Rabbinically Prohibited Activities of Shabbat

Rabbinically Prohibited Activities Of Shabbat

During Shabbat, the Oral Torah directly prohibits thirty-nine activities. Some additional activities, such as driving, are disallowed because they involve violating one or more of these restrictions. But rabbinical authorities, especially those recorded in the Talmud, have gone beyond these thirty-nine activities and decreed additional prohibitions because they either are not in the spirit of Shabbat, closely resemble a restricted activity, or else are at a very high risk of causing one to violate the Shabbat. In some cases, the activity is banned because it is likely to be breaking Shabbat, but authorities are uncertain. Like most areas of Halacha, Orthodox Jews tend to observe these prohibitions more stringently than other groups.