Before Moshe relays to the Children of Israel the Divine command to build the Mishkan, the Tabernacle where God can dwell among them, he relays to Israel the mitzvah to keep Shabbat. This is in keeping with God’s commands to Moshe, as we saw in Parshat Ki Tisa. There, God commanded Moshe regarding who would be responsible for building the Mishkan, but before concluding, God tells Moshe that Israel must keep Shabbat. This serves as the reminder that building the Mishkan does not override Shabbat.

But what is added in Moshe’s statement is not just the command to keep Shabbat, but a specific prohibition — the prohibition of lighting a fire on Shabbat. This is one of the only Melachot — prohibited actions — mentioned explicitly in the Written Torah; most of the 39 Melachot are only in the Oral Torah, derived from the work done to build the Mishkan. Why does the Torah mention a specific Melachah here?

The fact that the Melachot of Shabbat are derived from the building of the Mishkan is important. Because it is possible to look at the building of the Mishkan, and believe that what is being prohibited on Shabbat is not specific actions, but professional work: “work” as we tend to define it in America. And thus, actions are prohibited for the “work” of building the Mishkan, but not when they are done for personal use or leisure. Building a house as a contractor is not OK, according to this idea, but building a treehouse with one’s kids would be allowed. Cooking as a chef in a restaurant would be prohibited, but baking brownies at home might be fine.

But that is not what God is asking from us. And so in this week’s parsha, a specific action is included — and an action, starting a fire, that is elemental to the human experience. The inclusion of this prohibited act serves to teach us that to rest on Shabbat is not simply to refrain from our professions, from our “weekday selves,” but to cease creative actions altogether. How we connect to God on Shabbat is to refrain from creative acts, to celebrate God’s creation through our refusal to create.

Refraining from Melachah is not the only aspect of celebrating Shabbat; there is also the mitzvah of Kavod Shabbat (honoring Shabbat) and Oneg Shabbat (enjoying Shabbat). But it is important to remember that just like the building of the Mishkan did not override the Shabbat, so to do we respect Shabbat by refraining from Melachah.