partly observed by refraining from externally creative activities. It is impossible to keep the sabbath in line with these 39 activities from just learning the 39 creative activities headings. Each one has its own specific rules and applications. The term headings are only a guide term for the law to be applied in specific situations. From the common wording (in the Hebrew original), and the juxtaposition of subject matter, the rabbis of the Mishnah derive a basis, as well as a listing, as to which activities are prohibited on the Sabbath day. In the first passage there is a "ceasing from" "creation" or "creating", thus melakha in the latter paragraph is also taken to refer to creative, and mindful, activity. As regards the listing: similarly, the activities required for the construction of the Mishkan (and preparing the shewbread) form the thirty-nine categories of activity listed below. Definition All the categories of work prohibited on the Sabbath are derived from activities which were required in the setting up, and maintenance of, the Tabernacle known as the "Mishkan". The first group of eleven activities are involved in the making of the Showbreads which were always present in the Mishkan. Or, according to another opinion, the exact same eleven activities were required for the procurement and manufacture of dyes required for the making of the tapestries that were used as part of the roofing of the Tabernacle. The next grouping was for the manufacture of the tapestries, starting with the manufacture of wool right from the shearing process. The next group were for the manufacture of the leather hides also used in the Tabernacle's covering starting right from the trapping of animals. The last group of activities are grouped together for things that were required in the construction, disassembly and running of the Tabernacle itself. The thirty-nine melakhot are not so much activities as categories of activity. For example, "threshing" usually refers exclusively to the loosening of the edible part of grain attached to its chaff. From this heading the Talmudic legal discussion applies this to any separation of intermixed materials where a desirable inner portion is extracted from an undesirable exterior element. So, "threshing" was the heading of the topic that was used to describe this process as it was familiar to all in Talmudic times. Many rabbinical scholars have, as above, pointed out that these regulations of labor have something in