דברים, פרק ה׳, פסוק י״ד

The commandment to observe the Sabbath goes far beyond personal devotion, demanding instead the creation of a broad, all-encompassing environment of rest. Mirroring God's rest during the creation of the world, an individual is required to extend this peace to everyone and everything dependent on Him, including family members, servants, animals, and the strangers living nearby [ביאור שטיינזלץ].

The laws of the Sabbath place a special emphasis on the rest of animals, moving from specific examples like the ox and the donkey to a general inclusion of all livestock [אבן עזרא]. This specific detail was not present during the initial giving of the law in the desert, but was added as the Israelites prepared to enter the Land of Israel. In the wilderness, animals were not needed for daily labor. However, in a settled land, the ox is essential for plowing and the donkey for carrying heavy loads, making a special warning necessary [שפתי כהן]. Explicitly mentioning these animals serves to strictly forbid agricultural labor, which is humanity's primary source of livelihood [רמב״ן, הטור הארוך].

Furthermore, resting the animals serves a vital social purpose. It ensures that the servants can actually rest, because if an animal is put to work, a servant would inevitably be forced to tend to it and work alongside it [ספורנו]. Interestingly, while human and animal obligations are compared regarding the Sabbath, this comparison applies strictly to the concept of rest. Therefore, the prohibition against mixing different species together for labor does not apply if a human chooses to pull a plow alongside an animal [תורה תמימה].

The requirement to give rest to male and female servants is deeply tied to the memory of the Exodus from Egypt. The primary approach among commentators is that just as God freed the Israelites from slavery and granted them rest, they bear a moral obligation to grant rest to their own laborers. Watching a servant pause from daily labor naturally awakens this historical memory. Consequently, masters are warned not to simply delegate their own tasks to their staff [רבנו בחיי, הכתב והקבלה], nor to weigh them down with heavy burdens on the day of rest [העמק דבר].

There is a specific emphasis that servants must rest exactly like their masters, a standard not applied to others in the household. Young children might still perform actions for themselves, animals continue to graze, and a resident stranger might do work for his own needs. Servants, however, are bound by the exact same restrictions on labor as the Israelite master [העמק דבר]. Yet, despite this shared restriction, the actual experience of the day differs fundamentally between the two. For the Israelite, the essence of the Sabbath is a spiritual pause, a time dedicated to study, inquiry, and the Torah, where physical relaxation is merely a byproduct. For the servant, who is not obligated in Torah study, physical rest is the primary goal. It is a day to relieve the body from exhaustion and to be entirely free from the fear of a master [הכתב והקבלה].