Hebrew and the Holy Scriptures has two different words for work across a broad spectrum of meanings and nuances. The primary word is עבודה or “Avodah” from the root עבד or “EVeD”. See the root 3 letters inside the resulting noun form built on the three letter root.
Again, this is one of the most important things to learn and understand is the Hebrew and all Semitic languages use mostly 3 letter roots to build words with enormous regularity of forms and sometimes 4 letter roots.
The scope of of the word “EVeD” covers routine work all the way to slavery and Arabic glorifies the word in its ABDUL or “SLAVE OF” form with the implicit direct object of “Allah” or G-d. So while the extreme meaning of the word is slavery it is not focused enough or definitive enough for the Holy Scriptures with the important subject of Shabbat.
So in reference to the Shabbat and Jewish Holidays it opts to use the other word מלאכה or “MeLACHa” which has an important difference which apparently has been lost on virtually all rabbis and Hebrew speakers. Note that the CH is one letter so I show this through underlining the letters together to form on unit. Also the letters are in capitals and the small letters are addons. The word derives from מלאך or MaLACH. The normal meaning of this word 80% of the time means “messenger” or “emissary”. This is someone who does something on behalf of someone else BUT NOT FOR HIMSELF. The remaining 20% of the usage of the word is to mean an “ANGEL” because the mission is on behalf of G-d. I am certain that this was extremely obvious in the Ancient Hebrew and those times but as Hebrew proficiency waned after the Babylonian Exile, people seemed to lose this important but subtle difference.
THE MISSING ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
The whole concept of Shabbat was beyond revolutionary during the period of slavery in Egypt. People were cruelly beaten, murdered, tortured, and forced to work morning to night 7 days a week with no 15 minute coffee breaks or 60 minute lunch hours. we are talking about 210 years of the absolute worst cruelty imaginable.
And born from this came a new unimaginable concept. “A work break”, “time to rest and recover”, “time to tend one’s injuries and suffering”, and so much more such as “basic human rights and dignity”. We today cannot really appreciate this enough but this was “music” to the ears of Jewish slaves and rang unimaginable for the beaten, down trodden, and weary.
So now lets combine the concepts and really understand the true meaning of “MeLACHa”. This work performed for someone else and not yourself or your family with the core concept being SHABBAT IS YOUR DAY FOR YOURSELF AND NO ONE ELSE.
But once more the Pharisees or rabbinic movement lost the original meaning of the word through the loss of Hebrew proficiency and began to follow their agenda of building a whole new complex “Jewish Law System” system which they could control everyone down to the minutia, Eruv, domains, carrying, and all the rest while the real intention of G-d was the suffering of the Jewish People and giving the rest and hope after 210 years of the worst cruelty imaginable.
