentenced for gathering brushwood. They did not inquire of him if he had already given Shabbos “its due”, by attending services or by listening to the rabbi’s sermon, as some would have us believe. If the synagogue is too far from one’s house, he either moves closer or does not attend. Driving is not a permissible option – regardless of how “non-exerting” it might be.
Rav Hirsch observes that the actual word melachah is not based upon physical exertion. The term, which occurs almost 200 times in the Torah, is never used in conjunction with strenuous activity. Indeed, the slave labor performed by our ancestors in Egypt was called avodah, derived from eved, slave. It was not melachah. The term melachah, as explained by Rav Hirsch, is etymologically connected with malach, angel (same root spelling) which does not indicate activities that involve lesser or greater exertion, but, rather, solely activities connected with the intellect carrying out an intention. Therefore, even if we were not aware of Chazal’s definition of work, the mere fact that the Torah chose the word melachah, a word used almost 200 times – and never in connection with pure physical exertion, we would know that, “You shall not perform any kind of work on Shabbos” is a reference to work of creativity – not physical exertion. Clearly, one sees in the Torah what he wants to see, and applies his misinterpretation to suit his personal needs.
