Shabbat (Talmud)

Shabbat (Hebrew: שַׁבָּת, lit. 'Sabbath') is the first tractate of Seder Moed ('Order [of] Appointed Times') of the Mishnah and of the Talmud. The tractate deals with the laws of observance of and practices regarding Shabbat, the biblical Sabbath in Judaism. The tractate focuses primarily on the categories and types of activities prohibited on the Sabbath according to interpretations of many verses in the Torah, notably Exodus 20:9–10 and Deuteronomy 5:13–14.

The Mishnah and Talmud go to great lengths to carefully define and precisely determine the observance of the Sabbath. The tractate is thus one of the longest in terms of chapters in the Mishnah and folio pages in the Talmud. It comprises 24 chapters and has a Gemara—rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah—in both the Babylonian Talmud and all but the last four chapters of the Jerusalem Talmud. There is also a Tosefta of 18 chapters on this tractate.

As its name suggests, the tractate primarily addresses the laws and regulations governing the observance of the Jewish Sabbath. It is enumerated as the fourth commandment among the Ten Commandments and constitutes a central element of Rabbinic Judaism and Jewish law (הֲלָכָה, Halakha; pl. הֲלָכוֹת, halakhot). Consequently, this subject is extensively discussed in the Mishnah and the Gemara, and numerous subsequent commentaries have been authored on this tractate from the early Middle Ages to the present. In the Babylonian Talmud, the Gemara also contains a discussion of the laws of Hanukkah. The halakhot detailed in tractate Shabbat, and the subsequent legal codes based on it, continue to be followed by observant Jewish communities in modern Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work; but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath in honor of the LORD your God, you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger who is within your gates.

— Exodus 20:7–10, the Fourth Commandment, a key source for the subject matter of tractate Shabbat

This tractate primarily covers the laws of observing Shabbat, the weekly day of rest. It provides comprehensive explanations of the types of activities prohibited on Shabbat, the sources in the Torah for these prohibitions, the details of the laws, and the rabbinic rulings connected with them. It also deals with matters concerning other mitzvot (Biblical Hebrew: מִצְוֹת, lit. 'commandments') that apply on Shabbat. In addition, the main discussion about the laws of Hanukkah are included in the Babylonian Talmud.

The Sabbath is one of the most important religious practices of normative Judaism, and the Mishnah and Talmud go to great lengths to carefully define and precisely determine how it is to be observed. This concern reflected its importance in the biblical sources, where there are more reminders of Sabbath observance than of any other matter, with the possible exception of the prohibitions against idolatry.

Biblical passages concerning the topics discussed in this tractate include the foundational concept of the Sabbath recounted in Genesis 2:2–3, the two iterations of the Fourth Commandment prohibiting creative work recorded in Exodus 20:7–10 and Deuteronomy 5:12–14, respectively, and other actions, such as desisting from weekday pursuits (Isaiah 58:13–14) and carrying loads associated with working (Jeremiah 17:21–22), among others.