The Melachot (Shabbat Song)
Parody of Tom Lehrer’s The Elements Song

There’s plowing, and there’s planting, and there’s harvesting and gathering,
There’s threshing, and there’s winnowing, and then there is selecting,
There is grinding and there’s sifting, and there is also kneading,
There is baking, and there’s shearing, and there is also bleaching.
There is combing and there’s dyeing, and there’s plenty of spinning,
Threading loom and threading harness, and there’s also weaving,
Separating thread, there is tying and untying, (breath)
There’s sewing and there’s tearing, and you know there’s also trapping.

There’s slaughtering, and skinning and there’s tanning and there’s smoothing,
And there’s marking, and there’s cutting, and there’s writing and erasing,
You must remember building, and you can’t forget demolishing,
Or kindling, extinguishing, the final blow or carrying.

There’s choresh, and zoreah, and there’s kotzer and m’amer,
There is dash, and there’s zoreh, and don’t forget borer,
There’s tochain and meraked, and then there’s also lash,
There’s o’feh, and there’s gozez, and then there is melabain.
There’s minapetz and tzoveah, and plenty of toveh,
May-sech, shtay batei nirin, and a little bot of ohreg,
Then there is poetzayah, and there’s koshare and there’s mateer, (breath)
There’s tofer and koreah, and you know there’s also tzad.

There’s shochait, and there’s mafshit, there’s meabaid and memachaik,
There’s meshartait, and mechataich, there is kotaiv and there’s mochaik,
There’s boneh and there’s soter, there is maveer and mechabeh,
Makeh bapatish and finally hotza’ah.

These are the many tasks that were used to build the Mishkan.
They number thirty nine and on the Sabbath are forbidden.