Q&A: Six Days You Shall Work
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Six Days You Shall Work
Question
In the Rabbi’s view, is this a commandment or merely permission?
Thank you in advance
Answer
On the plain reading, this is not a commandment, and that is how it appears from most of the enumerators of the commandments. It is an introduction to the commandment to rest on the Sabbath, or at most a prohibition inferred from a positive commandment (someone who does labor on the Sabbath also violates this by neglecting a positive commandment. But someone who works does not thereby fulfill a positive commandment). However, some of the medieval authorities (Rishonim) did see this as a commandment. I seem to recall that Professor Yehuda Levi cited them in his book Sha’arei Talmud Torah.