Exodus 35:2-3
For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death. Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.

This command is given in context to the construction of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). This juxtaposition of the warning prohibting work (malacha, which is certain types of work) on Shababt on pain of death, with the verses that follow concerning the painstakingly and specifically listed types of work that went into the building of the Tabernacle, teaches us what types of work (malacha) we are not to do on Shabbat.

Within this prepatory warning, we see the explicit command “for six days, work is to be done.” What work is “to be done”? This is the question, and the answer is the entire list of the types of work that follow, begining with “light a fire” and going all the way through the entire painstaking list of the types of work that went into the building of the Tabernacle.

However it is important to note that “light a fire” is a specific type of work that is singled out from the list that eventually follows. Why? It is to teach us something about that specific type of work that is not so about the other types of work. What does it teach? It teaches us according to the rule of juxtaposition, that “light a fire” is what is “to be done” in order for “the seventh day” to “be” your “holy” day. In other words, lighting a fire is required to holy, or sanctify, or literally separate the six working days and thus set-apart (literally “holy”) the Shabbat. But least we think it means someone else lights a fire, it says “your” holy day – meaning the individual that is of age (and not married) is required to light this fire.

Lest we think that perhaps we are being commanded to light this fire on Shabbat in order to holy Shabbat, we are explicity told “do not light a fire”…”on the Sabbath day.” This teaches us that we are light the fire that holies Shabbat just before Shabbat begins, and after Shabbat ends.

Lest we think that perhaps this question (of “can I light a fire on Shabbat?”) deals only with a question asked concerning a fire lit for any other purpose (and not in relation to sanctifying the day), we are told “in all your dwellings on Shabbat.” In other words, the question is asked as a result of being “in our dwellings” which occurs of a result of the seventh day being “on Shabbat.” Thus the Torah teaches that the question it answers (“can I light a fire on Shabbat?”) is being asked in the context of one (“you”) holying the day itself. In short, the Torah teaches by juxtaposition of these verses, that that question is raised in direct response to the following sequence of commands “work is to be done”,”your” “holy” “day, a Sabbath” “of rest” and (do not) “light a fire.”

Thus we learn the specific type of work “light a fire” has been singled out to teach us that it is the first and last act done on the six working days that “works is to be done.” All other types of work follow…literally in the text as the types of work done for the construction of the mishkan are enumerated.