Fiery Fridays

“These are the things that Hashem commanded…  the seventh day should be holy for you” (Shemos 35:1-2)

From the words “eleh hadevarim —these are the things,” the Gemara (Shabbos 97) derives that there are 39 types of work that are forbidden on Shabbos. The gematria of eleh is 36. Devarim, things, is plural, thus adding another two. The “extra” hei at the beginning hadevarim adds one more, for a total of 39, which indicates the 39 types of work that we are forbidden to do on Shabbos. (Rabbi Elimelech Biderman, Torah Wellsprings)

In my line of work, I live with deadlines and schedules — and I thrive that way. In my personal life, too, tell me I’m making a chasunah in seven weeks (halevai!) and I’ll shift into action, calculating what needs to be done and when. I work backwards from Pesach, well into Adar, planning when to shop and when to clean. I’m the same way with Shabbos prep —I shop early in the week and start cooking on Thursday. But sometimes, despite my perfect planning, there’s a week where nothing seems to go right.

Thirty-nine is also the gematria of tal, dew. The Torah tells us that the mahn that fell in the desert was sandwiched in dew. Today, our mahn, our parnassah, is sandwiched in the 39 melachos; we perform these tasks during the week, while we work, but the essential root of our parnassah is based on our Shabbos observance.

Take the shortest Friday of this winter. Knowing I was having company, I had the extra shopping done by Wednesday and stayed up late Thursday night cleaning. Still, I was up, bright and early, Friday morning to put up my challah dough.

But after mixing and rising I suddenly couldn’t remember if I’d added salt. (I have no idea why, but this ingredient always makes me pause and say, hey, did I put in salt or not?) If you taste the dough, you can’t decide, but if you bake it sans salt, it tastes terrible. So, figuring I had plenty of time, I decide to bake one roll and taste it. Clearing the oven schedule for one lone roll was a bit of a challenge, but it was concluded that salt had been added. Terrific.

The kids came home, and moving right along, I took out the hot plate and put it on the counter while I went down the hall to supervise showers. An acrid smell wafted down the hall. The plug of the hot plate had caught fire from the soup boiling next to the counter.