desert after the Exodus from Ancient Egypt. It is customary to serve meat or fish, and sometimes both, for Shabbat evening and morning meals. Seudah Shlishit (literally, "third meal"), generally a light meal that may be pareve or dairy, is eaten late Shabbat afternoon. Enjoying Shabbat (oneg Shabbat): Engaging in pleasurable activities such as eating, singing, sleeping, spending time with the family, and marital relations. Sometimes referred to as "Shabbating". Recitation of havdalah. Bidding farewell Havdalah (Hebrew: הַבְדָּלָה, "separation") is a Jewish religious ceremony that marks the symbolic end of Shabbat, and ushers in the new week. At the conclusion of Shabbat at nightfall, after the appearance of three stars in the sky, the havdalah blessings are recited over a cup of wine, and with the use of fragrant spices and a candle, usually braided. Some communities delay havdalah later into the night in order to prolong Shabbat. There are different customs regarding how much time one should wait after the stars have surfaced until the sabbath technically ends. Some people hold by 72 minutes later and other hold longer and shorter than that. Prohibited activities Jewish law (halakha) prohibits doing any form of melakhah (מְלָאכָה, plural melakhoth) on Shabbat, unless an urgent human or medical need is life-threatening. Though melakhah is commonly translated as "work" in English, a better definition is "deliberate activity" or "skill and craftmanship". There are 39 categories of melakhah: plowing earth sowing reaping binding sheaves threshing winnowing selecting grinding sifting kneading baking shearing wool washing wool beating wool dyeing wool spinning weaving making two loops weaving two threads separating two threads tying untying sewing stitches tearing trapping slaughtering flaying tanning scraping hide marking hide cutting hide to shape writing two or more letters erasing two or more letters building demolishing extinguishing a fire kindling a fire putting the finishing touch on an object, and transporting an object (between private and public domains, or over 4 cubits within public domain) The 39 melakhoth are not so much activities as "categories of activity". For example, while "winnowing" usually refers exclusively to the separation of chaff from grain, and "selecting" refers exclusively to the separation of debris from grain, they refer in the Talmudic sense to any separation of intermixed materials which renders edible that which was inedible. Thus, filtering undrinkable water to make it drinkable falls under this category, as does picking small bones from fish (gefilte