What does the Torah say about Shabbat (the Sabbath)?

The Torah commands Shabbat observance in two places that give two different reasons for it, and the gap between them is itself part of the teaching. In Exodus 20:8–11, the fourth of the Ten Commandments, the reason given is creation: “in six days the LORD made heaven and earth... and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” — echoing Genesis 2:2–3, where God himself ceases work after the six days of creation. In Deuteronomy 5:12–15, the same commandment appears with a different rationale: “remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there... therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” Classical commentators read the two together rather than picking one: creation grounds Shabbat in the nature of the universe, available to everyone, while the Exodus framing grounds it in Israel’s specific history of forced, unceasing labor — rest becomes a weekly re-enactment of liberation, not just a break. The Torah backs the command with real stakes: work is prohibited “you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servant, your cattle, and the stranger in your gates” (Exodus 20:10), extending rest to everyone under a household’s authority, including the enslaved and the animals, not just its head. The rabbinic tradition later systematized what counts as forbidden work into 39 categories, or melachot, derived from the labor used to build the Tabernacle (Mishnah Shabbat 7:2) — reasoning that if that labor was suspended for Shabbat, it defines what Shabbat suspends.