Or HaChaim on Exodus 31:15/אור החיים על שמות ל״א:ט״ו

1 ששת ימים יעשה מלאכה, "Six days work shall be done, etc." We neeed to examine why this verse which repeats legislation recorded previously had to be written at all. Besides, why does the Torah write יעשה (passive) instead of תעשה, the active form "you shall perform," as the Torah has written repeatedly? Furthermore, why did the Torah choose to describe the Sabbath as the "seventh day," instead of as "the Sabbath," which was the only way the Torah described this day up until now? Why did the Torah revert to describing the violator as כל העושה מלאכה ביום השבת מות יומת, instead of as כל העושה בו מלאכה, or כל העושה מלאכה ביום השביעי?

2Perhaps the Torah alluded to something the sages told us in Shabbat 69 concerning someone who travels in the desert and has lost count of which day of the week it is. Such a person is supposed to begin counting six days once he has become aware that he does not know which day it is. He will observe the seventh day as Sabbath. The Talmud allows such a person to do what is essential in order to keep alive even on the day which -according to his count- is Sabbath. To the query that if so, how can he distinguish "his" Sabbath from the other six days of the week, the Talmud answers that such a person must recite Kiddush and havdalah at the beginning and end of "his" Sabbath. Tossaphot add that he must not continue on his way on that day. The reason that the Talmud did not give the answer that the traveller in question must not continue on his way is that this is not a sufficient distinction vis-a-vis the other days. It could also be that according to the view of the Talmud such a person might be permitted to continue walking even on the "Sabbath."

3According to the view of Tossaphot we can explain our verse thus: "Six days, etc," i.e. a person who finds himself in the desert unaware of which day it is, יעשה מלאכה may have work performed on a daily basis for six consecutive days. He is not required to perform work, as would be implied by the active form Taasseh, but he will do the minimum, whatever is needed to ensure his survival. However, ביום השביעי, "on the seventh day, the day which is Sabbath according to his calculations, שבת שנתון, it is a kind of Sabbath," i.e. a Shabbaton, a day on which one refrains from work just as one refrains from working the land in the seventh year. (compare the expression שבתון in connection with the שנת השמטה in Leviticus 25,4). The way a traveller "rests" is by not continuing his journey, just as a farmer rests by not tilling his land. The Torah adds: קדש לה׳ to indicate that such a traveller is to recite the kiddush and the הבדלה at the appropriate time as if this day would be the "real" Sabbath.

4According to the view that the only difference between this "subjective" Sabbath and the "real" Sabbath is the recital of kiddush and הבדלה respectively, the words שבת שבתון have to be read in conjunction with the words קדש לה׳. The meaning is that this day has to be sanctified. When the Torah continues with: כל העושה מלאכה ביום השבת מות יומת, this penalty of execution is applicable only to a person who violates a "real" Sabbath, not to someone who violates a "seventh day" by his own count. Such a person is free from this penalty even if he had sanctified the day by reciting kiddush and thereby elevating it to the level of "Sabbath."