Exod 20:11

“וינח ביום השביעי AND HE RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY — If one may say so, He recorded rest about Himself (recorded that He rested) to teach from this an inference à fortiori as regards a human being whose work is performed only by labour and toil — that he should rest on the Sabbath day (Mekhilta). ברך… ויקדשהו HE BLESSED … AND SANCTIFIED IT — He blessed it through the Manna by giving a double portion on the sixth day — “double bread”; and He sanctified it through the Manna in that on it none fell (Mekhilta; cf. Rashi on Genesis 2:3).”

“THE ETERNAL BLESSED THE SABBATH-DAY, AND SANCTIFIED IT. The verse is stating that the Sabbath-day will be blessed and hallowed because He has commanded to bless it and glorify it by remembering it. Therefore, He commanded us to rest thereon so that the day will be sacred to us, and that we should not do any work on it. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote that G-d blessed this day and sanctified it by endowing it with a greater capacity to enable the soul to receive additional wisdom than on all of the other days. I have already written concerning this matter by way of the Truth, [the mystic lore of the Cabala], on the verse in Vayechulu. From there, you will succeed in understanding that the expression ki sheisheth yamim asa hashem — [literally: “for six days the Eternal made”] six days the Eternal made.” — is not missing the letter beth, [which would make the verse read: “for in six days the Eternal made”]. Rather, the sense of the verse is that G-d made six days six days G-d made.” The six days represent the six milleniums of world-history, while the seventh millenium “will be wholly a Sabbath and will bring rest for life everlasting” (ibid., p. 64). and on the seventh day He ceased from work and rested.”

“The reason for the precept is added, where it says: In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed and sanctified it. But why does he command rest? Certainly, because he blessed and sanctified it. Therefore you also, creature of God, who are an imitator of Christ, ought to do this. For God wrought all things in six days, not because he could not have made them in one day: but it must be understood here that the world has something in the eternal art, namely eternal being, which is the eternity of life and one possession, in which nothing is prior or posterior: and this God impressed upon the angelic minds. Likewise, the world has something in the created intelligence, namely a priority and posteriority by nature, though it exists simultaneously according to duration. But it has a before and after according to duration, not according to nature, insofar as it is in matter, not on account of a defect of the worker, but on account of his condescension, so that he might fit all things together and designate all things in the first works. And just as he produced the roots of all operations in the first works, so also he fully produced the seeds of all works and their rest.”